Trump says US will provide 'desperately needed' ventilators to other countries
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President Trump, in a series of Friday morning tweets, said that the United States would be providing "desperately needed" ventilators for foreign countries as they work to respond to the coronavirus crisis.
The president mentioned discussions with the presidents of El Salvador, Indonesia, Honduras and Ecuador, and praised the leaders of those nations for their work and cooperation with the U.S. on the coronavirus and other issues.
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"Just spoke to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador," Trump said in one of the tweets. "Will be helping them with Ventilators, which are desperately needed. They have worked well with us on immigration at the Southern Border!"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In another tweet saying that the U.S. would give ventilators to Indonesia, Trump said there was "[g]reat cooperation between us!"
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Trump also said that Ecuador is "fighting hard against the CoronaVirus!" and claimed that the U.S. has "recently manufactured many" ventilators. He further noted that Honduras has cooperated with the U.S. on immigration policy.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We work closely together on the Southern Border," Trump said of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez. "Will be helping him with his request for Ventilators and Testing."
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So far, according to numbers compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Ecuador has had 11,183 confirmed coronavirus cases with 560 total deaths. Indonesia has 8,011 total confirmed cases with 689 deaths. El Salvador has 261 confirmed cases with eight total deaths. Honduras has 562 confirmed cases and 47 deaths. All of these countries are much smaller than the United States in population and are struggling to slow down the spread of the virus.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It is unclear where the ventilators Trump says he will send to the four countries will come from or how many ventilators will be sent.
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The United States was in a mad dash to procure ventilators in the early stages of the coronavirus crisis, fearing a surge of cases that could overwhelm hospital capacity and lead to what would otherwise be preventable deaths had people been able to access ventilators. Late last month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was warning of dire consequences if his state did not immediately get its hands on 30,000 ventilators.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While the surge has certainly taken a toll on hospitals and health care workers, especially in hot spots like New York City, social distancing measures and state-issued protocols closing businesses and banning public gatherings appear to have helped spare the U.S. a worst-case-scenario in deaths and hospitalizations from the pandemic.
Cuomo, for example, last week announced that his state's rate of coronavirus infections had "stabilized" and that New York would share ventilators with other states.
"On the ventilators, we've stabilized our health care situation," Cuomo said. "New York had one of the earlier curves. There are other places in this country that are now seeing increases in the death rate -- and they're seeing stress on their health care system."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He continued: "The state of Michigan is going through an issue right now. The state of Maryland is going through as issue. We're stabilized. We're going to send 100 ventilators to Michigan and 50 to the state of Maryland."
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Politico also reported last week that New York was sending 100 ventilators to New Jersey.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Now, Trump appears to believe the U.S. is in a position to begin helping others who may not be able to get their hands on coronavirus-fighting equipment.
Early this month, Trump issued an order under the Defense Production Act directing several companies to begin making ventilators. Days later, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that General Motors would produce 30,000 ventilators at a cost of $500 million, with the first delivery to happen by June 1.
Fox News' Nick Givas contributed to this report.