ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York State continue to rise.
The total number of confirmed cases is now at 83,712 across the state. More than 3,000 are in the ICU, and 1,941 people have died.
Nurses at Bronx hospital protest lack of supplies, protective gear to fight coronavirus
Nurses from Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx held a demonstration to protest the lack of personal protective equipment as they face a spike in coronavirus cases.
Two nurses at Jacobi Medical Center have now contracted the illness because of a lack of equipment, they said. “We will not let any health official or government official say that we have enough until every health care worker has an N95 for every time they interact with a COVID-19 patient," Petty said.
Several nurses have fallen ill across New York metropolitan region. Mount Sinai West assistant nursing manager Kious Kelly, 36, died from the disease earlier this week.
Trump once intent to implement New York quarantine
The president had earlier said he might impose a quarantine on New York, and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, to slow the spread of Covid-19.
The New York State has about half of the total confirmed Covid-19 cases in the entire US.
What did New York's governor say?
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo responded by saying that quarantining the state of New York would be "preposterous" and "anti-American".
"If you said we were geographically restricted from leaving, that would be a lockdown."
He said New York had already implemented "quarantine" measures, such as banning major gatherings and ordering people to remain at home, but that he would oppose any "lockdown" efforts.
"Then we would be Wuhan, China, and that wouldn't make any sense," he told CNN, adding that this would cause the stock market to crash in a way that would make it impossible for the US economy to "recover for months, if not years".
"You would paralyse the financial sector," he said.
New York radio icon Mike Francesa lays into Trump over coronavirus response
President Donald Trump’s management of the coronavirus pandemic has cost him the on-air support of one of his most outspoken hometown defenders.
Mike Francesa, the longtime icon of New York sports talk radio, blasted the president on Monday with the type of tirade he typically reserves for the Knicks or Mets — accusing Trump of not funneling enough medical equipment to the current epicenter of the outbreak in the United States.
“We’re watching one thing happen in our city on the 11 o’clock news every night. We’re watching people die, and now we know people who died. And we’re not seeing one or two people die now in our neighborhood. We’re seeing them die by the tens and twenties by the day,” Francesa said, charging that police, firefighters, health care workers and other first responders “don’t have the supplies they need” to combat the public health crisis.
“So don’t give me the MyPillow guy doing a song-and-dance up here on a Monday afternoon when people are dying in Queens,” Francesa added. “Get the stuff made, get the stuff where it needs to go, and get the boots on the ground! Treat this like the crisis it is!”