(Bloomberg) -- New York and New Jersey governors have ordered unused ventilators and other equipment to be commandeered from medical facilities and redistributed to hospitals treating coronavirus patients, aggressive measures highlighting conditions that are increasingly dire.
The move came as officials from New York began to warn that the health system was nearing its capacity to handle the waves of patients, with possibly just days until it reaches the limits of ventilators and hospital beds. New Jersey, which has the second-highest rate of infections and is tracking New York’s pace, is trying to get ahead of the curve and avoid the dire fate of its neighbor.
New York and its suburbs have the nation’s most intense concentrations of infection and leaders have been vocal for weeks about their need for equipment. Doctors, nurses and paramedics have been entering wards in improvised gear, including garbage bags and rain ponchos. The last-ditch searches for supplies show what may be coming to the rest of America as the disease spreads.
On Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced dispiriting data showing more than 10,000 new infections in one day, bringing the total to more than 100,000 New Yorkers. New Jersey neared 30,000 total cases, as Governor Phil Murphy said he had officials “around the world” looking for equipment to purchase.
“I don’t want to get into a situation where we’re running out, you have people dying because there’s no ventilator, but there are hospitals in other parts of state that have ventilators that they’re not using,” Cuomo said. “I’m not going to let people die because we didn’t distribute ventilators.”
Desperate Measures
Cuomo said he has exhausted all options to get supplies, and believes the federal government doesn’t have enough inventory. Already, the state has begun converting other machines for anesthesia or sleep apnea to ventilators, and reconfiguring existing ventilators so two patients can use one at once.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio similarly said the city’s health system was reaching a point where patients could begin to die because of a lack of equipment and beds.
Coronavirus deaths in New York are approaching 3,000, with Friday’s addition of 562 the worst day so far. New Jersey reported 646 total deaths, up sixfold from a week ago. Combined, the two states comprise half of all Covid-19 cases in the U.S.
In New York City, the public and private hospital system already is overstressed by thousands of patients, many requiring ventilators. The city has at least 7,500 such machines, but needs 15,000, officials have said. They expect 5,000 or more patients surging into hospitals so severely ill with the Covid-19 virus that they need to be intubated and placed on the breathing-assist devices.
“We have enough ventilators just to get to Sunday, Monday,” the mayor said during a Friday morning interview on MSNBC. “We don’t have enough yet for next week.”
Buying Time
Cuomo told reporters in Albany that redistributing ventilators might free several hundred of the devices. With a so-called burn rate in which about 300 new patients require ventilators each day, it could perhaps buy one or a few extra days.
An emergency hospital in New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center -- which was originally intended to handle overflow of non-coronavirus patients -- will instead be used to exclusively treat virus victims. The move will add 2,500 beds.
Still, the rate of hospitalizations raises questions about how much time that might ultimately buy. More than 1,400 new patients across New York required hospitalization since Thursday.
The number of people hospitalized from Covid-19 reached 14,810 on Friday, with 3,731 ICU patients who need ventilators. One week ago, New York had 6,000 in hospitals and 1,500 in ICU. The apex of the crisis could still be weeks away, officials have said.
“People are going to die in the near term because there’s no bed with a ventilator, because there’s either no bed, or no staff” or no protective equipment such as masks, gowns and gloves, Cuomo said.
Broken Machines
In New Jersey, about 41% of the 3,016 hospitalized coronavirus patients are on ventilators, according to Judith Persichilli, the state health commissioner. The state is building pop-up hospitals to add 1,000 beds.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Murphy said.
New Jersey requested 2,500 ventilators last week from the federal government, and has received 850. Murphy said he had a “very productive conversation this morning with Kellyanne Conway,” senior adviser to President Donald Trump.
“Whether or not we’re getting what we need is a separate matter,” he said.
The state has spent about $20 million of the $27 million authorized for personal protective equipment by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to state police Superintendent Patrick Callahan.
Ventilators from the federal stockpile arrive in sealed, sanitized packages, and they’re not opened until they reach their destination. Fourteen sent to two hospitals had missing parts or were malfunctioning; a half-dozen of those were repaired, Callahan said.
Global Hunt
State officials were looking in Germany, Taiwan and China to buy equipment from private suppliers. Murphy said he has resisted orders “at prices jacked up through the roof” and multiple solicitations to pay $1 million upfront for materials that may not exist.
Murphy said a mask shipment from Japan is expected by mid-April, and Callahan said the typical wait for glove orders is four to six weeks. The state has been conducting inventory of every ventilator, mask and gown, and Murphy this week gave Callahan authority to collect them, though he hasn’t tapped that source yet.
Cuomo is deploying the National Guard to take the equipment from health centers and private companies that aren’t using them. He said there could be several hundred available.
The governor said the order wasn’t a seizure, but rather a “sharing of resources.” He expected his order to survive legal challenge, and said the equipment would eventually be returned or the owner would be reimbursed.
“It’s about doing the right thing,” Cuomo said.
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