Trump: 1,000 Medical Military Personnel To Deploy To New York City

President Trump on Saturday said he is deploying 1,000 additional military personnel to New York City to help the city fight the coronavirus crisis.

“At my direction, 1,000 military personnel are deploying to New York City to assist where they’re needed the most,” Trump said at Saturday’s White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing. “That’s the hottest of all the hot spots.”

Personnel that will be deployed are doctors, nurses, and respiratory specialists, Trump announced, adding they will be sent Sunday and Monday to New York, “where they’re needed most.”

“We are getting doctors, nurses, respiratory specialists and other support workers,” Trump stated. “These are from the military. We are taking people out of our military. We have been doing it and now we are doing it on a larger basis.”

“They’re going into war,” Trump added. “They’re going into a battle that they’ve never really trained for.”

Defense Secretary Mark Esper would provide more details about the deployments on Sunday, Trump said.

Trump said there has “never been anything like” what New York is now experiencing, and that more medical personnel could be sent to the city in the future.

“We will move heaven and earth to safeguard our great American citizens,” he said. “We will continue to use every power to keep our people healthy and secure.”

New York is the epicenter of the United States coronavirus outbreak, paralyzing a city famous for never standing or sleeping. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) said in Saturday press conference New York recorded a total of 113,704 confirmed cases. He also reported 10,841 new coronavirus cases since Friday, a record one-day jump, with 15,905 people in the hospital and 4,126 in the ICU. A total of 3,565 people in New York have died, with 640 of those death recorded on Friday due to the Coronavirus.

In New York City, 305 new deaths were reported on Friday, bringing the city’s death toll to at least 1,867. The city has confirmed at least 57,159 cases, a half of all the cases in the state with more than 11,730 people are hospitalized across the five boroughs.

The governor said the state is expected to hit the apex of new cases somewhere between four to eight days and is doing as much as it can to prepare.

“By the numbers, we’re not yet at the apex. We’re getting close,” Cuomo said. “Part of me would like to be at the apex, and just, let’s do it, but there’s part of me that says it’s good that we’re not at the apex because we’re not yet ready for the apex, either. We’re not yet ready for the high point. The more time we have to improve the capacity, the better, and the capacity of the health care system, beds, staff, equipment.”

Cuomo also said New York will be getting 1,000 ventilators from China and were expected to arrive Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The Chinese government facilitated the effort connected to Alibaba, the massive online retailer in China.