■ CUOMO:
Cuomo: State needs another 1 million health care workers
New York’s governor put out an urgent plea for medical volunteers and a Navy hospital ship pulled into port as coronavirus deaths in the city mounted.
NEW YORK — New York’s governor issued an urgent appeal for medical volunteers Monday amid a “staggering” number of deaths from the coronavirus, as he and health officials warned that the crisis unfolding in New York City is just a preview of what other communities across the U.S. could soon face.
“Please come help us in New York now,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said as the state’s death toll climbed by more than 250 in a single day for a total of more than 1,200 victims, most of them in the city. He said an additional 1 million health care workers are needed to tackle the crisis.
“We’ve lost over 1,000 New Yorkers,” Cuomo said. “To me, we’re beyond staggering already. We’ve reached staggering.”
Even before the governor’s appeal went out, close to 80,000 former nurses, doctors and other professionals in New York were stepping up to volunteer, and a Navy hospital ship, also sent to the city after 9/11, had arrived to relieve pressure on the city’s overwhelmed hospitals.
The hospital ship Comfort pulled into a cruise ship terminal off Manhattan on Monday morning. In addition to the 1,000 beds, the Comfort has 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours.
“Whatever it is that they need, I’m willing to do,” said Jerry Kops, a musician and former nurse whose tour with the show Blue Man Group was abruptly halted by the outbreak. He returned to his Long Island home, where he volunteered to be a nurse again.
Kops has been waiting to be reinstated since mid-March and said Monday that the state has sent him an email survey or questionnaire several times, without acting on it. He has been helping at an assisted living home near his residence in Shirley, New York, and is considering sending his resume to various hospitals.
With cases growing nationwide, President Donald Trump said the U.S. government is sending an additional 1,000 ventilators over the next two days to Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois, Louisiana and Connecticut.
“Challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days, and this is a very vital 30 days,” Trump told reporters. “The more we dedicate ourselves today, the more quickly we will emerge on the other side of the crisis.”
According to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has more than 160,000 infections and more than 2,900 deaths, with New York City the nation’s worst hot spot, but with New Orleans, Detroit and other cities also seeing alarming clusters. More than 5,500 people in the U.S. have recovered.
“Anyone who says this situation is a New York City-only situation is in a state of denial,” Cuomo said. “You see this virus move across the state. You see this virus move across the nation. There is no American who is immune to this virus.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert, similarly warned that smaller cities are likely about to see cases “take off” the way they have in New York City.
“What we’ve learned from painful experience with this outbreak is that it goes along almost on a straight line, then a little acceleration, acceleration, then it goes way up,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday that he will extend the state’s stay-at-home order through the end of April, in line with Trump’s most recent guidance, as the number of Louisiana residents who have died from COVID-19 jumped significantly overnight.
Louisiana’s Health Department reported 185 deaths from the disease, 34 more than the number reported Sunday. Edwards has said Louisiana has the second-highest COVID-19 death rate per capita among states, and he has warned that the New Orleans region is running low on ventilators, which the hardest-hit patients need.
Meanwhile, by Monday afternoon, with more than 6,500 cases, Michigan was third in known cases among the states, behind New York and New Jersey. Across the state, at least 196 residents have died, placing Michigan fourth across the nation in deaths from the virus.
Detroit has been particularly hard hit. In less than two weeks, 35 people with the coronavirus have died in the city. The police chief has tested positive for the virus, and more than 500 police officers are in quarantine.
The arrival of the coronavirus in Detroit is a sign of the outbreak’s growing reach across America to cities far from the coasts and not as densely populated as New York. But the virus could place a unique burden on Detroit, a city of 670,000 people where 3 of 10 residents live in poverty, a large number have asthma and other chronic diseases, and hospitals are already overwhelmed.