Amid a state of emergency in New York and a national emergency in the U.S., N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants President Donald Trump to "localize testing, federalize shutdowns, and task the Army Corps of Engineers to expand hospital capacity."
Cuomo's callouts came in an opinion piece Sunday for The New York Times reported.
"States cannot build more hospitals, acquire ventilators, or modify facilities quickly enough," Cuomo concluded. "At this point, our best hope is to utilize the Army Corps of Engineers to leverage its expertise, equipment, and people power to retrofit and equip existing facilities — like military bases or college dormitories — to serve as temporary medical centers. Then we can designate existing hospital beds for the acutely ill.
"We believe the use of active duty Army Corps personnel would not violate federal law because this is a national disaster. Doing so still won’t provide enough intensive care beds, but it is our best hope."
Cuomo also called for deregulation – of all things to come from a Democrat, even he admits – of the FDA and CDC to expedite wide-scale coronavirus testing.
"Mr. President, you must stop the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from overregulating the testing process, and authorize states to certify a wider array of testing labs and methods," he wrote.
"Mr. Trump, don’t let bureaucracy get in the way of fighting this virus," he added. "Break the logjam, let states fully take over testing so they can unleash hundreds of labs tomorrow and bring testing to scale. It is the only way we will have a chance of keeping up with the rapid spread of this contagion."
And, as for social distancing measures, they need to become unilateral nationwide, Cuomo wrote.
To the last point, thus far President Donald Trump has advised shutdowns, closings, and travel restrictions on areas that are the most impacted by the coronavirus to date. He has yet to declare any overriding national initiates Cuomo wants.
Cuomo needs to talk to his own people. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is resisting school closures in the city, which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.