California loans 500 ventilators to New York, other states hit hard by coronavirus

California is loaning 500 ventilators to the national stockpile to help states like New York facing shortages as they battle the coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday morning.

“We still have a long road ahead of us in the Golden State – and we’re aggressively preparing for a surge – but we can’t turn our back on Americans whose lives depend on having a ventilator now,” Newsom said in a written statement. “I know that if the tables were turned and we were experiencing a hospital surge, other states would come to our aid.”

California hospitals have been scrambling to find an additional 10,000 ventilators, which the Newsom administration predicts will be needed by mid-May in what his team calls “Phase One” of the coronavirus surge. After that, the state may need an additional 20,000 ventilators, according to projections from Newsom’s office.

As of last week, the state had not yet acquired all 10,000 ventilators for Phase One, but so far California’s hospitals are not overwhelmed and everyone who needs a ventilator is getting one, Newsom said.

The federal government previously released 170 ventilators to local government in Los Angeles, many of which were nonfunctional. California state government had previously requested 10,000 ventilators from the national stockpile, but didn’t receive any, according to data from the White House on stockpile shipments to California.

This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 9:11 AM with the headline "California loans 500 ventilators to New York, other states hit hard by coronavirus."