Hospitals nationwide have issued pleas for protective equipment, including those in New York City, which said they only have a one-week supply left.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the distribution of medical supplies around the nation in recent weeks, even suggesting without evidence that some hospitals may be misusing protective equipment and masks as cases of the coronavirus continue to surge.
“How do you go from using 10,000 to 20,000 [masks] to 300,000?” Trump asked during a press briefing in the Rose Garden on Sunday. “Even though this is different. Something’s going on. Where are the masks going, are they going out the back door?”
The comments came as more than 139,000 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus — the highest number of cases for any nation on the planet. More than 2,300 people have died, including 1,218 in New York, which is an epicenter of the outbreak. As the number of cases continues to rise, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said on Sunday that the city had just one week’s worth of medical supplies to care for infected residents and area hospitals desperately need more ventilators. Continue reading.