«This is past a movie plot. Nobody could ever think of this, or be totally prepared for this. You’re going to have to wing it on the fly,» said Dr. Eric Neibart, an infectious disease specialist and clinical assistant professor at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. «The scale is unbelievable.»

As the pandemic played out in hot spots throughout the U.S., the House of Representatives fast-tracked a sweeping, $2.2-trillion US coronavirus aid bill on Friday. President Donald Trump has previously said he will sign the bill into law.

«Today’s vote is about saving lives and livelihoods,» said Republican Rep. Kevin Brady, of Texas. «Congress must act together and act aggressively now to stem this crisis.»

Democrats and Republicans in the Democratic-led House approved the package using a voice vote, turning back a procedural challenge from Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, who had sought to force a formal, recorded vote.

«Today, we’ve all acknowledged our nation faces an economic and health emergency of historic proportions,» said Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Earlier Friday, Trump raged at Massie in a pair of tweets before the vote, calling him a «third-rate grandstander» who should be thrown out of the Republican Party.

While most of the House’s 430 members are in their home districts because of the outbreak, several travelled to Washington. As debate commenced, lawmakers sat several seats apart from each other, maintaining distance as they waited for a chance to speak.

A quorum of more than 216 was met to deny Massie’s bid.

«Just passed the $2.2 trillion stimulus,» tweeted Democrat David Cicilline, of Rhode Island. «Took longer than it should’ve (and required travel to DC) because of one member of Kentucky who couldn’t put our country ahead of his own ego. He owes all Americans an apology for this reckless stunt.»

The measure includes $500 billion US to help hard-hit industries and a comparable amount for payments of up to $3,000 to millions of families. The legislation will also provide $350 billion for small-business loans, $250 billion for expanded unemployment aid and at least $100 billion for hospitals and related health systems.

Friction between states, Trump administration

New York could see a peak in the demand for hospital capacity in three weeks due to the coronavirus, and is planning to build a total of eight temporary hospitals to meet the surge, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a news conference Friday.

The death toll in the state is now 519, an increase of 134 from the previous day.

At least one New York City hospital, New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan, has begun a trial of sharing single ventilators between two patients.

After turning a convention centre into a temporary hospital in a week, the state plans to build eight temporary hospitals in a campaign to increase the number of hospital beds from 53,000 to 140,000.

Some hospitals are converting cafeterias and atriums into space to house intensive care patients.

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Trump had dismissed calls from Cuomo and other governors who have pleaded for additional ventilators, the machines needed by some sufferers of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, to help them breathe.

«I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,» Trump said, referencing New York’s request of the federal government.

But nearly a day later, Trump tweeted that the federal government has purchased «many ventilators.» He said the specific numbers and details would be released later in the day.

Several governors, including Republicans, have expressed frustration that Trump hasn’t enacted the Defence Production Act, which would enable a co-ordinated federal response for obtaining needed medical equipment and supplies.

‘Haunted’ by potential scenarios

Governors have complained that they are competing with each other and even the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in negotiations with private suppliers.

«I’m telling you, people are spending hours and hours and hours trying to get this stuff here for exactly that reason,» Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday. «Our first responders, our health-care workers, everybody deserves to have that gear. And I’m telling you, we’re killing ourselves trying to make it happen.»

It has been reported that about 160 health-care workers in Boston hospitals have tested positive for coronavirus.

Asked about guidelines being drafted on how to allocate ventilators to patients in case of a shortage in his state, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told reporters such bioethical discussions «haunted him» but were unavoidable.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said New Orleans would be out of ventilators by April 2 and potentially out of bed space by April 7 «if we don’t flatten the infection curve soon.»

«It’s not conjecture, it’s not some flimsy theory,» Edwards told a news conference. «This is what is going to happen.»

Scarcities of protective masks, gloves, gowns and eyewear for doctors and nurses — reports abound of health-care workers recycling old face masks, making their own or even using trash bags to shield themselves — have emerged as a national problem.

«Our nurses across the country do not have the personal protective equipment that is necessary to care for COVID patients, or any of their patients,» Bonnie Castillo, head of the largest U.S. nurses union, National Nurses United, told MSNBC.