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More than 52,000 of the country’s cases are in New York state, and officials forecast the apex of the pandemic there is still 14 to 21 days away, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday in a news conference.
Additionally, Cuomo said he spoke Saturday morning with President Trump, who approved four new emergency hospitals that will provide another 4,000 beds total.
“Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hot spot … We might not have to do it, but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine, short-term, two weeks on New York,” Trump said.
The possible quarantine would be “enforceable,” the President said, and “restrict travel” from those parts of the tri-state area.
Cuomo, asked about Trump’s comments, said the two leaders hadn’t talked about that possibility and he didn’t know what such a quarantine would entail.
“I don’t even know what that means,” Cuomo said.
“No matter where you are, this is coming to you,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday. “Take all the measures you can now to make sure people are home.”
Pandemic will hit these states hard, top US doctor says
New hot spots have emerged as the numbers have also escalated in other states, the country’s top doctor says.
Those include Detroit, Chicago and New Orleans, US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams told “CBS This Morning” on Friday.
“The virus and the local community are going to determine the time line. It’s not going to be us from Washington DC. People need to follow their data, they need to make the right decisions based on what their data is telling them,” he said.
“Everyone’s curve is going to be different,” Adams said.
“The number of Covid patients we are getting is rapidly increasing every day,” she said, “and all of us collectively worry about what will happen as it gets worse if this is where we are starting.”
University of Chicago Medicine officials did not immediately responded to CNN’s request for comment.
But there is a shortage of lab technicians able to analyze coronavirus tests, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said, adding that even if he were able to obtain more machines for testing analysis, they wouldn’t have enough people to operate them.
In Louisiana, where deaths surged by more than 40% in a single day this week and continue to jump daily, hospitals are already working under stress.
“This is going to be the disaster that defines our generation,” said Collin Arnold, director of the city’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
100,000 ventilators in 100 days
More than 196 million Americans are under orders to stay inside to help combat the virus.
Some of its key elements include sending checks directly to individuals and families, a major expansion of unemployment benefits, money for hard-hit hospitals and health care providers, financial assistance for small businesses and $500 billion in loans for distressed companies.
State leaders have also urged him to respond to a looming shortage of medical supplies. The administration will facilitate the production or acquisition of “100,000 additional units” of ventilators through other means over a 100-day period, Trump said.
“We are manufacturing a lot of them (ventilators) now, we are accumulating a lot. We are taking a lot through the act,” Trump said, referring to the Defense Production Act, which he invoked Friday.
“Maybe we won’t even need the full activation,” he said. “We will find out, but we need the ventilators.”
CNN’s Jacqueline Howard, Cheri Mossburg, Matthew Hoye and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.
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