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China, Oregon pledge to send ventilators to New York to fight COVID-19

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that China and Oregon have each pledged to send ventilators to New York to help care for patients with COVID-19.  Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that China and Oregon have each pledged to send ventilators to New York to help care for patients with COVID-19.  Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

April 4 (UPI) -- China and Oregon have both promised to send ventilators to New York to help the state fight an outbreak of the novel coronavirus as the number of cases and deaths in the state climbed upward, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday. .

Cuomo and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown both tweeted Saturday morning that Oregon has promised to send 140 ventilators to New York, which has more than 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

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China also has promised New York 1,000 ventilators, Cuomo added. While he praised the donation -- which was facilitated by Chinese Ambassador Huang Ping, Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai and Jack Ma, who owns the Chinese technology company Albibaba -- he also said a previous order to China for 17,000 ventilators never materialized.

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By Saturday morning New York had recorded more than 100,000 cases of the virus and 2,935 deaths.

Of those sickened by the virus in New York, 15,000 are hospitalized and 4,100 are in intensive care, most needing ventilators. Officials believe the state's outbreak will peak in about seven days.

"By the numbers, we're not yet at the apex. We're getting closer," Cuomo said. "I want to get to the other side of the apex, and let's just slide down that mountain."

Brown said Oregon pledged the ventilators because the state "is in a better position right now," with 999 confirmed cases and 26 deaths as of Saturday evening.

President Donald Trump, vice president Mike Pence and White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx all praised Brown's decision to ship the ventilators at a press briefing Saturday. Pence said it "was in the very highest American tradition of loving your neighbor."

The White House's coronavirus task force said the next two weeks will be difficult as the number of positive cases increases, in part due to expanded testing efforts and in part due to the highly contagious nature of the disease.

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"This will really probably be the toughest week between this week and next week and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately," Trump said.

Members of the president's task force, including Birx and Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, stressed that members of the public need to continue social distancing to whatever extent they can.

"Mitigation works. It does. We've seen it in every country. We've seen it in our country," Fauci said.

Trump stressed that mitigation is working, but also talked about "opening the country back up," though he declined to give specifics on a date restrictions may be lifted. He also declined to condemn the eight remaining governors who have not issued stay-at-home orders.

Previously Trump talked about ending stay-at-home orders by Easter, which falls on April 12 this year. On Saturday said he would likely watch Easter and Palm Sunday services online.

Meanwhile, two passengers aboard the Coral Princess Ship, which reported 12 cases of novel coronavirus Thursday, were reported dead Saturday morning as the ship docked in Port Miami.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giminez said two passengers were taken from the ship to a local hospital and two others were sent to Tampa for treatment.

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