The entrance of Chai Urgent Care in Brooklyn's Williamsburg community | AP Photo De Blasio: ‘People are going to die’ unless Trump steps up

Mayor Bill de Blasio again pressed President Donald Trump for help bolstering the city’s dwindling medical supplies and escalated his call for the governor to create a state mandate that residents “shelter in place.”

De Blasio said the city now constitutes 30 percent of the reported coronavirus cases in the U.S. and called for the federal government to take immediate action to provide essential supplies like ventilators and surgical masks.


“The lights are on but nobody’s home at the executive branch,” de Blasio said on MSNBC, adding “a lot of people are going to die who don’t have to die" if the Trump administration doesn't move quickly in the coming days to increase medical supplies.

His plea to Gov. Andrew Cuomo was more conciliatory, praising the governor’s leadership, but reiterating his stance that a more aggressive public health order is needed to stem the spread of the virus.

“I think Governor Cuomo has made [the] right decisions throughout this crisis, and I supported him in that,” de Blasio said during a Friday morning radio appearance on WNYC. “On this one — I think no one likes the idea; I don’t blame him or me or anyone who would hesitate to do something this intense — but the time has come.”

By issuing a public health order order instructing New Yorkers to stay home unless they are essential workers or are going out for necessary trips, the mayor argued that residents would have clear guidance to follow, and enforcement agencies such as the NYPD would have the legal backing to break up crowds and send loiterers back to their homes.

The mayor has called on Trump to deploy the military to provide aid and take advantage of the Defense Production Act. The president has already activated the law, which allows him to order manufacturing facilities to produce needed supplies, but has not put it into action.

“Right now, Trump and [Vice President Mike] Pence are weeks — if not months — behind this crisis,” de Blasio said.

The city has also requested supplies from the strategic national stockpile, but got a “paltry” amount and a lot of expired material, he said Friday. In total, the city needs three million N95 masks, 50 million surgical masks, 15,000 ventilators and 25 million sets of gowns, gloves and other protective equipment.

De Blasio said he reached out directly to Pence “several days ago,” and was directed to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Although he characterized the conversation as productive, the mayor said he has yet to receive a response to specific requests for assistance.

“There’s a point at which as more and more cases grow, the medical community can do everything and anything, but they can’t create supplies out of thin air,” he said.

And those shortfalls stand to be compounded if the city’s health care facilities are overrun with a spike in cases — something the mayor said will happen in the coming weeks without more stringent social distancing measures.

Cuomo has resisted such calls, warning it would create needless panic. He has increasingly restricted access to leisure activities, and Thursday night ordered personal care services like hair and nail salons to temporarily shut down by 8 p.m. Saturday.

De Blasio has repeatedly downplayed the notion the two are fighting over the matter, but on Friday indicated the gulf in their opinions.

“We need a public health order,” he said.