Doctors and nurses on the front lines of the US coronavirus crisis pleaded on Friday for more protective gear and equipment to treat waves of patients expected to overwhelm hospitals as the number of known US infections surpassed 100,000, with more than 1,600 dead.

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Physicians have called particular attention to a desperate need for additional ventilators, machines that help patients breathe and are widely needed for those suffering from COVID-19, the respiratory ailment caused by the highly contagious novel coronavirus.

Hospitals in New York City, New Orleans, Detroit and other virus hot spots have also sounded the alarm about scarcities of drugs, medical supplies and trained staff while the number of confirmed US cases rose by at least 16,000 for a second straight day on Friday to nearly 102,000.

That tally kept the United States as the world leader in the number of known infections, having surpassed China and Italy on Thursday.

“We are scared,” said Dr. Arabia Mollette of Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn. “We’re trying to fight for everyone else’s life, but we also fight for our lives as well, because we’re also at the highest risk of exposure.”

The United States ranked sixth in death toll among the hardest hit countries, with at least 1,606 lives lost as of Thursday evening, marking the first time the country had recorded more than 300 deaths in a single day, according to a Reuters tabulation of official data.

Worldwide, confirmed cases rose above 593,000 with 27,198 deaths, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported.

Even as hospital patient numbers steadily climbed, shortages of key medical supplies abounded.

One emergency room doctor in Michigan, an emerging epicenter of the pandemic, said he was using one paper face mask for an entire shift due to a shortage and that hospitals in the Detroit area would soon run out of ventilators.

“We have hospital systems here in the Detroit area in Michigan who are getting to the end of their supply of ventilators and have to start telling families that they can’t save their loved ones because they don’t have enough equipment,” the physician, Dr. Rob Davidson, said in a video posted on Twitter.

Emergency powers

US President Donald Trump on Friday invoked emergency powers to require General Motors Co to start building ventilators after he accused the largest US automaker of “wasting time” during negotiations.

He had previously resisted mounting calls for him to invoke the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era statute that gives the president broad procurement powers in national emergencies, instead seeking to exert pressure on manufacturers to act voluntarily.

Also read: Coronavirus: Trump signs $2.2 trln stimulus package into law

Sophia Thomas, a nurse practitioner at DePaul Community Health Center in New Orleans, where Mardi Gras celebrations late last month fueled an outbreak in Louisiana’s largest city, said the numbers of coronavirus patients “have been staggering.”

“We are truly a hotbed of COVID-19 here in New Orleans,” she said, adding that her hospital was trying to cope in part by shifting some patients to “telehealth” services that allow them to be evaluated from home.

New York-area doctors say they have had to recycle some protective gear, or resort to the black market.

Dr. Alexander Salerno of Salerno Medical Associates, a general medical practice with offices in northern New Jersey, described going through a “broker” to pay $17,000 for masks and other protective equipment that should have cost about $2,500, and picking them up at an abandoned warehouse.

“You don’t get any names. You get just phone numbers to text,” Salerno said. “And so you agree to a term. You wire the money to a bank account. They give you a time and an address to come to.”

Nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York said they were locking away or hiding N-95 respirator masks, surgical masks and other supplies that are prone to pilfering if left unattended.

“Masks disappear,” nurse Diana Torres said. “We hide it all in drawers in front of the nurses’ station.”

Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 10:06 - GMT 07:06