Mayor Bill de Blasio discusses the arrival of a shipment of 400 ventilators with Dr. Steven Pulitzer, the Chief Medical Officer of NYC Health and Hospitals, at the city's Emergency Management Warehouse., Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in New York. | AP Photo De Blasio: Trump is 'not looking at the facts' of coronavirus crisis

NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio said President Donald Trump is “not looking at the facts” of the coronavirus pandemic, in response to the president’s comments that he doesn’t believe New York needs 30,000 ventilators to treat patients.

“When the president says the state of New York doesn’t need 30,000 ventilators, with all due respect to him, he’s not looking at the facts of this astronomical growth of this crisis,” de Blasio said Friday on Good Morning America. “And a ventilator... means someone lives or dies.”


With New York now the epicenter of the pandemic, de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have both repeatedly called on the Trump administration to provide more supplies. As of Thursday afternoon, there were more than 37,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in New York — with 23,112 cases in the city alone.

De Blasio said the city has received 2,500 ventilators in the last week or so, but it will need 15,000 in short order. He has also called for three million N-95 masks, 50 million surgical masks and 25 million sets of gowns, gloves and other protective equipment.

“I can tell you right now we have enough supplies to get through this week and next week in our hospitals — that’s all I can guarantee,” de Blasio said.

Separately, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has agreed to donate “hundreds” of ventilators to the state, de Blasio said on Twitter. Tesla owns a solar panel factory in Buffalo.

As Trump pushes for businesses to reopen on Easter, de Blasio warned that timeline is providing people with “a false hope.”

“This is going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.