Let me take you through some facts today because we have some new facts, changes in circumstances that are not encouraging. I want to make sure people understand them and we react accordingly. The increase in the number of cases continues unabated. As a matter of fact, the rate of increase has gone up. We have the most sophisticated people you can get doing projections on this. Theyve been studying projections from china, south korea, italy, places all across this country. And what theyre now seeing is the rate of cases, the rate of new infections is doubling about every three days. That is a dramatic increase in the rate of infection. And this whole discussion all along has been how fast does the rate of increase spread and can we slow the rate of increase. Were not slowing it, and it is accelerating on its own. One of the forecasters said to me, we were looking at a Freight Train coming across the country. Were now looking at a bullet train because the numbers are going up that quickly. And the most challenging point about the increasing numbers is where the numbers will apex. What is the high point of the numbers. And the apex is the point where we have to be able to manage the capacity. We projected the apex at about 110,000 hospital beds. Thats the number ive been talking about. The new projection suggests that the number of hospital beds needed could be as high as 140,000 hospital beds. So flatten the, flatten the curve. We havent flattened the curve, and the curve is actually increasing. That means the number of hospital beds, which is at 53,000 beds, 3,000 icu beds, the anticipated need now for the height of the curve is 140,000 hospital beds and approximately 40,000 intensive care unit beds. Those are troubling and astronomical numbers. As i mentioned, theyre higher numbers than had previously been projected. We are exercising all options as aggressively as we can. That rate of increase, that apex, they project at this time could be approximately 14 to 21 days away. So not only do we have a spike in the increase, when you spike the increase in case, it accelerates the apex to a point where it could be as close as 14 to 21 days. Were exercising all options, doing everything we can on every level to, quote, unquote, slow the spread, flatten the curve. Weve closed businesses, reduced street density. We had an issue in new york city. I spoke to mayor de blasio and cory johnson. Well have a plan i believe will be in place by noon today. We have increased testing to the highest level in the United States and the highest per capita level on the globe. No one is testing more than we are testing. So in many ways, we have exhausted every option available to us. Weve closed all the businesses. Weve reduced the street density, and weve increased testing to the highest level in the country. Were also trying all the new drug therapies, the hydroxychloroquine which the president speaks about and is optimistic about. Were hoping for optimistic results. Were actually starting that today. The president and the fda accelerated that drug coming to new york. So the hospitals will start using that drug today. The fda also authorized an experimental procedure by the new York State Department of health where we the department of health actually takes plasma from people who are infected, who have the antibodies and will try putting that plasma into a person who is still struggling with the disease, hoping that the antibodies make a difference. Were also pursuing a new level of testing which will test peoples blood to see if they have antibodies for the coronavirus which means they may have been infected and resolved and never knew it. But if you had the coronavirus and resolved, you now have an immunity to the coronavirus for some period of time. Most experts suggest its a significant amount of time. That would be very important for us to know because these are then Health Care Workers who could go back to work. These are workers who could return back to the private sector. But the inescapable conclusion is that the rate of infection is going up, its speaking. The apex is higher than we thought, and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of fac facts. So slow the spread, well still keep doing everything we can. Its clear we must dramatically increase the Hospital Capacity to meet that highest apex. We have to do it very quickly. Again, the apex could be here in as little as 14 to 21 days. Talking about a very significant logistical Operational Movement to increase that number of hospital beds and do everything you need to do related to the increase in hospital beds. There are three elements that are necessary to increase the Hospital Capacity. First are obviously the availability of the beds. A bed without staff is virtually useless, and a bed and a staff without the right equipment is virtually useless. So you have to complete all three at the same time. As farr as beds, we have told to the hospitals im going to speak to every Hospital Administrator today. Hospitals must increase their capacity by 50 . The goal is to ask them to try to increase it by 100 . Remember we have 53,000 beds. We need 140,000 beds. Even if they did increase it by 100 , youd only be at about 100,000 beds. You need 140,000 beds. Emergency hospitals like the 1,000bed facility thats being built here will be helpful. The Emergency Hospitals were building in westbury and stony brook and the Westchester Convention Center will be helpful. Theyre nowhere near the number of beds were going to need. I have no problem using our dormitories, our cuny and suny state campuses. Im speaking to hotel owners about taking over their hotels to put patients in. I will turn this state upside down to get the number of beds we need. But we need the staff for those be beds. Were calling and contacting all retirees in the health care field, calling all professionals in the health care field, whether or not they work in a hospital. They can work in an insurance company, a clinic or