New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Friday said the city's shutdown in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic likely will last through May and criticized President Donald Trump for saying he does not believe the state needs thousands of ventilators.
“Unfortunately, we think this crisis is going to grow through April into May — that’s the truth,” de Blasio told ABC News' chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America." "We need the president and everyone in Washington to understand that’s just the blunt reality. We’re looking at the numbers, we’re looking at the human impact. We can’t ignore it, we can’t minimize it.”
President Donald Trump Thursday night questioned New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's call for at least 30,000 ventilators, the amount officials believe will be what is needed to save the lives of those hit hardest by the virus.
“I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators," he told Fox News' Sean Hannity.
De Blasio on Friday accused Trump of "not looking at the facts of this astronomical growth of this crisis," and said that the city alone will need 15,000 ventilators.
"The president has to make that contract happen with the companies that can create ventilators not just for New York City and New York state, but for the whole country," he said. "This is going to get worse before it gets better."
The mayor Friday projected half of the people in New York will eventually be infected, and while for more than 80% there will be "very little impact," 20% will face serious issues, and many of those will die.
De Blasio also said Trump's goal of reopening the country for Easter is a "false hope."
"It would be better for the president to be blunt with people that we've got a really tough battle ahead," the mayor said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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