President Trump celebrated Easter by pointing out recent gains in stopping the spread of the coronavirus.
Trump announced Sunday that hundreds of federal healthcare workers will be moved into New York hospitals to assist because there has been “more bed capacity than needed” on the USNS Comfort and at the Javits Convention Center, which have been used to help with patient overflow in the hard-hit state.
“A very good sign is that empty hospital beds are becoming more and more prevalent. We deployed 418 Doctors, Nurses and Respiratory Therapists from the hospital ship Comfort and the Javits Convention Center to hospitals in NYC & State. Have more bed capacity than was needed. Good!” the president tweeted.
“HAPPY EASTER!” he followed up in a separate tweet just seconds later.
A very good sign is that empty hospital beds are becoming more and more prevalent. We deployed 418 Doctors, Nurses and Respiratory Therapists from the hospital ship Comfort and the Javits Convention Center to hospitals in NYC & State. Have more bed capacity than was needed. Good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2020
HAPPY EASTER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2020
Last month, Trump said he hoped to have the United States “opened up and just raring to go by Easter,” but federal guidelines for social distancing have been extended through the end of the month since then.
The president marked this year’s Easter by watching a virtual sermon by evangelical Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress, one of his political allies. Trump said last week he has been watching weekly online sermons during the pandemic.
“A laptop is not the same as being in his church or being in any other church. It’s not, no matter what you say. You can’t say, ‘Oh, isn’t it wonderful?’” he said. “It doesn’t sound good, but it’s one of those things.”
As of Easter Sunday, there have been more than 530,000 cases of the coronavirus and at least 20,614 deaths. In hard-hit New York, there have been more than 180,000 cases and 8,627 deaths.