whatever, but we want to enlist as many staff as we can and as many backup staff because Health Care Workers are going to get sick. This is going to go on for weeks. You cant ask a person to work for 14 days consecutive or aroundtheclock shift. Well need a backup reserve staff. Equipment, equipment, equipment, masks, ppes and ventilators. Of those three, the greatest critical need are ventilators. Ventilators you say ventilators, nobody really knows what youre talking about. The people who are going to come in, people with acute needs, these are people who are under respiratory distress. They need a ventilator. The ventilator will make the difference between life and death literally for these peo e people. This is a piece of equipment that in the normal course of business you dont have a need for high levels of ventilators. Our Hospital System has about 3,000 or 4,000 that has always met the need. This is a dramatic increase in the number of ventilators you need. We have been working around the clock, scouring the globe. Weve procured about 7,000 ventilators. We need at a minimum an additional 30,000 ventilators. You cannot buy them. You cannot find them. Every state is trying to get them. Other countries are trying to get them. The capacity is limited. Theyre technical pieces of equipment. Not manufactured in two days, four days, seven days or ten days. This is a critical and desperate need for ventilators. Were going so far as trying an experimental procedure where we split the ventilator. We use one ventilator for two patien patients. Its difficult to perform, its experimental. At this point we have no alternative. Were working on this experimental application. Picture two hospital beds, two people in beds, one ventilator between the two of them, but with two sets of tubes, two sets of pipes going to the two patients. Again, its experimental. But necessity is the mother of invention, and we are working on this as we speak because life has options and we dont have any other options. There is no other way for us to get these ventilate eors. Weve tried everything else. The only way we can obtain these ventilators is from the federal government, period. Theres two ways the federal government can do it. One is to use the federal production act. The federal government can say to manufacturers you must produce this product. I understand the federal governments point that Many Companies have come forward and said we want to help and General Motors and ford and people are willing to get into the ventilator business. It does us no good if they start to create a ventilator in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks. Were looking at an apex of 14 days. If we dont have the ventilators in 14 days, it does us no good. The federal defense procurement act can actually help companies because the federal government can say, i need you to go into this business, i will contract with you today for x number of ventilators. Here is the startup capital you need, the startup capital you need to hire workers to do it around the clock, but i need the ventilators in 14 days. Only the federal government has that power. And not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me. Volunteerism is nice and it is a beautiful thing. Its nice that these companies are coming forward and saying they want to help. That is not going to get us there. And i do not for the life of me understand the reluctance to use the federal defense production act. Also, the federal government has 20,000 ventilators or thereabouts in the federal stockpile. Secretary azhar runs an agency called hhs health and human services. I asked the secretary, look at the first word in the title of the agency you run. It is health. Your First Priority is health. You have 20,000 ventilators in the stockpile. Release the ventilators to new york. How can we be in a situation where you can have new yorkers possibly dying because they cant get a ventilator, but a federal agency saying im going to leave the ventilators in the stockpile . Have we really come to that point . Also, we have to be smarter about the way this is being done. The federal government has to prioritize the resources. Look at where the problems are across this nation. California has 2,800 cases, Washington State, 2,200 cases, florida, 1,200 cases, massachusetts, 800 cases. New york has 25,000 cases, 25,000 cases. It has ten times the problem that california has, ten times the problem that Washington State has. You prioritize resources and your activity and your actions to where they are needed. And new york, you are looking at a problem that is of a totally different magnitude and dimension. The problem is the volume. Dealing with 2,000 cases is one thing. 2,000 cases frankly we could deal with in this building with the capacity that were providing. We have 25,000 cases. We need the federal help and we need the federal help now. Also, there is a smart way to do this. Deploy the ventilators around the country as they are needed. Different regions have different curves of the infection. New york is the canary in the coal mine. New york is going first. We have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. What happens to new york is going to wind up happening to california and Washington State and illinois. Its just a matter of time. Were just getting there first. Deal with the issue here. Deploy the resources. Deploy the ventilators here in new york for our apex and then after the apex passes here, once were past that critical point, deploy the ventilators to the other parts of the country where they are needed. Im not asking for 20,000 ventilators and they stay in new york and they live in new york and change their residence. As soon as we finish with the ventilators, then you move them to the next part of the country that has the critical problem. And then after that region hits its apex, then you move to the next part of the country that has its critical problems. I will take personal responsibility for transporting