Currents News Staff
More and more people are going online to apply for unemployment benefits. Just last week, 6.6 million filed new jobless claims in the U.S.. According to the Department of Labor, that brings the two-week total to 10 million Americans filing for unemployment insurance because of the coronavirus essentially shutting down the economy.
In New York, another thing that continues to go up is the number of new cases. But Governor Andrew Cuomo notes that the number of patients leaving the hospital is also increasing.
“Seventy-four hundred patients discharged, that’s up 1,292. That’s good news,” he said. “The number of people going to the hospital is going up. The number of people going out of the hospital is going up.”
But the virus continues to take a toll. It’s putting a strain on funeral homes, so the city has set up 45 mobile morgues. Meanwhile, hospitals remain overwhelmed.
“If a person comes in and needs a ventilator and you don’t have a ventilator, the person dies,” Cuomo explained.
With that blunt reality in mind, the state needs more ventilators to help patients with COVID-19. According to the governor, right now there’s only enough in the stockpile for six more days.
“Supplies are an ongoing challenge, the PPE is an ongoing challenge. The gowns, the gloves, and the ventilators,” he said.
So, Cuomo put a call out to local businesses to start making supplies, showing a phone number and email address for them to connect.
“If you have capacity to make these products, we will purchase them and we will pay a premium..and we will pay to convert or transition your manufacturing facility to a facility that can do this,” he said.
The governor also gave a shout out to the volunteers who are helping us fight this battle, saying, “God bless America. Twenty-one thousand people have volunteered from out of state and come in to New York State. I thank them. I thank their patriotism. I thank their dedication and passion to their mission of public health.”