Coronavirus: A Reality Check From New York

NEW YORK, NY — MARCH 2: New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference on the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in New York on March 2, 2020 in New York City. A female health worker in her 30s who had traveled in Iran contracted the virus and is now isolated at home with symptoms of COVID-19, but is not in serious condition. Cuomo said in a statement that the patient “has been in a controlled situation since arriving to New York.” (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

The coronavirus has hit closer and closer to home, day by day. Now, to add on to the havoc, some of the hardest hit states are lacking much-needed resources. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke yesterday, addressing the issue at hand.

“Right now, we have enough protective equipment, gloves, masks, gowns, for all the hospitals statewide that are dealing with it…Today, no hospital, no nurse, no doctor can say, legitimately, I don’t have protective equipment. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, we have a supply. We do not yet have secured a supply for three weeks from now, four weeks from now, five weeks from now.”

Think about that, The people that we need most don’t have the resources to heal those affected by the COVID-19 virus. That’s scary. Although, President Trump said that “We have tremendous numbers of ventilators, but there’s never been an instance like this where no matter what you have, it’s not enough,”

New York’s Governor counters that claim. A lot of what President Trump has said has been corrected or given a reality check. Some numbers have seemed as if they were pulled out of thin air when corrected by local officials.

“And again, we are still shopping for more equipment. Ventilators, ventilators, ventilators. We need 30,000. We have, in the existing hospital system, 4,000 ventilators. This is just in the normal operation of hospitals, et cetera. We have purchased. 7,000 and we are still shopping. The Federal government has sent 4,000. We’re exploring splitting, where one ventilator could do two patients.”

Correspondent Jaden Jefferson contributed to this report.