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Coronavirus cases rise as GM, Ford race to build ventilators

Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi, Alexis Christoforous, and Anjalee Khemlani discuss the latest on the coronavirus outbreak.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Want to say good morning now to an Anjalee Khemlani, who is keeping her eye on the very latest concerning the Coronavirus itself. And Anjalee, are we seeing any progress yet in the number of cases being reported domestically?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Hey, Alexis. So the number of cases will continue to go up. But we are seeing that the stay at home, and the severe restrictions that we've placed in some places in the country are, in fact, resulting in a slowdown of the rate of cases. So while the actual number continues to go up, the rate of cases is possibly decreasing in some really key areas.

We know, that, in fact, New York State has seen some of those trends in the past couple of days. When you talk about hospitalizations and ICU beds, we've-- even though we've been ramping up, we know that the US Naval ship Comfort is out there with 1,000 beds, the Javits Center up and running with 2,500.

So we are going to see that ramp up of beds, just in case that surge does in fact come, even though the officials are hoping that not all these beds will be needed. But they say that it is still a possibility. So even though these measures are, in fact working, the worst is not behind us. And we could still see this ramp up, Alexis.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Certainly, and that's what Governor Cuomo of New York is saying, and Mayor de Blasio as well. And there is a disturbing report in the Wall Street Journal this morning, Anjalee, about NYU Langone is telling its ER doctors that they can use their discretion when it comes to choosing which patients get put on a ventilator. We saw something similar to this happening in Italy. What do we know?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's correct. And that's the point I was going to bring up, is that while it is very disturbing to hear that information, and to hear that it is happening here on the ground in the US, it is exactly the experience that Italy went through. And it is exactly the experience that anyone who experiences this surge will go through. There are ethics committees, and there are already guidelines that hospitals do use when they do in fact face a shortage. And they do have a system in place, essentially.

And so that's been you know the most concerning part, I think, for anyone who considers what could happen if they get infected is, we may have you know the professionals that are able to treat you. But they may not have all the equipment. And that's where, for the past couple of weeks, we've been having conversations about where are the masks, and where are the ventilators, and what's happening with all this equipment that hospitals are so in dire need of? And these ventilators, specifically, because that is the thing that will keep someone alive, even when they're pretty critical, to get them over to the other side and back on their feet.

And so we've already seen things like the FDA approving a hack so that you could split a ventilator, and have two patients on one. And so that's sort of the rigging that is going on right now to help individuals who are already hospitalized. But we are likely to see more of this, and more concerning news. Because they're-- they don't necessarily have the equipment that they need out there right now.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Yeah, Anjalee, thank you. And for those of you who've been tuning in the past couple of weeks, you know that you heard me talk about my sister-- an emergency room nurse in New York City-- telling me almost daily that she doesn't have the equipment she needs to do her job and feel safe about it. Now we've got Ford, GM, and Tesla making ventilators. And they can't get them to the hospitals fast enough. Anjalee Khemlani, thank you.

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