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Originally Posted by TLO
I haven't heard a lot about the "days behind Italy" talk much in the past few days?
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NY governor is pushing the panic button.
ALBANY — Uncle Andy Needs Your Help!
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered every local health department across the Empire State to contribute unused respirators as well as asked local businesses to produce badly needed supplies, as New York desperately tries to prepare for a wave of critically ill coronavirus patients.
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It’s ventilators, ventilators, ventilators. That is the greatest need,” Cuomo told reporters at the state Capitol.
“We’re notifying any health department in the state: if you have a ventilator and you are not using it at this time or it is non-essential to your use, we want it. If you are a regulated health facility, we are asking you by order of the department of health to make that ventilator available,” he said.
“We will purchase it from you if you could lend it to us, but we need ventilators and anyone who has them now please call the New York State Department of Health.”
New York only has about 3,000 ICU beds empty at any given time and estimates that it has between 5,000-6,000 ventilators, which officials fear the pandemic will quickly overwhelm.