She believes it sets a dangerous precedent to take equipment from hospitals for use elsewhere.

"The state of New York needs to work with all our hospitals to get the resources to the right places, while ensuring they have what they need to take care of their own patients," Helming said.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said he's had conversations with hospital executives in the Buffalo area and all of the ventilators are in use. As of Thursday, there are 79 COVID-19 patients in Erie County who are on a ventilator.

Poloncarz pledged that no one in Erie County will have a ventilator taken away to send to a downstate hospital.

"We're all in this together, but someone's life downstate is no different than a life up here," he said.

But with ventilators in short supply at downstate hospitals, Cuomo is seeking help from other hospitals in New York.

He said the "burn rate" for ventilators is about 300 a day, meaning that 300 ventilators are needed daily to meet the growing demand.

When the outbreak worsens in upstate New York, he said the state would divert resources to those hospitals.

"I'm not going to let people die because we didn't redistribute ventilators," Cuomo added.

Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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