President Donald Trump early Tuesday said the government has obtained 400 ventilators for New York City and announced that work is beginning on building four hospitals there, adding that the world market for medical equipment needed to fight the spreading coronavirus pandemic is "crazy."
"The World market for face masks and ventilators is Crazy," the president wrote on Twitter. "We are helping the states to get equipment, but it is not easy. Just got 400 Ventilators for @NYCMayor Bill de Blasio. Work beginning on 4 hospitals in New York! Millions of different type items coming!"
The mayor said in a series of tweets Monday night that he'd had a "substantive conversation" with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence about the "reality" of New York City's public hospitals on Sunday, and that he'd made clear the "vital need for immediate help."
He continued that "some signs of help" were on the way, and that the 400 ventilators from the federal stockpile arrived on Monday.
"Our need is in the thousands, but it's a race against time and this will buy us critical days," the mayor tweeted.
De Blasio added, "A surge in hospital capacity is underway. New beds will come online at @NYCHealthSystem's Coler Center on Roosevelt Island this week We will have 1,000 new beds at the Javits Center thanks to the Army Corps of Engineers, @NYCEmergencyMgt, FEMA and the State of New York."
Meanwhile, the city needs the military's help, said de Blasio.
"We can't say this enough," he tweeted. "The USNS Comfort will be on its way — but we will need SO much more going forward in terms of logistics, manpower, and supplies."
The mayor also announced that on Monday, the city "distributed supplies to hospitals across the city that has been mostly shut down, including 200,000 N95 masks, 2 million surgical masks, and 70,000 face shields."
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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