Cuomo emphasizes need for ventilators after Trump downplays number needed
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday emphasized his desire for tens of thousands of new ventilators to treat an increasing number of coronavirus patients after President Trump downplayed the number a day earlier.
"The people are on ventilators much later than most patients are on ventilators," Cuomo said of coronavirus patients who experience serious complications from the disease in a press conference Friday. "Most people are on a ventilator for two, three, four days. These [coronavirus] patients can come in and need a ventilator for up to 20 days, so you see how that need for ventilators is so important."
Trump appeared on Fox News Thursday night for an interview with Sean Hannity on the coronavirus crisis.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CUOMO: SENATE'S $2 TRILLION CORONAVIRUS BILL WOULD BE 'TERRIBLE' FOR NEW YORK
"I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators," Trump said on "Hannity" Thursday night in an apparent reference to Cuomo's recent claim that the state needed 30,000 ventilators. "You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes and they'll have two ventilators and now all of a sudden they're saying, 'Can we order 30,000 ventilators?'"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After being asked about Trump's comments Friday, Cuomo responded by saying his state's coronavirus response is based on facts and data.
"Well, maybe you don’t need 30,000," Cuomo said, seemingly paraphrasing the president's remarks. "Well, look, I don’t have a crystal ball, everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. But I don’t operate here on opinion. I operate on facts and on data and on numbers and on projections."
He continued: "All the projections say you could have an apex needing 140,000 beds and about 40,000 ventilators ... And that’s what the data and the science says. I hope we don’t need 30,000 ventilators. I hope some natural weather change happens overnight and kills the virus globally... The numbers say you may need 30,000."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The president also hammered another Democratic governor who criticized the federal government's response to the pandemic, specifically on the federal government's slow response in helping states acquire ventilators for their hospitals.
"The first line of attack is supposed to be the hospitals and the local government and the states -- the states themselves," Trump told Hannity. "We have people like [Washington state] Governor [Jay] Inslee -- he should be doing more."
The president did praise Cuomo on his response to the coronavirus pandemic in his "Hannity" appearance Thursday, as he has before. Cuomo has also complimented Trump on the federal government's coronavirus response efforts, although he has been critical of Trump at times. The governor this week lambasted the $2.2 trillion coronavirus response bill -- which is backed by congressional Republicans and Democrats, as well as President Trump -- as "terrible" for his state.
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"New York City only gets $1.3 billion from this package, that is a drop in the bucket as to need," Cuomo said on Thursday.
Cuomo indicated that he does still have a good working relationship with the president and would ask him for additional help in the state's coronavirus response Friday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I'm going to ask the president today if he will authorize another four temporary hospitals for us," the governor said.
For his part, Trump on Friday called on General Motors to open abandoned plants to start making ventilators. He also called on Ford to make the machines, too.
Fox News' Charles Creitz, Greg Norman and Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report.