The coronavirus death toll in the state of New York jumped to 3,565 on April 4, the largest one-day record in the state after registering 630 deaths.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says he expects the rate of infections to peak in anywhere from four to 14 days.
“Part of me would like to be at the apex and just let’s do it. But there’s part of me that says it’s good that we’re not at the apex because we’re not yet ready,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo added that the federal government will now staff and equip Manhattan’s Javits Center which is already overflowing with patients.
Donation of 1,000 ventilators from China
Chinese billionaires Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, the co-founders of the online marketplace giant Alibaba, have sent 1,000 ventilators to New York, while the state of Oregon has volunteered to send an additional 140.
Cuomo has expressed appreciation over the donation of the life-saving units as the state’s stockpile is expected to be exhausted in mere days should the rate of coronavirus patients continue to grow at its current pace.
“It’s going to make a significant difference for us,” Cuomo said.
National Guard to collect and deploy unused ventilators
In a desperate hunt for ventilators for New York City, the national epicenter of the virus, Cuomo announced that he would be forcing hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the rest of New York to donate 20% of their unused ventilators to the National Guard so that they could be moved to New York City.
“I’m not going to be in a position where people are dying and we have several hundred ventilators in our own state, somewhere else. I apologize for the hardship to those institutions — ultimately there is no hardship, if you don’t get the ventilator back, I give you my personal word I will pay you for the ventilator — but I’m not going to let people die because we didn’t redeploy these ventilators,” Cuomo said during his daily briefing on April 3.
In response, hospital leaders in other parts of New York have expressed concern over what might happen if a coronavirus outbreak occurs in their area and they lack the ventilators to address it.
As of April 4, the vast majority of the 114,775 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state of New York were found to be largely concentrated in large cities, with New York City having by far the highest number.
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