New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday said it will be a matter of days before people diagnosed with COVID-19 who could have otherwise been saved will start dying without an increase in the supply of ventilators.
“If we don’t get ventilators this week, we are going to start losing lives [we] could have saved,” Mr. de Blasio said on CNN’s “New Day.” “I can’t be blunter than that.”
“I went over it with the president and vice president: If we don’t get a supply of ventilators quickly, our public hospital system literally after about a week or so — we will not have enough ventilators to keep people alive who could live through this crisis and could be saved,” the mayor said.
Mr. de Blasio said he can only guarantee that New York City’s 11 public hospitals will be able to get through the week with the equipment and supplies they have.
“Even just a few days ago, I thought we could get safely into April,” he said. “It’s moving so fast right now that I can’t even say that anymore.”
“I’ve appealed to the president and vice president, I’ve appealed to the private sector, and I’ll say it to anyone watching right now: anyone in the United States of America who has a ventilator, get to New York City — we need it now,” he said.
“I will take any help from anywhere,” Mr. de Blasio said.
New York state has been the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the United States, with more than 15,000 positive cases as of Sunday afternoon. More than 9,000 of those cases were in New York City.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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