the 20,000 ventilators anywhere in this country that they want once we are past our apex. But dont leave them sitting in a stockpile and say, well, were going to wait to see how we allocate them across the country. Thats not how this works. Theyre not simultaneous apexes. They are a curve that is individual to that region. Deploy to that region, address that region, and then move on to the next. Im not only talking about ventilators. We get past the apex, we get over that curve. That curve starts to come down. We get to a level where we can handle it. Ill send ventilators. Ill send Health Care Workers. Ill send our professionals who dealt with it and who know all around the country. Thats how this should be done. You know its going to be on a different calendar, going to be a different sequence. Lets help each other. New york, because new york is first, and after new york and after the curve breaks in new york, lets all rush to whoever is second and lets rush to whoever is third. And lets learn from each other and help each other. Im going to make a point on the president s point about the economy and Public Health. I understand what the president is saying, this is unsustainable that we close down the economy and we continue to spend money. There is no doubt about that. No one is going to argue about that. But if you ask the American People to choose between Public Health and the economy, then its no contest. No american is going to say accelerate the economy at the cost of human life because no american is going to say how much a life is worth. Job one has to be save lives. That has to be the priority. Theres a smarter approach to this. We dont have to choose between the two. You can develop a more refined Public Health strategy that is also an economic strategy. What do i mean by that . Our Public Health strategy was a blunt instrument. What we said at a moment of crisis is isolate everyone. Close the schools, close the colleges, send everyone home, isolate everybody in their home. In truth, that was not the most refined public strategy. Why . Because it wasnt even smart, frankly, to isolate younger people with older people. But at that moment, we didnt have the knowledge. We needed to act. Thats what we did. You can ask now to refine that Public Health strategy. You can say, look, the lower risk individuals do not need to be quarantined,shldnt be quaran older person who they may be transferring it to. People who are recovered, you test them, you test the antibodies, you find out that they resolved themselves of the virus, and i believe once we get that test, youre going to find hundreds of thousands of people who have had the coronavirus and resolved. Once theyre resolved, they can go back to work. Develop that test. Its in testing now. Once theyre resolved, let them go back to work. Let the younger people go back to work, let the recovered people go back to work. Its even better for the older, Vulnerable People who youre trying to protect. And then ramp up the economy with those individuals. So youre refining your Public Health strategy, and at the same time youre restarting your economy. Those two can be consistent if done intelligently. Restart the economy with our younger recovered tested workers. Dont make us choose between a smart Health Strategy and a smart economic strategy. We can do both, and we must do both. Its not the economy or Public Health. Its restarting the economy and protecting Public Health. It is both. But i understand restarting the economy. The crisis today. Focus on the crisis at hand. Focus on the looming wave of cases that is about to break in 14 days. That has to be the priority, and that is Hospital Capacity. Thats about providing hospital beds, providing staff, providing equipment and providing ppe and providing ventilators, coming back to that number of 30,000, and needing federal action to address it now. If the federal government said today i will deploy all 20,000 ventilators, it will take us two weeks to get those ventilators into hospitals and to create icu beds and to locate the staff so there is no time to waste. The time to do this is now. Fema is sending us 400 ventilators. That was on the news this morning. Were sending 400 ventilators to new york. 400 ventilators . I need 30,000 ventilators. You want a pat on the back for sending 40 o 0 ventilators. What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators . Youre missing the magnitude of the problem and the problem is defined by the magnitude. Thighs are the numbers today. The testing rate, over 90,000 people tested, the highest rate of testing in the country per capita on the globe. We did 12,000 new tests since yesterd yesterday. Number of positive cases, state of new york, 25,665, 4,700 new cases of those tested. You see the entire state county by county, more and more counties are being covered. We have 3,000 people currently who are hospitalized. We have 756 people in icu units. Those are the ventilated units. Thats 23 of the hospitalizations. Thats the problem. As the number of cases go up, the number of people in hospital beds goes up, the number of people who need an icu bed and ventilator goes up, and we cannot address that increasing curve. Again, you look at the number of cases in the country, youll see that new york is an outlier in the number of cases. Its not even close. What is happening in new york is not a new york phenomenon. People in new york dont have a different immune system than other americans. Its not higher in new york because we are new yorkers. Its higher in new york because it started here first, because we have Global Travelers coming here first, because we have more density than most places, but you will see this in cities all across the country and in suburban communities all across the country. Weve just the test case. Were just a test case. Thats how the nation should look at it. Look at us today. Where we are today you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. We are your future