NYC Hospitals May 'Go Broke' Fighting Coronavirus

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City hospitals could begin to go bust without a stimulus package as health care workers battle the new coronavirus which has an "attack rate" feds believe to be five times higher in the city than the national rate.

“Our hospitals bluntly are going to start to go broke,” de Blasio said on Fox and Friends. "If they can't pay the bills, health care will decline rapidly."

De Blasio threw his support behind the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package being battled out on the floor of the U.S. Senate the day after immunologist and ambassador-at-large Dr. Deborah L. Birx said at a White House press conference that New York City's "attack rate" was one in a thousand.

"This is five times what the other areas are seeing," Birx said. "This is a the group that needs to absolutely social distance and self-isolate at this time."

There were 13,119 coronavirus cases and 125 deaths in New York City as of Monday night.

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Meanwhile, New York is racing to prepare for a wave about to overwhelm the health care system, constructing a 2,000-bed hospital in the Javits Center, calling retired medical workers back into the field and rushing to resupply its stock of surgical masks, gloves and gowns, spurring de Blasio to make his plea for federal support.

"What's being talked about in the stimulus bill is crucial: direct support for public and private hospitals," de Blasio said.

"In a matter of days or weeks, depending on the hospital, are going to be stressed to the point where they can't provide the health care we're used to unless we can get them a huge resupply."

De Blasio thanked President Donald Trump for 400 ventilators he'll send to New York City and repeated his call for the U.S. Military to take control of the city's medical response.

"I think the U.S. Military is a force unlike any in the world in terms of its ability to mobilize," Trump said. "We gotta shore up our hospitals quick. "

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