In the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Were following breaking news. Were standing by for a White House Briefing on the coronavirus pandemic. Well have live coverage. Just a little while ago President Trump invoked the defense production act, for the first time requiring General Motors to produce ventilators to deal with the increasing number of hospitalizations. The u. S. Leads the world in the number of cases, close to 100,000 and more than 1,500 deaths. Worldwide, more than 586,000 cases in about 150 countries and almost 27,000 deaths. Also tonight there is growing concern about emerging outbreaks in major American Cities including detroit, new orleans, chicago, miami, dallas, atlanta, and philadelphia. Our National Correspondent erica hill begins our coverage this hour from new york. Erica, first of all, california is also now reporting a very significant number of new cases. Reporter yes, a sharp surge, wolf, up 26 in just 24 hours. Calif
Down. We had broken system there. The ventilators are the most we had a broken system in the important thing for patients who stockpile. We had a lot of broken systems. Become seriously ill. Im not just blaming president they are literally the lifeline obama. You go long before that. For people. I personally been working with in all fairness to all the former president s, none of them fema and ive been working with ever thought a thing like this hhs and over ten ventilators could happen. We have right now 10,000 Companies Making sure we can get what we need as quickly as ventilators in stockpile. Were ready to go. Possible. What we dont want is where we distribute them like we did in new york and they didnt need them or they didnt know or we we did have a problem with gm didnt use them. If we need them in new york, well have plenty. And ventech. Were getting a lot in the short we had ford and ge moving period of time. Forward. Moving as fast as possible over we went all the companies.