China, Oregon help N.Y. with ventilators

New York is poised to get over 1,100 ventilators from China and Oregon as it scrambles to line up more breathing machines for the sickest coronavirus patients, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.

The Chinese government facilitated a 1,000ventilator donation from billionaires Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, the cofounders of the Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, Cuomo said. And the state of Oregon had volunteered to send 140 more breathing machines.

“It’s going to make a significant difference for us,” said the Democratic governor. Cuomo had said on Thursday that the state’s supply of ventilators would be exhausted in six days if the number of critically ill coronavirus patients kept growing at the current rate.

New York is the pandemic’s U.S. epicenter, with over 113,700 confirmed cases. More than 3,500 people statewide have died, and about 15,000 coronavirus patients are hospitalized. Over 4,100 are in intensive care — many, if not all, of them needing ventilators.

Governors around the U.S. have been pleading, competing and scouring the global marketplace for needed supplies, especially ventilators, to treat the sick. Cuomo said Saturday that New York at one point made purchase orders for 17,000 of the devices, but only 2,500 came through.

“You get a call that says, ‘We can’t fill that order,’” he said. Cuomo announced Friday that he’d order a redistribution of hundreds of ventilators within New York, saying he wants upstate hospitals to lend 20% of their unused ventilators to medical centers in the harderhit New York City metropolitan area.

The governor said National Guard members would pick up ventilators across the state.

WISCONSIN

GOP challenges absentee voting

Wisconsin Republicans have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block extended absentee voting in Tuesday’s primary, despite public health fears about inperson voting.

Wisconsin stands apart from other states in trying to hold to its April election date even though Gov. Tony Evers has issued a statewide stayathome order.

The Democratic governor initially joined Republican leaders in seeking to hold the primary as planned on Tuesday, but he now favors an allmail election with absentee voting well into May. Republicans maintain that Tuesday’s inperson voting should go on as planned.

PUERTO RICO

Protective gear found at hospital

The suspected mismanagement of essential supplies during Hurricane Maria turned out to be a boon for Puerto Rico as it fights a rise in coronavirus cases.

Health Secretary Lorenzo González said Saturday that officials discovered a cache of urgently needed personal protective equipment at a hospital in the nearby island of Vieques that remains closed since the Category 4 storm hit the U.S. territory in September 2017.

He said the equipment includes face masks, gloves, gowns and face shields that were in good condition and would be distributed to health institutions.

Puerto Rico has reported 18 deaths related to COVID19, and more than 450 confirmed cases.

WASHINGTON

Virus cases mount in nation’s capital

The District of Columbia has announced 145 new positive infections from the COVID19 coronavirus, bringing the total up to 902, with six new deaths bringing the total to 15.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has issued a stayhome order for Washington’s approximately 700,000 residents. Neighboring Maryland and Virginia have done the same. Bowser also has declared a state of emergency, shuttered all schools and ordered all nonessential businesses to close.

White House and Capitol tours have been canceled and the National Zoo, Smithsonian museum network and Kennedy Center have closed.

FLORIDA

Infection risk cited in custody dispute

A Florida mother is asking a judge to allow her to keep custody of her 2yearold son during the pandemic, claiming the boy’s father and his fiance are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus since they’re firstresponders. Tabatha Sams has asked a judge to let her keep custody of Dawson Thilmony until the pandemicinduced state of emergency in Florida is over. The boy’s father, Stephen Thilmony, is a firefighter and emergency medical technician, and his fiance is an emergency room nurse near Orlando.

A judge denied an emergency request to stop visitations with the father, and a virtual hearing on the matter is scheduled for this week.

Mary Altaffer / Associated Press Ambulances line the street outside Elmhurst Hospital Center in the Queens borough of New York City. More than 3,500 people statewide have died from coronavirus infections.

Andrew Harnik / Associated Press Ronald Felix, a police officer and volunteer emergency medical technician, sanitizes an ambulance in Bethesda, Md.