NEW YORK (AP) - New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday he will order ventilators to be redeployed to overwhelmed hospitals from other places amid alarming increases in COVID-19-related deaths and hospitalizations.
Cuomo says the institutions will be reimbursed or receive unused ventilators back.
"If you don’t get the ventilator back, I give you my personal word, I will pay you for the ventilator. But I’m not going to let people die, because we didn’t redistribute ventilators,” said Cuomo.
He says the National Guard will transport the ventilators and other personal protective equipment across the state.
We do not have enough ventilators.
Period.
I am signing an Executive Order allowing the state to take ventilators and redistribute to hospitals in need.
The National Guard will be mobilized to move ventilators to where they are urgently required to save lives.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 3, 2020
New York state tallied its biggest daily jump yet in deaths Friday -- up 562 to 2,935. Almost 15,000 people were hospitalized.
Cuomo said there are now more than 102,000 positive cases across the state.
