“We cannot accept this inequality,” he said. “We have to attack it with every tool we have.”
He said that by the end of next week, the city would open the testing centers in East New York, Brooklyn; Morrisania, Bronx; Harlem, Manhattan; Jamaica, Queens; and Clifton, Staten Island.
Mr. de Blasio said that despite the ongoing hardship, there continued to be encouraging signs in the city’s struggle against the virus. He reminded New Yorkers that the previous week had been expected to be one of the most painful of the outbreak, but that it had delivered some promising signs.
“This was a tough and painful week but it was also a very different week from the one we expected, and thank God for that, ”he said. Last Sunday was a moment that we were preparing for the worst and then we started to see some improvement. ”
The number of those who needed to be intubated on a daily basis continued to fall, down from between and patients a day to about 88 patients a day, he said. He added that the city had a large enough supply of ventilators to get through the week.
He said that all city workers who had contact with the public would be required to wear face coverings starting Monday .
Mr. de Blasio repeated that progress in the fight against the virus was contingent on more testing, something that the city did not have the capability to provide for itself.
“We continue to plead for more testing , He said. “It still has not come in anywhere near the numbers that we need.”
He said that he was continuing to ask the White House and FEMA for more testing.
“We must have the testing to help us move towards that next phase, where we get out of widespread transmission of coronavirus and move to low-level transmission, ”he said.
President Trump said Sunday
that doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists who had previously bee n stationed on the Navy hospital ship, the Comfort and at the makeshift hospital at the Jacob K. Javits center, had been redeployed to hospitals around New York City and state. Murphy responds to Trump on reopening NJ economy. President Trump has been open about his eagerness to jump start the American economy, suggesting that stay-at-home orders could be lifted as soon as May.
But on Sunday, officials still watching the death tolls rise in their cities and states urged caution, fearing that relaxing protective measures too early could cause the virus to surge once again.
“We could be pouring gas on the fire, even inadvertently,” Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.
He said that returning to a semblance of life before the outbreak was crucial but was not his highest priority.
“It’s not job number one, because right now, the house is on fire, and job number one is to put the fire out,” he said, though he added that the state was beginning to examine how what reopening might look like.
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Mr. Grembowiec, whose team helped lead the visiting crews into the city convoy-fashion, emergency lights on, said locals welcomed them with fanfare.
“Neighbors were waving and blowing kisses, cars were beeping their horns and people were shouting, ‘You go! You go! ’” Mr. Grembowiec said. “And our people, who are so exhausted, had tears in their eyes because this was the cavalry coming to rescue them.”
Although New Jersey has its own statewide task force that can send reinforcements from one region to another, most of their crews have been overwhelmed by the crisis. On Tuesday, (Health Department) (officials from the state contacted the Federal Emergency Management Agency , which then turned to a nationwide network asking for volunteers, said Mike Bascom, a member of the task force.
Kevin Anderson, an operations supervisor for (American Medical Response, which has a FEMA contract, was one of those who picked up the phone.
You might miss a birthday or an anniversary, but the community is the priority, ”he said. “We’re accustomed to it.”
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