NY Coronavirus Wave Will Hit Larger, Sooner Than Expected: Cuomo

NEW YORK CITY — The wave of new coronavirus cases is larger than predicted and could hit in two weeks, much sooner than New York initially expected, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

"We haven't flattened the curve," Cuomo said. "The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought."

New York needs 140,000 hospital beds — almost triple the state's 53,000 beds — and 30,000 ventilators that Cuomo said cannot be found or bought.

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"This is a critical and desperate need," Cuomo said. "I need the ventilators in 14 days. "

New York state has about 25,000 cases and a COVID-19 attack rate five times the national rate at one in a thousand, according to Cuomo and federal experts.

New York City had 14,776 positive cases of COVID-19 — 4,364 cases in Queens, 4,237 in Brooklyn, 2,887 in Manhattan, 2,328 in The Bronx and 935 in Staten Island — with 131 deaths as of Tuesday, according to the Mayor's office.

It was an angered Cuomo that demanded the Trump administration send its 20,000 ventilator stockpile to New York, promising to send them where needed once the case number abated.

"We need the federal help and we need the federal help now," Cuomo said. "Once we're past that critical point, deploy the ventilators to the other parts where they are needed ... I will transport them anywhere in the country."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is working to build a 2,000-bed hospital facility in the Javits Center and has promised to send 400 ventilators to New York City, which needs an estimated 15,000.

"You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?" Cuomo said. "What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000?"

The New York governor called on the Trump Administration to increase the nation's ventilator supply through the Defense Production Act — which gives the White House the power to mandate production of critically needed supplies — and which the president used for the first time Tuesday to procure test kits.

Ventilators cost between $20,000 and $25,000 to make and take more than 10 days to make, Cuomo estimated.

Several U.S. auto manufacturers have volunteered to produce ventilators but Cuomo worried without a federal order, they would not arrive in time to meet New York's soon-to-skyrocket demand.

"It does us no good," Cuomo said. "If we don't have the ventilators in 14 days, it does us no good."

The shortage has forced state officials to "split" its 10,000 ventilators, adapting them to pump air into the lungs of two patients at the same time, Cuomo said.

"It's difficult to perform and its experimental," Cuomo said. "But necessity is the mother of invention."

Cuomo ordered hospitals Monday to increase capacity by 50 percent, which would bring them to approximately 79,500 beds, or slightly more than half the top projected need.

"We have the highest and the fastest rate in the nation," Cuomo said. "New York is the canary in the coal mine."

Coronavirus In NYC: What's Happened And What You Need To Know

Correction: The original version of this article stated New York had 7,000 ventilators, but the state had between 3,000 and 4,000 ventilators then purchased 7,000 more. The need remains at about 30,000, according to Gov. Cuomo.