I'll have the greatest number of
confirmed coronavirus cases on earth
news that the u.s. now tots the world
for the most covet cases was the
confirmation most Americans had been
dreading despite millions of people in
lockdown
an escalation of the lethal virus beyond
their control but for one American
president Trump it seemed not to
register a lot of good things are
happening the mortality rate is in my
opinions way way down and that takes a
lot of fear out you know it's one thing
to have it it's another thing to die at
Elmhurst Hospital in New York where a
refrigerated morgue is parked out back
to collect the dead they probably don't
see it the same way as President Trump
it has 545 beds and every single one of
them is used by a co vyd patient non
virus patients are being turned away a
chaotic mass lines the street waiting to
be tested while ambulances rush the sick
inside to staff who say they don't have
enough protective equipment to cope
they're overrun with patients we need
federal help we need emergency supplies
for those masks and other personal
protective gear the numbers are stark in
New York City the epicenter of the
crisis the number of kovat patients in
intensive care
left 45 percent yesterday they have just
four thousand ventilators and are
telling President Trump on a daily basis
they need 30,000 you know 30,000 30,000
the president says he's doing all he can
but listen to his response yesterday on
a fox news talk show but I have a
feeling that a lot of the numbers that
are being said in some areas are just
bigger than they're going to be I don't
believe you need 40,000 or 30,000
ventilators contrast his tone with the
governor of New York who's become a
national hero with his straight talking
daily updates his response to president
Trump's jibe well maybe you don't need
30,000 well look I don't have a crystal
ball
everybody's entitled to their own
opinion but I don't operate here on
opinion I operate on facts and on data
and on numbers and on projections
they're already building for extra
hospitals to help cope with the expected
influx of patients including this
massive conference center in New York
City now a giant intensive care ward but
the governor says they urgently need
four more an existing hospitals have to
double their capacity using every inch
of available space as they scramble so
President Trump does too he said he's on
top of the crisis but if he was would he
need to publicly berate our makers on
Twitter today
General Motors must immediately open
their stupidly abandoned plant in Ohio
and start making ventilators now the
irony is General Motors and its partner
had reportedly agreed to make thousands
of ventilators but an announcement was
pulled this week because of a row with
the government over price it's not just
New York in need though the US Navy ship
Mercy is on its way to another hot spot
Los Angeles in California where cases
there are climbing at an alarming rate
so - in New Orleans Michigan and Chicago
the virus taking hold across America and
a president - at the end of February
reassured the nation it's going to
disappear just like a miracle well the
news here is really becoming more
alarming more stark on a daily basis
just look at the numbers only a week ago
there were 9,000 cases here about a
hundred and forty-nine deaths today as
you said earlier that number has jumped
to ninety four thousand infections and
over 1400 deaths now those numbers are
scary enough but remember because of the
lack of testing the poor amount of
testing across the country that those
numbers probably are not really
representative of the true scale of this
crisis that's the big fear and it's
worth dwelling on New York because many
people are worried that cities like
and New Orleans Chicago I mentioned in
the piece yeah there are simply
following in New York's footsteps the
governor there Andrew Cuomo you saw in
my piece warning today that they need
across the state 40,000 intensive care
beds and yet they have 3,000 those are
stark numbers and really underlined the
extent of this crisis and yet you have a
president who says next week he will
press ahead with his plan to outline new
guidelines for social distancing in his
desperate bid to get Americans back to
work now Americans of course want to go
back to work no one wants to sit around
at home doing nothing and earning no
money but the worry is if he acts too
soon and everyone thinks that next week
those guidelines
it will all be too soon that if he does
that then he will make the situation
worse that the virus will spread and
that the economy therefore will be hit
even harder and that the economy will
take longer as a result to recover