NYC To Stockpile Ventilators, PPE For Future Coronavirus Outbreak

NEW YORK, NY — New York City will make moves to stockpile an emergency reserve of equipment such as ventilators, surgical gowns, face shields and testing kits to better prepare for a second outbreak of the new coronavirus or another viral infection in the future, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

New York City's particularly devastating outbreak of the virus — 9,101 confirmed deaths and 4,582 probable deaths among 132,467 total cases as of April 20 — has revealed the city's vulnerability to viral infections, de Blasio said. The outbreak also showed that New York cannot rely on the federal government or competing on the "global market" to acquire needed equipment on a timely basis.

"When we called for our federal government to help us sometimes we got an answer, sometimes we didn't. When we went out on the open market — internationally even — trying to find the things we needed to protect our people sometimes they were there a lot of the times they weren't. So what we're seeing right now are the profound limits," de Blasio said Tuesday.

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In order to stockpile the vital equipment needed during an outbreak the city will both bolster local production and make supply orders. During his Tuesday press briefing, the mayor announced a $10 million order for 3,000 locally-produced "bridge ventilators," which can keep patients alive while they await a full-service ventilator or treat less severe cases that may not require a full ventilator. The bridge ventilators would have been ready to deploy on April 6 should the city have run out of ventilators, but will now be distributed to local hospitals for stockpiling, de Blasio said.

"Even though it feels like this has been going on for months and months, it's only been six or seven weeks we've been in the thick of this. What's happened in those six or seven weeks has been remarkable — New Yorkers creating products that we didn't make here at all, New Yorkers coming together to protect our heroes, our healthcare workers, our first responders," de Blasio said.

The mayor also cited initiatives to manufacture face shields and surgical gowns — which are still in high demand among New York City hospitals — at facilities such as the Brooklyn Navy Yard as examples of the city's growing level of self-sufficiency in fighting the new coronavirus.

In announcing New York's efforts to create a stockpile, de Blasio took several veiled— and some unveiled — shots at President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis.

"Now we have a New Yorker in the White House who is unfortunately putting and exclamation point on the idea that the federal government is no longer reliable when it comes to protecting everyday Americans — and no place is bearing the brunt of that neglect more than New York City," de Blasio said.

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