The city’s new coronavirus senior adviser hit the ground running Thursday, saying his first mission from the mayor is getting critical supplies to the hospitals that need them the most.
“[Mayor Bill de Blasio] said, ‘Listen, […] I need you to make sure, to pay attention to the supply chain. I need you to make sure that we’re getting — first of all — that we’re getting the equipment and that is being sourced properly,” former NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“The N95 masks, the surgical masks, the gowns, the ventilators, goggles, face masks, and when it does come into the city, that it’s distributed to the hospitals that need it most.'”
Along with a “great team” composed of former co-workers, he’ll be coordinating with the state and federal governments to ensure that city hospitals have a continual flow of the supplies, while coordinating with the private sector, said O’Neill, who will meet with officials from the city Office of Emergency Management later in the day.
“The biggest challenges is going to be sourcing right now,” he said later on the “Today” show. One of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top complaints has been that states and cities are outbidding each other on supplies.
“My responsibility, my goal is to make sure that as we source [the equipment], it gets sent to the hospitals that need it most,” he said.
O’Neill was the city’s top cop for three years from September 2016 to 2019, when he stepped down for a job at Visa. He returned to the city and reached out to de Blasio to lend a hand in fighting the coronavirus, he said.
“New Yorkers should be confident that we’re going to move forward, we’re going to get through this, and we’re going to come out the other side, and be proud of what we’ve done,” O’Neill added.
“This is a country, this is a state, and this is the city that’s coming together. We’re going to get through this when we come out the other side, and we’re going to be proud that we did our best to save as many lives as possible.”
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy.