Army to deploy to New York after Trump declares major disaster: Troops to turn hotels and sports arenas into hospitals as lines form outside hospitals, ventilators run low and almost two people an hour die in pandemic in NYC
- President Trump declared New York State a major disaster area Friday as coronavirus cases skyrocket
- The declaration allows New York State to access federal aid via FEMA's $42billion Disaster Relief Fund
- The US military is now working on plans to takeover hotels, college dormitories and sports arenas and turn them into ICU-like medical facilities
- The emergency declaration comes as New York State and city hospitals run out of face masks and ventilators
- In New York City, 14 people died between 10am and 6pm Friday - the equivalent of almost two people an hour
- Trump's declaration was issued Friday night, four days after New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo asked for it
- This is the first time in US history a president has declared a major disaster over a public health threat
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
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Donald Trump has declared New York State a major disaster area as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases skyrockets and New York City was declared the epicenter of the US outbreak by city Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The US military will now be called in, and the US Army Corps of Engineers have said they plans to take over hotels, sports arenas, college dorms and other buildings in a bid to bolster the number of available hospital rooms.
De Blasio had urged Trump to send in the military and its logistical support to hard-hit New York State, California and Seattle on Wednesday. On Friday de Blasio said: 'We constitute 30 percent of the cases in the US and 70 per cent of the cases in New York State. Whether we like it or not, we are the epicenter.'
The president's declaration comes as a hospital in the Bronx revealed it is running low on ventilators and a Queens doctor revealed that an elderly patient experiencing coronavirus symptoms died on the hospital ward floor.
On Friday, patients were seen lining up around the block at test centers in New York City as they tried to get tested for the disease. One video showed hundreds lining up waiting to be tested at Queens' Elmhurst Hospital.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo had asked for the major disaster declaration, which paves the way for the federal government to pay for up to 75 per cent of the state's bills for its emergency response to the pandemic.
New York State now has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in the nation, with 8,515 diagnoses and 56 deaths, as the number of confirmed cases shot up by more than 2,000 between Thursday and Friday. The sudden leap in cases has been attributed to more people now being tested for the disease.
De Blasio said during a press conference Friday that there are 5,151 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the nation's largest city - more than a fourth of the nation's total cases. The number later rose to 5,683.
In New York City between the hours of 10am and 6pm on Friday, 14 people died from coronavirus, meaning almost two people an hour died, as the total number of deaths in NYC reached 43 people.
President Trump (pictured Friday) declared New York a major disaster area Friday evening, paving the way for the state to have access to FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, as well as FEMA personnel and resources
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The National Institutes of Health Friday warned that up to 70,000 Americans could be confirmed as having coronavirus by the end of next week in 'dramatic increase' of cases, up from the current tally of more than 19,600 confirmed cases.
The emergency declaration issued Friday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides access to $42billion in aid from the Disaster Relief Fund, the New York Post reported.
FEMA will now be able to send personnel and resources to the state, as well as set up mobile coronavirus testing centers, disinfect public facilities and provide in-demand medical supplies including face masks, gloves and surgical gowns.
The declaration also allows the US military to make further assistance plans.
Pentagon officials said Friday that the US Army Corps of Engineers is preparing plans to take over as many as 10,000 hotel rooms, college dorms and other building spaces in New York State to help provide medical services and accommodate virus-related hospitalizations, according to the WSJ.
When requested by state officials and FEMA, the Corps of Engineers would make contracts with hotels, college and potential sports arenas as the first step in turning them into ICU-like medical facilities.
The military had previously said that it will be making two hospital ships and more than five million face masks, coronavirus test kits and ventilators available to regions that are most in need.
Ventilators are in huge demand across New York State.
At the Bronx's Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, a doctor told the New York Times that they only had a few ventilators left for coronavirus patients who needed them to breathe.
Meanwhile, New York-Presbyterian Queens doctor Saquib Rahim told the WSJ that an elderly patient with COVID-19 symptoms died on the floor of the hospital ward, as the number of both potential and confirmed cases multiplied over the week.
