Never fear,a hospital is near.
President Donald Trump addressed the nation today again in response to Covid-19. In addition to the information provided he says that the U.S. in making strides to contain the virus but that the quarantine will last until at least April 30th as opposed to Easter as he stated in prior days.
When speaking of the shortage of face masks, the president says that there is a machine with the ability to sanitize and sterilize face masks, making them reusable up to 20 times each. Two machines are reportedly already in Ohio while at least one machine is on the way to treatment centers in New York City, Seattle Washington and Washington D.C.
Governors in each state have been ordered to implement a plan to collect detailed data from it's states healthcare system. Beginning April 1, hospitals are ordered to report details on ICU occupancy, total hospital occupancy, medical supply stock and ventilator usage on a daily basis. This information is necessary in order to update national statistics. Teams will be organized to collect and pass-on the information in detail.
President Trump also praised the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers for the swift construction of a makeshift hospital in New York. Completed in just 3-4 days, the hospital is equipped with 2900 beds and may possibly add more. President Trump announced more temporary hospitals to come citing the availability of a 600 bed nursing home facility in Brooklyn and “numerous floors of a high rise building” on Wall Street being made available.
U.S Navy ship "Comfort" has arrived in New York, hosting 1000 hospital beds and 12 operating rooms. The ship known as "the floating hospital" has been used multiple times in humanitarian efforts including hurricane and earthquake relief. The ship will service non-Coronavirus patients in effort to free up room and relieve tension at local hospitals.
Responding to a reporter that inquired about the current state of the economy, President Trump says that his focus is on saving lives, not the economy. “We basically shut down our entire country and the economy will bounce back fast and be stronger.”
Another reporter asked if GPS tracking of phones should be used to identify people who aren't practicing “social distancing.” President Trump called that idea “extreme” and asked the reporter if she thought alarms should sound when people got to close.
