New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday that he will sign an executive order to allow the authorities to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) from facilities statewide to hospitals with the greatest need so they can promptly treat novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients
NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday that he will sign an executive order to allow the authorities to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) from facilities statewide to hospitals with the greatest need so they can promptly treat novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients.
"I am going to sign an executive order that says the state can take ventilators and PPE from institutions that do not need them now and redeploy them to other parts of the state and other hospitals that do need them," Cuomo said. "Those institutions will either get their ventilator back, or they will be reimbursed and paid for the ventilator."
Cuomo explained that the National Guard will be picking up the ventilators and deploying them to facilities that urgently need them.
On Thursday, Cuomo said New York has just six days of ventilators stockpile, as the number of COVID-19 cases in the state exceeded 100,000 cases.
"I cannot do anything more than that, but I am not going to be in a position where people are dying, and we have several hundred ventilators in our own state somewhere else," Cuomo added.
As of Friday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York State increased to 102,863 and the number of deaths to 2,935.
