On Sunday, President Trump announced the National Guard has been activated to deploy to the states of New York, California, and Washington. The move is the Trump administration's latest effort to assist states and local governments that are struggling to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The president said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will fund the Guard's deployment.
Large quantities of medical supplies are also currently on their way to the three states, the president declared.
"The federal government has deployed hundreds of tons of supplies from our national stocks pile to locations with the greatest need in order to assist in those areas," Trump announced Sunday evening.
FEMA has also been instructed to set up four large medical stations to New York, three medical stations to Washington State, and eight stations to California, the president said.
Trump also said the USNS Mercy Hosptial Ship will be moved to California to provide additional resources for the state's healthcare system that is expected to become strained in the coming weeks. The ship is one of two such hospital ships that each have 1,000 hospital beds and 12 fully-equipped operating rooms. The sister ship will remain in New York. The Navy has said the ships won't be used to treat coronavirus patients but will be made available to treat other types of injuries and medical conditions. Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote a letter last week asking the president to deploy the Mercy to California.
"I write to respectfully request you immediately deploy the USNS Mercy Hosptial Ship to be stationed in the Port of Los Angeles through September 1, 2020, to help decompress our current health care delivery system in Los Angeles region in response to the COVID-19 outbreak," Newsom wrote to President Trump.
The president said he holds different views than Gov. Newsom and Gov. Cuomo (D-NY) but said he was proud of the leaders' efforts and cooperation in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
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