Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday said during a press conference he would sign an executive order allowing the government to seize unused ventilators in New York state and redistribute them to hospitals in need as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
“The National Guard are going to be deployed to pick them up across the state, and deploy them to places that we need them,” Cuomo said during a press conference on Friday.
He estimated that about several hundred ventilators would be redistributed.
“Am I willing to deploy the National Guard and inconvenience people for several hundred lives? he asked. “You’re damn right I am.”
Cuomo said the executive order would also apply to unused medical PPE.
“We are running out of ventilators and we could have people dying because there are no ventilators,” he said.
JD Vance Responds as Media Seeks to Stoke Controversy Over His Wife’s Wedding Ring
Fox News Politics Newsletter: Capitol Hill revolt threatens Trump’s Venezuela playbook
Dem-backed ‘dignity’ bill could strip ICE of detention powers, erase immigration enforcement, critics warn
Disgraceful: Duchess Meghan Accused of Stealing $1,700 Dress from Photoshoot, Using the ‘Archiving’ of Her Royal Clothing as the Excuse
Macron denies ‘everything’ about US betrayal comments as White House hosts Ukraine for marathon talks in Miami
Watch: Stephen A. Smith Gushes About ‘Positively Brilliant’ Trump Who Keeps Foiling Democrats at Every Turn
Disgraced ex-Sen. Bob Menendez banned from holding any public office in New Jersey
Breaking: Trump Wins FIFA Peace Prize, Calls it ‘One of the Great Honors of My Life’
SCOTUS to review Trump executive order on birthright citizenship
Judge on the clock as NY AG Letitia James challenges US attorney’s authority to investigate her lawsuits
DC pipe bomb suspect makes first court appearance; family yells support
Vance acknowledges voters ‘impatient’ on affordability, rejects ‘totally bulls— narrative’
Jan 6 defendant pardoned by Trump lands in legal trouble again
Watch: Stephen A. Smith Locks Horns With Whoopi as He Schools the Women of ‘The View’ on Why Democrats Are Losing
Nearly Half of LGBT TV Characters to Vanish Next Year as Show Cancellations Pile Up
Cuomo said he would issue the order to prevent people from dying.
“I’m just not going to allow us to go there, I think it would be wholly irresponsible,” he said, noting that upstate New York hospitals did not have as many cases.
Cuomo said that hospitals would get their seized ventilators back when the need was filled or the state would pay for them.
“I apologize for the hardship to those institutions, ultimately there is no hardship, if you don’t get the ventilator back, I give you my personal word I will pay you for the ventilator,” he said.
“Don’t use the word ‘seize,’” Cuomo said to reporters, calling it a “harsh word.”
“It’s sharing of resources,” he said.
Story cited here.
