
Shocking footage has revealed the chaos inside New York hospitals, with desperate doctors begging for more ventilators and medical equipment to help them tackle the growing crisis as the city's death toll surged past 1,000 on Tuesday and the total US coronavirus death toll hit 4,000.

New York state recorded 76,049 confirmed coronavirus cases by the end of Tuesday and 1,550 people have died from the killer disease.

In New York City alone, there have been 1,096 deaths and 43,119 cases - with 182 more deaths in the last day.

Among its overwhelmed hospitals is the Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn where patients line the hallways in their beds and doctors are struggling to keep up with their needs.

The 370-bed hospital has already reached full capacity. One desperate doctor told CBS2 that the hospital had become a 'medical warzone'.

'Well, this is a warzone, a medical warzone,' said Dr. Arabia Mollette, who works in the emergency room. Every day I come, what I see on a daily basis is pain, despair, suffering and healthcare disparities.'

Shocking footage has revealed the chaos inside New York hospitals, with desperate doctors begging for more ventilators and medical equipment to help them tackle the growing crisis

Harrowing footage taken from inside Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York City, shows healthcare workers and medical resources buckling under the strain of the pandemic

New Yorkers struck down by the deadly virus were seen lying on beds in the hospital corridors

Mollette said that the hospital had faced an influx of more than 100 confirmed coronavirus patients and 70 other possible cases.

They are struggling to cope with the demand, she said, pleading for more ventilators and protective equipment.

'We need prayer, we need support, we need gowns, we need gloves, we need masks, we need more vents, we need more medical space,' she said.

Mollette also warned of the toll that working on the frontline is taking on medical staff.

'We need psycho-social support as well. It's not easy coming in here when you know that's what you're getting ready to face,' she said.

The morgue at Brookdale Hospital has also reached capacity, meaning the pandemic's victims are now being placed into a refrigerated trailer outside the facility.

Mollette said she had seen many people die from the virus and warned Americans that no one is safe.

'This virus sees no difference,' she said. 'It has nothing to do with age, has nothing to do with access to healthcare, has nothing to do with socio-economics, race or ethnicity. This virus is killing a lot of people.'

The plea from doctors for more equipment comes as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly urged Trump to send more ventilators to the state, where the coronavirus numbers now dwarf other US states.

The 370-bed hospital has already reached full capacity and has been described as a 'medical warzone'

Doctors wearing masks and protective equipment are pictured amid warnings that hospitals are running out of supplies

Dr. Arabia Mollette (above), who works in the emergency room, pleaded for more ventilators and protective equipment: 'We need prayer, we need support, we need gowns, we need gloves, we need masks, we need more vents, we need more medical space,' she said

In a press conference Tuesday, Cuomo blasted the federal government for creating a 'bidding war' for ventilators that is 'like being on eBay'.

He said that he had bought 17,000 ventilators from China for $25,000 each, a total of $425million, but that he was having to compete against every other state for them and the government.

'Look at the bizarre situation we wound up in; every state does its own purchasing, trying to buy the same commodity.

'The same exact item. So you have 50 states competing to buy the same item, bidding up each other, and competing against each other - it's like being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator,' he said.

In a Twitter post, Cuomo also said: 'We are one nation. We need to purchase and distribute supplies working together as one nation. 50 states can't be competing with each other for the same supplies. It makes no sense.'

Trump retaliated Tuesday evening, taking aim at Cuomo in the latest war of words between the two.

When asked about the supply of ventilators to New York, Trump said he had already been very generous.

'I don't know what he said. I think he's been reasonably generous considering he's a Democrat and I think he'd like to run for president so I think he's been pretty generous under the circumstances,' he said.

'I got him ships, I got him hospitals, I got him a lot of things that he never thought – he had paydirt okay and I've been very generous on ventilators.'

He also said that New York hadn't tapped into it's own supply of ventilators first.

'If you look, they had 2,000 and 4,000 in his warehouse, in their warehouse waiting to be picked up. They never picked them up so I'd have to hear it from him face to face.'

He said FEMA had 'sent additional ventilators to New York and New Jersey' and had supplied '250 ambulances and 500 EMTs' to New York.

Trump also said the government is 'holding on' to a stockpile of 10,000 ventilators because 'the surge is coming.'

'We also are holding back quite a bit. We have almost 10,000 ventilators that we have ready to go. We have to hold them back, because the surge is coming and it's coming pretty strong and we want to be able to immediately move it into place without going and taking it, so we're ready to go,' he said.

He went on to say that if state governors wanted more ventilators, they just need to ask. Taking aim at Cuomo, the president said he should stop complaining.

He 'shouldn't be complaining because we gave him a lot of ventilators,' he said.

'No matter what you give, it's never enough.'

Trump also hit out at the state response to the crisis, saying the state had a 'late start' in fighting the pandemic.

'For whatever reason, New York got off to a late start and you see what happens when you get off to a late start,' said Trump, adding that New Jersey was similarly slow.

