New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday that 562 state residents had died in the past 24 hours of Wuhan coronavirus, the highest single-day increase in the state. As of Friday, 2,935 state residents had died of the illness.The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in
New York also saw its highest single-day increase of 10,482, with the state now reporting 102,863 cases in total. Cuomo announced he would sign an executive order allowing the state to appropriate whatever personal protective equipment and medical gear the government needs to combat the outbreak."I’m not going to let people die," Cuomo said at a press conference. "I’m not going to get into a situation where I know we are running out of ventilators and we could have people dying because there are no ventilators, but there are hospitals in other parts of the state that have ventilators that they’re not using." The governor called on the federal government to increase aid to the state, and said New York has "no money" because of expenditures on health care.Representative Elise Stefanik, a
Republican from New York's rural 21st District, expressed concern that Cuomo's executive order could deprive her constituents of necessary medical care."I am very concerned about the Governor’s announcement regarding shifting ventilators from Upstate to Downstate. I represent demographically the largest number of seniors of any District in NY," Stefanik wrote on Twitter. "Our rural hospitals are already very limited in resources & we must ensure Upstate’s needs for testing supplies & ventilators are met."New York state has reported roughly 40 percent of coronavirus cases in the U.S., with 51,809 cases in
New York City alone as of Friday morning, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.