NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – President Donald Trump said Saturday that 1,000 military personnel will be deploying to New York at the city grapples with the nation's worst coronavirus outbreak.
"At my direction 1,000 military personnel are deploying to New York City to assist where they're needed the most," Trump said at his daily coronavirus briefing. "That's the hottest of all the hot spots."
He said the personnel will include doctors, nurses, respiratory specialists and other support workers.
"These are from the military. We're taking people out of our military. We've been doing it, but now we're doing it on a larger basis," Trump said.
The president didn't say where the personnel would be sent.
New York City has reported 56,289 coronavirus cases and 1,867 deaths as of Saturday.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he expects the coronavirus apex to hit in the next week. Hospitals are rushing to prepare for the anticipated spike in cases.
On Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a national enlistment program for doctors and nurses to handle the expected surge.
"Next week in New York City is going to be very tough — next week in New York City and Detroit and New Orleans and a lot of other places," de Blasio said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"And unless the military is fully mobilized and we create something we've never had before, which is some kind of national enlistment of medical personnel moved to the most urgent needs in the country constantly, if we don't have that we're going to see hospitals simply unable to handle so many people who could be saved."
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