As the New York death toll from the Covid-19 epidemic rose sharply overnight, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo moved Friday to shift ventilators and other equipment to the hospitals most in need of them.
The state’s death toll s death toll reached 2,935, nearly doubling in the last three days. The number of infections on Long Island surpassed 100,000.
The governor’s office has created a website devoted to Covid-19 data.
Cuomo, who has been hammering the need for more ventilators, signed an executive order to redistribute the ventilators, needed for the most critically ill patients.
“I’m not going to get into a situation where we’re running out of ventilators and people are dying because there are no ventilators but there are hospitals in other parts of the state that have ventilators that they’re not using,” Cuomo said. “I’m just not going to allow us to go there. I think it would be wholly irresponsible. I’m going to sign an executive order that says the state can take ventilators and PPE from institutions that don’t need them now and redeploy them to other parts of the state and other hospitals that do need them. Those institutions will either get their ventilator back or they will be reimbursed and paid for their ventilator so they can buy a new ventilator.”
The state also extended enrollment for health insurance on NY State of Health until May 15. If you lost your job-based health coverage, or you’re uninsured, enroll today.