WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN) – As the number of worldwide coronavirus cases surpasses one million, the National Guard is turning the massive Los Angeles Convention Center into a field hospital.
The epicenter for the virus in the U.S. is still New York, where health care workers are fighting the clock against supply shortages.
Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez with the New York State Nurses Association said, “We are dying, we are getting sick. It doesn’t matter how many ventilators we get if we are dead and cannot run the ventilators.”
21,000 health care workers are now flocking to New York to help in their hour of need.
“Lives are gonna be saved because these reinforcements came,” New York Mayor Bill De Blasio said.
Still, in the latest projection, 16,000 people could die across this state.
N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “At the current burn rate we have about six days of ventilators in our stockpile.”
Sunday, officials say, is New York City’s crunch day for masks, gloves and gowns.
Registered nurse Laura Ucik said, “I was given one disposable yellow gown to use all day taking care of COVID patients and I would hang it up on an IV pole in between patients and put my single N95 mask into a brown paper bag. Every day when I go to work I feel like a sheep going to slaughter.”
Gov. Cuomo said, “If you have the capacity to make these products, we will purchase them. But we need it like now.”
Massachusetts bought its own masks direct from China and the Patriots lent their plane to pick them up.
Supplies from the National Strategic Supply were shipped out to hospitals by the National Guard but that federal store is now nearly dry.
2,000 ventilators in the stockpile are unavailable because they weren’t maintained properly while in storage.
Montana Governor Steve Bullock said, “They’re bringing these big planes from supplies overseas. Immediately then everything that is brought, 80% of it is just dumped into the private market. So then governors are competing against one another, at times the federal government, to try to get these supplies.”
The Defense Department is now looking to procure an extra 100,000 body bags.
Last week alone 6.6 million more Americans filed for unemployment and more than 90% of Americans are now under stay home orders.
Nicole Buchanan’s 39-year old husband, Conrad, just died. “Just stay home,” she said. “Our life has turned into this horrible nightmare. You guys have to take this seriously cries.”
Those in Los Angeles are now being told to wear masks. Mayor Eric Garcetti said, “Please do not get medical-grade or surgical masks or these N-95 masks. We must not contribute to the shortage of these essential personal protective equipment for medical personnel and first responders.”
Some experts say this virus could spread not just through coughing and sneezing but through talking, even just breathing.
There’s also a lack of agreement nationwide on how to best protect people from infection.
Florida’s governor is allowing church services, saying they are essential.
The governor of California says they are not exempt from the social distancing guidelines outlined in his stay-at-home order.
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