National Guard to deploy against coronavirus in NY, California, Washington
WASHINGTON, D.C. (ABC News) – The National Guard will be deployed to assist in the fight against the coronavirus in the hard-hit states of New York, California and Washington, President Donald Trump announced.
The move, announced at Sunday evening’s briefing of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, will include delivery of medical supplies and the establishment of medical stations in those states.
“The federal government will be funding 100% of the cost to deploy National Guard units to carry out approved missions to stop the virus while those governors remain in command,” Trump said. “I spoke with all three of the governors today, just a little while ago, they’re very happy with what we’re doing.”
In addition, Trump said, “I directed FEMA to supply the following: Four large medical stations with 1,000 beds for New York, eight large federal medical stations with 2,000 beds for California. and three large federal medical stations and four small federal medical stations with 1,000 beds for the state of Washington.”
Pete Gaynor of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said that medical supplies, including personal protective equipment, will be arriving in the affected states within 42 hours.
Also at the briefing, officials urged that testing be prioritized toward the neediest cases.
“We want people that have been checked into a hospital, that are being treated for what they expect to be coronavirus, to receive those tests more quickly.,” said Vice President Mike Pence.
Members of the task force said that at least 254,000 Americans have been tested for COVID-19, with at least 30,000 of those — 11.8% — testing positive.
According to commercial testing labs, the U.S. should be caught up on the backlog in testing by midweek, officials said.
The number of novel coronavirus cases around the world has reached at least 335,974 with Italy and the United States behind China as the countries with the most cases of COVID-19 infections, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
The number of U.S. cases has surpassed 31,000, and as the number rises, some states are acting quickly by ordering variations of stay-at-home orders for residents. Oregon issued such an order on Friday night, joining states that include California, Illinois and New York.
The respiratory virus, known officially as COVID-19, has reached every continent except Antarctica, and every state in America since emerging in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.
Globally, there are at least 14,356 coronavirus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. More than 95,000 people have recovered worldwide.
