best we can. we just worry what s going to happen with another 30, 40, 50,000 patients showing up on our hospital s door. reporter: the sick are coming so fast, the city could need 5,000 care beds by next week. michael dowling runs 23 new york area hospital where s one out of every four covid patients is in intensive care. every hospital right now is a covid hospital. every hospital is unbelievably ousy and preparing to get busier because the numbers keep escalating. ew new york is in crisis. reporter: today, governor ordersigned an executive order to to transfer ventilators from facilities not using them to overwhelmed hospitals, even using the national guard, if needed. eded.m not going to let people i m not going to let people die be die because we didn t redistribute ventilators. reporter: more beds are coming online now. the city s largest convention center turned 2,500-bed field hospital will now be coronavirus ctients only. and the u.s.n.s. comfort is loosening rules
we re told the comfort tonight has fewer than five patients, again, none of whom are coronavirus patients. the defense secretary said today in washington that that could change, that if calls upon that hospital ship would be willing and able to take people with coronavirus. but so far it s not. a source familiar with the situation tells us, the reason for that is because the federal government is not allowing coronavirus patients to be admitted to javits or the comfort. the hospitals and state and local governments are ready to go, but it is the federal government that thus far has been saying no. all is this makes you wonder, is new york city getting the help it needs? new york city is obviously getting a bunch of help, but is it getting the right kind of help? and if they re asking for these trally built facilities and federally floating facilities to be coronavirus facilities, why has the federal government thus far said no to them when they have said yes to other cities who ha
seen it coming. the 12th of april is an at least date and many people expected to be extended for longer. it will depend on what happens with these rates of infection. thank you very much, jean mckenzie, in rome. president trump has said that america faces a vital 30 days in the fight against coronavirus, and suggested that social distancing could save up to a million lives. health services in new york have been overwhelmed by the number of cases with more than 1200 deaths. the state governor has appealed for medical staff from anywhere in the us to come to their aid. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports. a symbol of wartime and a morale booster for new york, this military medical ship docked in manhattan will provide relief to the city s hospitals overwhelmed by covid 19. the us navy ship, comfort, has space for 1,000 beds. it will be used by non coronavirus patients, while shorebased hospitals focus on the pandemic.
steve: a fox news alert more than three-quarters of the american population now under stay at home orders. thirty-one states pictured there plus the district of columbia and puerto rico demanding people not go out unless it is essential. at least 10 states and d.c. are even threatening jail time or fines if the order is violated. ainsley: right now there are more than 164,000 coronavirus cases nationwide, more than 3,000 people have died, but here is the good news, the number of recovered americans is numbering 6,000 that number jumping by more than 1,000 in the last 24 hours. brian: what a 24 hours, meanwhile, new york welcoming the usns comfort to help relieve healthcare workers in the pandemic center, but take a look at hundreds of people, from
are very serious about us hunkering down in place. that s one of the reasons the president yesterday said rather than talking about the number of lives lost, he said we could save more than 1 million american lives. and that is a good thing. meanwhile, in just a couple of hours. the usns comfort will begin serving america s covid-19 epicenter which is new york city, ainsley. ainsley: that s right. 1200 medical personnel will serve non-coronavirus patients. free up space at our city hospitals grappling with a skyrocketing number of covid-19 cases. brian: here is what is good about it. 1,000 beds on board the comfort with 80 intensive care beds and operating rooms come with doctors. people in new york appearing to ignore social distancing to get a glimpse of its arrival. you can understand that they are excited. they also know help is on the way. they showed up and got people upset around the country and then the cops had to come and break it all up.