Bill de Blasio: ‘If the President Doesn’t Act, People Will Die Who Could Have Lived Otherwise’

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio reiterated his criticism of President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday.

Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, the mayor called for the president to deploy the national guard in the city to deliver crucial supplies — ventilators, N95 masks, surgical masks, and surgical gowns and gloves — which he expects the city to run out of within two weeks.

“If there are ventilators being produced anywhere in the country, we need to get them to New York … in the next 10 days,” de Blasio said, adding,”If the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise.”

WATCH: @NYCMayor says “if the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise.” #MTP #IfItsSunday

Mayor de Blasio: “If there are ventilators being produced anywhere in the country, we need to get them to New York … in the next 10 days.” pic.twitter.com/TseexRZD42

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 22, 2020

Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law which allows the chief executive to order private industries to boost production when national security is at stake. But as of Friday, Trump has declined to actually use his powers under the act.

On Thursday, de Blasio had told reporters that Trump is “betraying the city he comes from.”

“At this point there’s never been a greater no-brainer in the history of the republic,” he said then. “It is beyond comprehension, it is immoral that our president has not ordered the military to full mobilization.”

New York City has about one-third of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States.

Watch the video above, via Twitter/NBC.