A memo sent to nurses on Thursday stated that 'Beds are needed desperately' and asked them to 'ACTIVELY participate in the Discharge planning for your patients.'
'We’ve never seen anything like this,' Dr. Rahim told the WSJ.
Face masks are also in short supply.
Doctors at Brooklyn's Kings County Hospital Center said that they were resorting to coating their masks - which were being reused for up to a week - in hand sanitizer between shifts, according to the New York Times.
Earlier in the week, an intensive care nurse at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, said nurses are being asked to re-use masks if they have only been with patients a short time - raising their risk of infection, because supplies were running so low.
'We don't want to reuse a mask that we're going to touch with our hands, our bare hands, and then go and put it back on our face when it could have the COVID virus on it,' nurse Michelle Gonzalez told CBS 2.
'We find it important that we don't reutilize these masks so that we don't put the rest of our community and our fellow co-workers at risk.'
Workers wearing protective suits carried out COVID-19 tests inside a 'Hot Zone' tent, at a state-managed coronavirus drive-through testing site that opened Thursday in Staten Island, New York
Patients wait in line outside the outdoor tent facility of The Brooklyn Hospital Center to get pre-screened for the Coronavirus on March 19
A staffer of The Brooklyn Hospital Center adjusts her face mask before entering the outdoor tent facility to pre-screen people for the Coronavirus in Brooklyn, New York on March 19
People who believe they have COVID-19, and who meet the criteria, wait in line to be pre-screened for the coronavirus outside of the Brooklyn Hospital Center on March 20
A long line of people continues to grow, outside the Coronavirus test center at Metropolitan Hospital
In a press conference on Friday, Cuomo issued a plea for medical offices to provide unused ventilators to New York hospitals as the state faces a shortage amid the pandemic.
Prior to Trump's declaration, Cuomo issued a total ban on non-essential businesses and warned there would be strict fines for any businesses that do not comply Friday.
The ban - which will impact 19.5million people - is to go into effect on Sunday evening and is indefinite.
Work forces that are excluded are grocery stores, pharmacies, certain government workers, food deliveries and restaurants, internet service providers and news organizations.
Public transportation would also continue as usual and 'for hire vehicles' were included as essential businesses which would appear to mean Ubers and Lyft will still operate. Pool rides have been stopped.
White House coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke around an hour after Cuomo's announcement to say he 'strongly supported it'.
Cuomo said he had tried to put off the order but felt he could no longer hold off as the number of cases continued to rise.
'These actions will cause businesses to close. They will cause much unhappiness. I understand that.
A look at the sparsely populated Times Square in New York City on Friday, as a screen displays a message about COVID-19
A woman wears personal protective equipment (PPE) as she rides the air-train at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on Friday
'I've spoken to my colleagues around the state, there's a spectrum of opinion. Some people say we don't need to do this, it's going to hurt the economy. Just so we're all clear - this is a state wide order.
'It's not what your county executive is doing, your mayor, it's not what anyone else but me is doing. I accept full responsibility.
'If someone is unhappy and wants to blame someone or complain about someone - blame me. There is no one else who is responsible for this decision.
'I've been in public service for many, years, managed dozens of emergencies, the philosophy that always worked is prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
'That is what we're doing. 'In 10 years, I want to be able to say I can say to the people of New York that I did everything I could do.
'This is about saving lives and everything we do saves just one life, I'll be happy. This is science and math. Watch the number and trajectory.
'You have the density control valve. If the number doesn't slow down, tighten the valve more... then close the valve. We're closing the valve.
'Everybody has personal freedom and I'll always protect that....but everybody also has a responsibility.
'We're all in quarantine now. We're all in various levels of quarantine,' he said.
Trump's declaring New York a major disaster area marks the first time in US history that a president has ever done so over a public health threat.
Major disasters are typically declared over natural disasters, including hurricanes, earthquakes and flooding.
