CNN

Mayor Bill de Blasio described a dire situation in New York City this morning on CNN as hospital supplies needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic run low.

"We're about 10 days away now from seeing widespread shortages of ventilators, surgical masks, the things necessary to keep a hospital system running. We have seen next to nothing from the federal government at this point. We have seen — we've made this plea publicly, privately, letters, phone calls, very — very little has arrived," de Blasio said. "The military has not been mobilized. The Defense Production Act has not been utilized in any way I can see. Not just for New York City, New York state, for a lot of the country, it feels like we're on our own at this point. We're not seeing action from the federal government."

De Blasio said April is going to be worse than March regarding the Covid-19 outbreak in New York.

“If we don’t get more ventilators in the next 10-days people will die,” de Blasio said.

He went on to urge the President Trump to sign an order to mobilize the military to distribute ventilators and to have manufactures making ventilators at maximum production.

The Defense Production Act: The Federal Emergency Management Agency describes the act as "the primary source of presidential authorities to expedite and expand the supply of resources from the US industrial base to support military, energy, space and homeland security programs."

An executive order issued Wednesday afternoon indicated that the President will use the act to obtain "health and medical resources needed to respond to the spread of Covid-19, including personal protective equipment and ventilators."

The order also states that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar may consult with other agency heads to determine "the proper nationwide priorities and allocation of all health and medical resources, including controlling the distribution of such materials ... in the civilian market, for responding to the spread of Covid-19 within the United States."