NEW YORK | New York Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio blasted Republican President Donald Trump’s management of the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday, expressing his alarm at the risk of seeing “people who could have lived” die.
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“The truth that New Yorkers and all Americans deserve to hear is that it’s only going to get worse. In reality April and May are going to be much worse, ”he told NBC.
The American economic capital currently has the largest number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country and its hospitals are quickly at risk of being overwhelmed by the epidemic.
“We are frankly ten days away from a general shortage of respirators, surgical masks, the things necessary for a hospital to continue to operate,” the mayor warned on CNN.
He regretted that the president “does not move a finger to help his hometown”.
“I can’t be clearer. If the president does not act, people who could have lived will die, ”he insisted.
New York State needs some 30,000 respirators, each costing more than $ 40,000, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.
He lamented to see several American states fighting for these devices.
“It’s just an unmanageable situation,” said Cuomo.
All non-essential operations will also be postponed from Wednesday to free up space for coronavirus patients in New York State hospitals.
The boss of the US Agency for Emergency Management (FEMA) acknowledged that the demand for equipment, especially respirators was “a global problem”, on which they “worked every day”.
And White House coronavirus expert Anthony Fauci assured that the federal government would begin to “water” New York, California and Washington state – the American epicenters of the epidemic – with resources.
The mayor of New York also called for Congress to act as if the United States was on the way to the next great depression.
An economic aid package of more than $ 1,000 billion is currently being negotiated between Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress and the Trump administration.
According to Johns Hopkins University, as of 11 a.m. Sunday, more than 27,000 cases of coronavirus have been identified in the United States, which has counted 347 deaths.
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