Gov. Pete Ricketts said Sunday morning on CNN's State of the Union show that Nebraska continues to plan to meet its coronavirus needs in terms of acquiring ventilators, personal protective equipment and intensive care hospital beds.
Speaking to host Jake Tapper from his home in Omaha, Ricketts said Nebraska has about 600 ventilators and has performed about 2,000 COVID-19 tests.Â
"I don't think there's any governor that thinks they have enough tests," he said.Â
Officials in states that have been hit much harder than Nebraska to this point — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee — directly preceded him on the broadcast.
Tapper asked if Ricketts would be willing to share ventilators and other equipment with those states, but the governor indicated that he was focused on Nebraska's own needs, and he is seeking more ventilators, personal protective equipment and other supplies for this state.
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Nebraska has world-renowned infectious disease specialists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center to advise the state, and he prefers leaving the management of the COVID-19 crisis up to each state as officials here see fit.
"I think that's going to be a better outcome," he said.
In the meantime, he said, the state will continue to rely on its plan for social distancing to slow the spread of the virus through his directive to limit crowd size to 10 people while building up increased testing. Â
As President Donald Trump said, "this is not a one size fits all answer," he said.
The governor was also asked about any plan by the federal government to relax restrictions in certain parts of the country that are not hot spots for the virus at this time.
“We’ve got a plan, and we’re going to continue to work our plan,†Ricketts said.
