NY’s Covid-19 cases quickly on rise, now topping 25,000
Photo courtesy of Governor’s Office: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which is being converted into a temporary FEMA hospital.
Governor presses federal government to help secure 30,000 ventilators; Cuomo praises nurses and healthcare workers for doing ‘God’s Work’
Gov. Andrew Cuomo today said the coronavirus are rising faster than predicted, and could soon overwhelm the healthcare facilities in the state, especially in New York City.
The state now has more than 25,000 confirmed cases of the virus, more than 10 times any other state. On Monday, the state had 20,875 confirmed cases.
He said the federal government needs to come through and help secure 30,000 ventilators for the state. Those ventilators can then go to other states once New York gets past its wave of cases.
“We need the federal help, and we need the federal help now,” Cuomo said at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which is being converted into a hospital.
The governor said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has offered 400 ventilators, which the governor said is far short of what is needed.
He urged the federal government to work with businesses to have the ventilators made and available, soon.
The governor said his focus is on saving lives. He said the economy can gradually be ramped back up, first using younger workers.
About 80 percent of the people who contract the virus can self-resolve without medical treatment.
“Twenty percent are going to need hospitals,” the governor said. “It’s not about that. It’s about a very small group of people in this population who are the most vulnerable. They are older, they have compromised immune systems, they are HIV positive, or they have emphysema, or they have an underlying heart condition, or they have bad asthma, or they’re recovering from cancer. Those are the people who are going to be vulnerable to the mortality of this disease, and it is only 1% or 2% of the population. But then why all of this? Because it’s 1% or 2% of the population. It’s lives, it’s grandmothers and grandfathers and sisters and brothers.”
The governor signed an executive order – Matilda’s Law – named for his elderly mother to protect the vulnerable population.
“It’s about my mother,” Cuomo told reporters today. “It’s about your mother. It’s about your loved one. And we will do anything we can to make sure that they are protected.”
The state will work through this crisis without abandoning people, the governor said.
“We’re going to make it because I love New York, and I love New York because New York loves you,” he said. “New York loves all of you. Black and white and brown and Asian and short and tall and gay and straight. New York loves everyone. That’s why I love New York. It always has, it always will. And at the end of the day, my friends, even if it is a long day, and this is a long day, love wins. Always. And it will win again through this virus.”
The governor also praised the healthcare workers on the frontlines of caring for people with the virus.
“Our health care workers, who are doing God’s work. They are doing God’s work,” Cuomo said. “Can you imagine the nurses who leave their homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on gowns, deal with people who have the coronavirus? They’re thinking all day long, oh, my God, I hope I don’t get this. Oh my God, I hope I don’t get this and bring it home to my children. You want to talk about extraordinary individuals – extraordinary.”
