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New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo has fervently appealed for more urgent medical volunteers as rise in deaths due to coronavirus ravages the city. “Please come help us in New York now,” Cuomo said as the state’s death toll climbed by more than 250 in a single day to a total of more than 1,200 victims, most of them in the city. He said an additional 1 million health care workers are needed to tackle the crisis.
“We’ve lost over 1,000 New Yorkers,” Cuomo said in a report by AP . “To me, we’re beyond staggering already. We’ve reached staggering.” He had earlier tweeted his resolve to fight COVID- 19
We are going to fight every way we can to save every life that we can.
That’s what it means to be an American and that’s what it means to be a New Yorker. pic.twitter.com/1cREWGx9t9
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 25, 2020
Even before the governor’s appeal, close to 80,000 former nurses, doctors and other professionals in New York were stepping up to volunteer, and a Navy hospital ship, also sent to the city after 9/11, had arrived with 1,000 beds to relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospitals.
“Whatever it is that they need, I’m willing to do,” said Jerry Kops, a musician and former nurse whose tour with the show Blue Man Group was abruptly halted by the outbreak.
