REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
-
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says the worst is yet to come for the spike in coronavirus cases in New York City.
-
“April is going to be worse than March. And I fear May will be worse than April,” de Blasio said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday.
-
10,356 New York State residents had tested positive for coronavirus as of Saturday evening.
-
Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
New York City’s mayor has a stark warning regarding the escalating number of cases of coronavirus in the city and around the US.
“All Americans deserve the blunt truth, it is only getting worse,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday morning. “April is going to be worse than March. And I fear May will be worse than April.”
“So bluntly, it’s going to get worse, a lot worse, before it gets better,” de Blasio said.
As of Saturday evening, 10,356 New York State residents had tested positive for coronavirus, reports The New York Times.
“Right now, we are a third of the cases in the country,” de Blasio said. “That’s going to get worse. We are about two thirds or more of the cases in New York State, that’s going to get worse.”
Never miss out on healthcare news. Subscribe to Dispensed, Business Insider’s weekly newsletter on pharma, biotech, and healthcare.
‘If we don’t get more ventilators in the next 10 days, people will die’
De Blasio also pointed the finger at what he says is the federal government’s lackluster response to assisting in combating the crisis.
“The president of the United States is from New York City and he will not lift a finger to help his hometown. And I do not get it. I do not get it,” de Blasio said.
He called for President Trump to mobilize the military to aid New York and use the Defense Production Act to produce necessary tools like ventilators for patients.
“I can’t be blunt enough. If the president does not act, people will die who could have lived otherwise,” de Blasio said.
Later on Sunday morning, during an appearance on CNN, de Blasio said “we’re about 10 days away” from seeing widespread shortages of ventilators, surgical masks, “the things necessary to keep a hospital system running.”
“If we don’t get more ventilators in the next 10 days, people will die,” de Blasio said on CNN.
A top doctor sounds the alarm
A surgeon in the city is also sounding the alarm about the safety of healthcare workers and the resources available to fight the virus.
Dr. Craig Smith, the surgeon-in-chief at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the chair of Columbia University’s Department of Surgery, said in a letter to colleagues that the city’s hospital system could reach “reach peak COVID-19 volume within 22-32 days.”
“The hard data has become alarming,” Smith said. “I wish I could use a more comforting word.”
Smith added that “it has also become obvious that the virus has breached our Department walls, and we can expect to hear about increasing numbers of infected Department colleagues.”
“It should be no surprise if these infections appear in clusters associated with the care of infected patients.”
And a reminder, if you are feeling sick and your healthcare practitioner has asked you to get a coronavirus test in New York City, you can find out how to do that here.
Read the original article on Business Insider