New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday a "troubling and astronomical" number of coronavirus cases has increased the urgency across the state for more hospital beds as the outbreak spreads "unabated." He also lashed out at the federal government for not sending in more ventilators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending the state 400 ventilators, Cuomo said at a news conference. "Four hundred ventilators? I need 30,000 ventilators. You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?" Cuomo said, adding that he needs the ventilators in 14 days. "We're not slowing it and it is accelerating on its own," Cuomo added. He said the state is now projecting it will need more hospital beds a lot sooner than thought. The state estimates it will need 140,000 hospital beds in as little as 14 to 21 days. The state previously said it would need 110,000 beds for COVID-19 patients by early to mid-May. "The inescapable conclusion is that the rate of infection is going up. It is spiking. The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of facts," Cuomo said. Cases across the state are doubling about every three days — standing at 25,665 as of Tuesday — 10 times the number of cases in California, Cuomo said. Some 3,234 people have been hospitalized, he said.

National Guards are seen inside the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. Rod Adar | Barcroft Media | Getty Images

"New York is the canary in the coal mine. New York is going first. We have the highest and fastest rate of infection," he said, adding that what's happening in New York will spread to California, Washington and other states from there. Cuomo said the state has about 3,000 to 4,000 ventilators and has purchased about 7,000 more, but it needs a minimum of 30,000 additional ventilators. "This is a critical and desperate need for ventilators," he said, adding that the state is experimenting with using one ventilator split between two patients. "We don't have any other options. There's no other way for us to get these ventilators. We've tried everything else." He called on President Donald Trump to use the Defense Production Act to secure more medical equipment and asked Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to release the 20,000 ventilators in the U.S. stockpile to New York. "How can you be in a situation where you have New Yorkers possibly dying because they can't get a ventilator, but a federal agency is saying 'I'm going to leave the ventilators in the stockpile,'" Cuomo said. "I mean, have we really come to that point." Cuomo criticized Trump for pushing to lift state restrictions that have effectively placed almost half of the nation under some sort of quarantine.

Medical equipment stands at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, U.S., on Monday, March 23, 2020. Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images