Traffic comes to a standstill in New Jersey as thousands arrive for its first drive-up coronavirus testing facility
New Jersey's first drive-thru coronavirus testing site has been forced to turn people away after reaching full capacity just hours after opening - as health officials in full protective gear tested people in New York and some patients lined up on foot outside a Brooklyn hospital.
Hundreds of cars lined up outside New Jersey's first large-scale drive-up testing site at Bergen County Community College in Paramus from 8am on Friday.
Health officials had said the drive-up testing facility had the capacity to take in 2,500 specimens a week.
But authorities were forced to close off the entrances to the site just four hours after opening due to a surge in demand.
The line was cut off at about 1,000 cars but officials warned that even those waiting in that line may have to return another day to get tested.
Police said the testing facility would reopen as scheduled on Saturday morning.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the state would be greatly increasing its testing capabilities with the statewide total now reaching 890 on Friday.
Authorities were forced to close off the entrances to the New Jersey site just four hours after opening due the huge turnout
'To be clear: the number of positive tests is rising, in part, because of expanding capabilities from private labs. We expected these numbers, and we expect them to keep rising, in the short-term, as greater testing capabilities come online,' Gov. Murphy warned.
Meanwhile in New York, people lined up outside the Brooklyn Hospital Center on Friday to be pre-screened for coronavirus before being allowed inside the facility.
In Staten Island, health officials in full protective gear could be seen approaching vehicles at one of its drive-up testing facilities.
There are now more than 7,000 positive cases in New York state and 35 deaths. There are 4,400 confirmed cases in New York City alone.
It comes as the Obama administration's Ebola czar issued a stark warning that coronavirus cases are set to 'explode' in the US as America now reports more new daily cases of the virus as China did at the apparent peak of the outbreak there.
Ron Klain, who served as President Barack Obama's 'Ebola czar,' warned that Americans need to prepare for a massive spike in coronavirus cases and deaths over the next few weeks.
Medical staff in protective gear administer a COVID-19 test at the drive-thru testing center in New Jersey on Friday
'We're really at the inflection point here, where this disease is really going to explode in the U.S.,' Klain told Yahoo News' Skullduggery podcast on Thursday.
Meanwhile, drive-thru coronavirus testing sites are starting to pop up across the country with the government vowing to ramp up testing.
Americans with suspected coronavirus infections headed to drive-thru testing sites at hospitals, with their doctor's referral, this week where they were met by healthcare workers in protective gear who swabbed their noses through an open window.
The goal is to ramp up testing, the lack of which has been a major obstacle to understanding the extent of the pandemic, reduce pressure on emergency rooms and keep patients in cars to avoid spreading the infection.
Leading US retailers, including Walmart, Target, Walgreens and CVS pledged at a White House news conference last week to provide space for the drive-thru sites in their parking lots.
Admiral Brett Giroir of the U.S. Public Health Commission told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that drive-thru test centers were 'blossoming all over the country' but added the initiative had faced some early challenges.
The public health commission was 'really pushing equipment' to 47 centers in a dozen states, after doing a trial run on Monday with public health staff in protective gear, Giroir said.
About 140 US public health staff would be deployed to the sites along with state health workers, he said.
'We had a lot of kinks in the system, as you can expect,' he said. 'That's why we do a test before we go out into the field... They're going to be adapted to the state and the local situation, but we're very confident that these will add testing to the already very robust healthcare system.'
CVS spokesman TJ Crawford said the pharmacy chain was preparing this week to launch a pilot drive-thru testing site in the parking lot of a CVS Pharmacy in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
Initial testing would be limited to first responders and local healthcare professionals who are on the frontlines of treating the virus and preventing its spread, he said.
About 80 people had visited the drive-up testing location at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut by late Wednesday morning, according to a police officer at the entrance to the site, which had been set up in a covered parking garage.
The testing site, one of a handful established at hospitals in Connecticut, was accepting people by appointment only. Some visitors who showed up without an appointment were directed how to make one and come back later, the officer said.
A handful of other drive-thru tests at hospitals have started up in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and California.
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