On Saturday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced during his daily COVID-19 press briefing that, with assistance from multiple sources, the state had acquired 1,000 new ventilators from China.
“New York has been shopping in China … we went to the Asia Society to help us navigate China, I asked the White House to help us navigate China, I spoke to the ambassador, and we got really good news today,” Cuomo said.
The Chinese government is going to facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that will come into JFK today – and I want to thank Joe Tsai and Clara Tsai and Jack Ma from Alibaba … for their donation. That’s going to be very helpful, and I want to thank Ambassador Huang very much for his help in making all of this happen because this is a big deal, and it’s gonna make a significant difference for us.
The governor added that the state of Oregon will be providing New York with 140 ventilators.
Prior to mentioning the 1,000 ventilators, Cuomo criticized the fact that China manufactures many of our medical supplies.
“China is, remarkably, the repository for all of these orders,” Cuomo said. “Ventilators, PPE, it all goes back to China, which, long-term, we have to figure out why we wound up in this situation where we don’t have the manufacturing capacity in this country.”
The governor also went through the daily numbers for the state.
The daily hospitalization numbers on Friday dropped to 1,095 from the previous day’s record high of 1,427. Despite this tick downward, the overall trend of hospitalizations is still moving upward.
“Total number of hospitalized is down a blip, but we believe that’s not statistically meaningful,” Cuomo stated.
The daily Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions hit a record high of 395 on Friday. The previous high of 374 was set on March 26 and tied on April 1. The overall trajectory of ICU admissions is upward.
The number of daily intubations also broke the record with 351 on Friday. The previous record was 313, and it was set on April 1. The trajectory for daily intubations is upward.
Discharges are also up, with 1,592 COVID-19 patients discharged from New York hospitals on Friday. This is a record high as well, and the trajectory is moving upward.
“This is interesting. Two-thirds of the people who have been hospitalized have been discharged,” the governor said. “That’s what we’ve been saying all along. Most people won’t be hospitalized; people who are hospitalized will come in, be treated, and leave … one third of that number has a serious condition which will require continued hospitalization.”
Governor Cuomo then spoke about the apex, when “the number of infections on a daily basis is at the high point.” He stated that although New York isn’t at the apex yet, it will likely be arriving sometime in the next four to eight days based on the models being examined.
The governor also showed a slide in which case percentage numbers were shown based on area. While New York City has been very slowly declining as a share of total cases in the state since approximately March 22, cases in Long Island have been increasing. As of Friday, New York City had 65% of COVID-19 cases in the state, Long Island had 22% (up from 17% on March 26), Westchester and Rockland had 7%, and upstate had 5%.
Cuomo also lauded the fact that 85,000 volunteers have stepped up to help New York in this time of crisis.
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