Mayor de Blasio denies there’s a protective gear shortage for health care workers
Mayor Bill de Blasio insisted Friday there’s no shortage of protective gear for Big Apple health care workers as he dismissed a New York Post front page showing nurses wearing garbage bags — claiming they did so out of “fear.”
“There’s a lot of fear,” de Blasio told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America” when the host showed him a copy of The Post. “I don’t blame any health care professional. Look what they’re having to deal with.”
The mayor continued: “The truth is we have again the supplies for this week and next. We have to make sure every hospital is getting them to their extraordinary, heroic medical personnel — the nurses and doctors, everyone in those hospitals because supplies are here.”
“We got to make sure everyone gets them when they need them,” he said.
Nurses at Mount Sinai West, near Columbus Circle, told The Post they resorted to wearing the trash bags because of a lack of protective gowns.
A second nurse noted that the hospital wouldn’t be asking for donations of personal protective equipment if there weren’t a shortage. Sinai president Dr. Evan Flatow claimed his workforce was adequately protected.
Also Friday, de Blasio called out President Trump for downplaying the number of ventilators New York needs to get through the pandemic.
“When the president said the state of New York doesn’t need 30,000 ventilators, with all due respect, he’s not looking at the facts of the astronomical growth of this crisis. And a ventilator, George, means someone lives or dies. It’s as simple as that,” de Blasio told Stephanopoulos.
There were 1,239 new COVID-19 cases in an eight-hour period Thursday, bringing citywide totals to 23,112 infected people and 365 deaths as of Thursday evening.
On top of the 30,000 for the state, the city needs another 15,000 ventilators, de Blasio said.
The mayor said he expects New York City’s lockdown to continue through May.
“This idea of Easter is unfortunately a false hope,” de Blasio said, dismissing Trump’s hope that the country will get back to work next month.