New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday provided his daily coronavirus update from the Javits Convention Center, which opened today as an emergency field hospital.
The governor said both the Javits Center and the USNS Comfort hospital ship, which docked in the city this morning, will serve patients dealing with non-coronavirus medical needs. That should leave New York City hospitals to serve as the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak.
While expressing gratitude for federal support the state has received, Cuomo stressed that the city is not an "anomaly" but rather a "canary in the coal mine" for what the rest of the state and country will soon experience.
"What you see us going through here, you will see happening all across this country," he said.
"Anyone who says this situation is a New York City-only situation is in a state of denial."
All but one county in the state of New York has a confirmed COVID-19 case, he added.
Collaboration has been complicated, however, by the fact that states are competing for the same stock of limited supplies.
"We're competing amongst ourselves. We're driving the prices up. When we started buying ventilators, they were under $20,000. The ventilators are now over $50,000 if you can find them," Cuomo said.
The governor echoed a message from Mayor Bill de Blasio earlier today emphasizing that New York would provide guidance and direct assistance to other areas once they, too, become hot zones.
The state's latest death toll from the virus now stands at 1,218, a jump of about 300 from Sunday. Cuomo said the jump correlates with an increasing number of patients who have died after prolonged periods of ventilators use, suggesting that patients with more serious cases are beginning to succumb to the disease.
In a bit of positive news, Cuomo reported that cases are now doubling at a slower rate than that had been, down from doubling every two days to every six days.
"While the overall number of cases is going up, the rate of doubling is actually down," Cuomo said.
The three detainees, who have been in captivity for over a year, landed in Maryland early Thursday, where President Trump and the First Lady welcomed them back home.
The White House will host dozens of Silicon Valley executives on Thursday to discuss artificial intelligence, with a focus on how it could impact jobs in the future.
The three U.S. prisoners were released during Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to the capital city of Pyongyang, marking a significant reduction in tensions between the two countries ahead of President Trump's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal may make it harder for the United States to have any influence over Tehran, says Laura Secor, a journalist and author who has written extensively about Iran. America's European allies may "prefer to work with the Iranians," leaving the U.S. out.
President Trump's announcement that the U.S. is abandoning the Iran deal will lead to volatility in oil prices, says Patrick DeHaan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. "The more fiery the response from President Trump, the more oil prices could eventually rally," he said.
The First Lady launched her 'Be Best' initiative on Monday, focusing on children's mental health, opioid abuse, and cyberbullying. Erin Delmore, senior political correspondent at Bustle, said there are still some details missing, and others that are eerily familiar to Obama-era guidelines.
The president said the pact, which was intended to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, was "a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made." He said the United States would reinstate "powerful sanctions" against Iran.
Eric Schneiderman, who put himself at the forefront of the #MeToo movement, resigned just hours after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced on Monday.
"This current White House is unfortunately a force for hate and demonization," said the political commentator and author of "The Opposite of Hate." But "the minute anyone in that White House wants to do something different and be better, I'm here for it," said Kohn, in response to First Lady Melania Trump's "Be Best" campaign.
The playwright Justin Sherin, the man behind Twitter's "Dick Nixon" account, weighs in on all those Trump-Watergate comparisons.