'New Jersey got off to - and I think both governors are doing an excellent job… but they got off to a very late start.'

He went on to praise Washington and California for their response to the pandemic.

'If you look at Washington state, if you remember that all started in a very confined nursing home,' said Trump.

'And you had 20-odd people dying in that one home but it didn't mean it escaped that home, which means they have a very different statistic to other states.'

Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, reinforced the president's views, saying that she recommended other affected cities and states look to California and Washington for inspiration on how to respond to the pandemic and not New York.

'California and Washington state reacted very early to all this. Washington state had some of the earliest infections. They have kept it low and steady,' said Birx.

Other areas should 'work more like California than the New York metro area,' she added.

'Washington state, about two weeks before New York or New Jersey, California a week before New York or New Jersey, really talked to their communities and decided to mitigate before they started seeing this number,' Birx said.

Birx said it is up to communities 'to not have the experience of New York and New Jersey'.

Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, reinforced the president's views, saying that she recommended other affected cities and states look to California and Washington for inspiration on how to respond and not

New York state now has 76,049 cases of coronavirus and 1,550 have died.

The death toll rose by 332 between Monday and Tuesday and is not yet showing signs of slowing down.

The US death toll from the coronavirus climbed past 3,600 Tuesday, eclipsing China's official count.

At least 3,906 people in the US have died from the deadly virus as of Tuesday night, according to data collected by the John Hopkins University.

The global benchmark reports that 3,309 people have died from the virus in China, where the global pandemic originated.

Fears that the US is on track to become the new Italy, whose healthcare system has buckled under the weight of the pandemic, are fast becoming a reality.

Italy has recorded more deaths, with 12,428 as of Tuesday afternoon. However, the US has far surpassed its number of confirmed cases, with the US reaching 181,099 to Italy's 105,792.

'Prepare for 100,000 to die.' Tony Fauci warns of astonishing death toll and tells areas not on lockdown to take action NOW

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's leading coronavirus expert

Dr. Tony Fauci painted a grim picture for Americans on Tuesday, warning that people should be prepared for 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus.

'The answer is yes - as sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it,' he said when asked about the six-figure mark during the daily White House press briefing. 'Is it going to be that much? I hope not and I think the more we push on the mitigation the less likely to be that number but, being realistic, we need to prepare ourselves that is a possibility that that's what we'll see.'

The White House projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. if current social distancing guidelines are maintained.

Fauci used the figures to urge people to stick to social distancing guidelines of six feet of separation.

'Whenever you're having an effect, it's not time to take your foot off the accelerator, and on the brake, but to just press it down on the accelerator,' Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of mitigation efforts.

'The 15 days that we've had of mitigation clearly are having an effect,' he noted.

He said such efforts could also help damage any potential second wave of illness.

'We hope that doesn't happen and that is why we are really pushing and why I was so emphatic about making sure we abide by those mitigation strategies,' he said.

Trump said the prediction was 'sobering' and called efforts to spread the slow of the coronavirus 'a matter of life and death.'

'It's absolutely critical for the American people to follow the guidelines for the next 30 days, it's a matter of life and death, frankly,' the president said.

'I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We're going through a very tough few weeks. And, hopefully, as the experts have predicted is a lot of us are predicting having studied it so hard, going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel and this is going to be a very painful, a very very painful two weeks,' he noted.

It was a stark change in tone for President Trump, who last week sounded a note of hope the crisis would be over in the next few weeks. Now his administration is preparing Americans for tougher times to come.

But through all the tough talk of days to come, there were some glimmers of hope.

'If all of the other states and all the other metro areas are able to hold that case number down, then it's a very different picture,' said Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the administration's day-to-day response to the disease.

'We're going to do everything we can to get it significantly below that,' she said.

Fauci agreed: 'We don't accept that number, that that's what it's going to be. We're going to do everything we can to get that number even below that.'

Gov. Cuomo admits 'no one knows' when the crisis will be over after his brother tests positive for the virus

New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned that 'no one knows' when the crisis will be over, as it emerged his brother had tested positive for the virus.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Cuomo said he was unifying the state's private and public healthcare systems to operate as one before the pandemic 'apex' in the state hits.

He admitted he does not know when it will come and that data projections he looks at suggest it could happen anytime between seven and 21 days from now.

Gov. Cuomo told people to settle in for a longer period of crisis than they were anticipating and said 'we still have to come back down the other side of the mountain' even after the peak happens.

Trumps' comments came hours after Cuomo said the federal government has created a 'bidding war' for ventilators that is like 'like being on eBay'

Chris Cuomo is quarantining in his basement after testing positive for the virus on Tuesday morning

Cuomo said the data is uneven and 'bouncing' so where it appears the death rates may be slowing, they are not yet.

'It's an imperfect reporting mechanism but the basic line is still up. We're still going up,' he said, adding that he was speaking to every expert he could find to rely on their projections and not 'opine' over what may happen.

