New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to the media at the Javits Convention Center which is being turned into a hospital to help fight coronavirus cases on March 24, 2020 in New York City. New York City has about a third of the nation’s confirmed coronavirus cases, making it the center of the outbreak in the United States. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said new projections from health officials suggest instead of flattening, "the curve is increasing" and lambasted the federal government for its lack of action on distributing ventilators and for refraining from using the Defense Production Act.
The governor said the apex of the disease is approaching faster than anticipated and could come as soon as 14-21 days from now. He raised the number of hospital beds needed in the state to 140,000 beds and 40,000 ICU beds. New York currently has 3,000 ICU beds and 53,000 hospital beds. A few days ago, he said the state had projected it would need 110,000 beds.
Cuomo had previously included more hopeful notes of encouragement in his press conferences but on Tuesday delivered concerning news. "The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought," he said.
Nearly half of the nationwide coronavirus cases are in New York state. Overnight, the case count rose by 5,000, bringing the total to more than 25,000 statewide.
"No one is testing more than we are testing," Cuomo said. "In many ways, we have exhausted every option available to us."
The governor noted that 23 percent of hospitalizations so far have needed ventilators and that 13 percent of positive diagnoses have required hospitalization as of Tuesday.
"We haven't flattened the curve, and the curve is actually increasing," Cuomo said from the Javits Center in Manhattan, which is being turned into a 1,000-bed emergency hospital by the Army Corps of Engineers.
On Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx, who is in charge of the White House response, said the attack rate in New York and New Jersey is five times higher than for the rest of the United States. The attack rate is the percentage of a population that catches the disease.
Cuomo was pointed in his criticism of the federal government for so far sending only a small fraction of needed ventilators to New York. "You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?" the governor demanded of the White House. "What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators? You're missing the magnitude of the problem, and the problem is defined by the magnitude."
Cuomo said the state has so far procured 7,000 ventilators but needs 30,000 and, without more options for ventilators available, will start attempting the unusual plan to split them between people.
"If we don't have ventilators in 14 days, it does us no good," Cuomo assessed, again lamenting what he expressed was the lack of aid. "Not to exercise [the Defense Production Act] is inexplicable to me."
President Trump, during a Coronavirus Task Force town hall on Fox News Tuesday, struck back at the New York governor saying "I watch him on this show complaining."
"I'm not blaming him, but he shouldn't be talking about us," Trump said, referring to a claim that Gov. Cuomo neglected to purchase additional ventilators for the state in 2015. "He should be buying his own ventilators."
Still, citing New York's current 25,665 cases of the novel coronavirus, the governor called on Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to release 20,000 ventilators in the federal stockpile.
"The problem is the volume," he said. He asked the federal government to deploy ventilators around the country as needed as different states approach their own curve rates of infection while noting that New York has the greater need at the moment.
After passing its critical period, he said that the state would then move the ventilators to the next region addressing a crisis.
"I will take personal responsibility for transporting the 20,000 ventilators anywhere in this country that they want once we are past our apex," he said. "But don't leave them sitting in a stockpile."
The U.S. is back in negotiations for a nuclear deal with Iran, years after former President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which had been meant to curtail the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear ambitions. Former State Department senior advisor to the George W. Bush and Trump administrations, Christian Whiton, joined Cheddar News Wrap to discuss. “It appears to be very similar to the original JCPOA, which does put some constraints on Iran's nuclear program, but also has sunset provisions, including some that in the original plan were expected to take effect in 2025," he said. "And so, if we just reenter that plan, really it just buys perhaps a few years of slowing down, stopping, whatever you want to say, Iran's nuclear program."
The U.S. has announced the first of what could be multiple levels of sanctions against Russia after Moscow recognized two regions of Ukraine as independent. This comes as Britain imposes sanctions on five Russian banks and two oligarchs, and Germany freezes the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Terrell Star, a foreign affairs reporter at The Atlantic Council, joins from Kyiv to discuss.
Growing tensions in Ukraine might soon be impacting consumers in the United States. With Russia on an invasion footing in the region, gas prices are predicted to go up 10 to 15 cents a gallon in the next coming weeks, according to Robert Sinclair, spokesperson for AAA. Sinclair joined Cheddar to break down what could happen even further. "We've been seeing prices go up, and there's been nothing that's happened to affect supplies," he said. "But it's something known as the fear tax where just the talk of something that might interfere with supplies leads to prices going up speculatively."
The end of 3G is upon us. On Tuesday, AT&T became the first major provider to disable its 3G services, and T-Mobile and Verizon plan to follow suit later this year. The shutdowns are expected to impact millions of vehicles that use 3G networks for updates, remote connection, and certain emergency and convenience features. Lance Ulanoff, the U.S. Editor-in-Chief of TechRadar, joined Cheddar's Closing Bell to discuss the ramifications of the changeover.
A new report shows nearly 240 former officials in Congress, the White House, and regulatory agencies have changed careers to work in the crypto industry.
President Biden unveiled new economic sanctions on Russia for what he called "the beginning of a Russian invasion". This came one day after Putin sent troops into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine. Alex Ward, national security reporter for POLITICO, explains what these sanctions might do to the global economy.
U.S. stocks ended today's session sharply lower on the heels of rising geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Melissa Brown, Managing Director of Applied Research at Qontigo, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the U.S. will begin to impose sanctions on Russia, calling recent troop movement into Ukraine an 'invasion.' Biden and other government officials including from the State Department have begun to classify the Russian troop movement as an invasion after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to two independent Ukrainian areas in an alleged "peacekeeping" mission — which the West considers an act of aggression. Biden said Russia will continue to pay 'an even steeper price' if it continues sending troops into Ukraine. What happens next? Will Putin find a way around these sanctions? Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, joins Closing Bell to discuss Biden's remarks, how the West will protect Ukraine since it doesn't belong to NATO, and more.
