New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, warning that the coronavirus crisis could last until August, said there are just enough ventilators in his state to last six days.
His comments came in a Thursday briefing and were reported by multiple news outlets.
“If a person comes in and needs a ventilator and you don’t have a ventilator, the person dies,” Cuomo was quoted in The New York Times. “That’s the blunt equation here. And right now we have a burn rate that would suggest we have about six days in the stockpile.”
He said there were about 2,200 ventilators in New York’s stockpile. He estimated about 350 new patients need them every day.
President Donald Trump and Cuomo spoke on Thursday, but the governor said he could not count on the White House to address the shortfall in time.
Cuomo’s brother, Chris, a CNN anchor who has the virus, called in to the briefing via video to say he was doing okay.
But Andrew Cuomo noted: “There is no superhero who is immune to this disease. Anyone can get it. No one can be protected from it. I couldn’t protect my own brother. This is troubling news.”
The Daily Beast noted the governor pointed to projections that the apex for the virus could come between one week and a month from now. He said the projections also show the virus could continue in New York until August.
“We believe it is close to the shorter end of the range with our in-house people looking at the professional modeling that’s being done."