He said he was 'tired' of being 'behind' the virus, adding: 'We've been behind this virus from day one. The virus was in China. Unless we assume some immune system variation with Asian people, it was coming here. You don't win playing catch up. We have to get ahead of it.'

He also said it was foolish to 'underestimate your opponent', continuing: 'We underestimated this virus. It's more powerful and dangerous than we anticipated.'

Cuomo said the 'next battle' will be the apex of cases and deaths but he does not know when it will hit.

'When is the apex? That is the $65,000 question. We have literally 5 models that we look at. It's true to say almost no two are the same. The range on the apex is somewhere between seven to 21 days,' he said.

Cuomo's strategy to tackle the virus includes:

Centralizing the hospital system to force public and private hospitals to share resources including staff

First, staff from upstate hospitals that are not hard hit will be sent to New York City

New York City hospitals, both public and private, will redistribute patients to spread them evenly across the city until each hospital reaches its capacity (all have increased their capacities by at least 50 percent

Then, patients will be distributed from New York City to quieter hospitals upstate or further afield in the state

Field hospitals will be used to alleviate the strain on them

Healthcare workers from out of state will also be used to provide relief for 'exhausted' and 'overwhelmed' doctors and nurses

He has bought 17,000 ventilators from China for $25,000 each, a total of $425million

Central to Cuomo's plan is to centralize the hospital systems to do away with the notion of public and private healthcare and make everyone share everything.

He said he had a tense meeting on Monday with the leaders of private hospitals which ordinarily profit from a surge in patients and that he nearly 'didn't make it out' of it because they were so angry at what he was instructing.

'I don't care which link breaks in the chain - the chain is still broken. It doesn't matter which hospital, which link - any link breaks, the chain breaks.

'The healthcare system is a chain. It breaks anywhere, it breaks everywhere. That has to be our mentality,' he said.

Since issuing a call to action for retired nurses and doctors to come back to work, 78,000 people have volunteered.

'We have now, a few days ago we put out to ask retirees, we have now 78,000 people who said they would help; God bless the state of NY and god bless humanity,' he said.

He is urging other states to help him now so that he can help them later.

'It's unity. Let's help each other. New York needs help now. This is going to be a rolling wave across the country; New York then Detroit then New Orleans then California

'If we were smart as a nation - come help us in New York, get the experience and the training here, then let's all go help the next place then the next place then the next place.

'That would be a smart national way of doing this.'

Several states complain of a shortage of tests with the Republican governor of Maryland slamming Trump's denial of the problem

The governor of Maryland has slammed President Donald Trump's denial that there is any shortage of coronavirus test kits.

In a leaked recording of a conference call with several governors, Trump claimed that he hasn't had a complaint about testing shortages in 'weeks'.

Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican who chairs the National Governors Association, responded to Trump's remarks in an interview with NPR on Tuesday, saying: 'Yeah, that's just not true.'

'I know that they've taken some steps to create new tests, but they're not actually produced and distributed out to the states. So it's an aspirational thing,' Hogan continued.

Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican who chairs the National Governors Association, responded to Trump's remarks on Tuesday, saying: 'Yeah, that's just not true'

He added that the Trump administration has some new testing measures 'in the works,' but for now 'no state has enough testing.'

Hogan said he believes others in the administration are 'talking about the facts.'

'We're listening to the smart team,' said Hogan, mentioning Vice President Mike Pence and other members of the White House coronavirus task force, including doctors Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci.

Trump's controversial remarks came during an hour-long phone meeting where he was joined by Birx, Pence, Fauci, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia and FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor.

In a leaked he pushed back when asked by rural state governors for help.

'I could give four or five examples over the last week where we have supply orders, and they've subsequently been cancelled, and they're canceled in part because what our suppliers are saying is that federal resources are requesting it and trumping that,' Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, a Democrat, said in the leaked call.

'So we're trying to shift the supplies to really isolate that and do contact tracing, but we don't even have enough supplies to do the testing.'

Trump replied boasting about how the US has done more testing than any other country. He then bragged about a new four-minute test being released.

'I haven't heard about testing in weeks,' Trump responded. 'We've tested more now than any nation in the world. We've got these great tests and we'll come out with another one tomorrow that's, you know, almost instantaneous testing. But I haven't heard anything about testing being a problem.'

Speaking about the new kits, Admiral Brett Giroir, head of the Public Health Service, chimed in that each state would soon be getting at least 15 of them.

'We're going to get that to your state lab as soon as possible,' Giroir added.

New Mexico Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham also communicated the need for more tests after 'incredible spikes' in infection rates that she warned could 'wipe out tribal nations'.

'The rate of infection, at least on the New Mexico side — although we've got several Arizona residents in our hospitals — we're seeing a much higher hospital rate, a much younger hospital rate, a much quicker go-right-to-the-vent rate for this population,' Grisham told Trump. 'And we're seeing doubling in every day-and-a-half.'

Trump simply replied: Wow, that's something.'

Several governors complained that if their state did not get the testing and personal protective equipment needed soon, their areas could be the next epicenters of the outbreak that has ravaged the US.