Newsom disclosed the decision at his daily briefing on the coronavirus outbreak from the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, capital of the state, which is one of sites that had been procured by the authority to hold additional medical beds.
"California is stepping up to help our fellow Americans in New York and across the country who are being impacted the hardest right now by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Newsom, adding that even though the state prepared for a surge of infections but "we can't turn our back on Americans whose lives depend on having a ventilator now."
The move comes as officials in states including New York and Louisiana warned that the outbreak of COVID-19 is straining the capacity of local health care systems and leading to dire shortages of equipment including ventilators, which provide oxygen to severely ill patients.
President Donald Trump said at a press briefing on Sunday that the federal government delivered about 1,700 ventilators to states over the last 24 hours, including 500 to New Jersey, 200 to Louisiana, 300 to Michigan, 600 to Illinois, and 100 to Massachusetts..
However, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said on CNN that his state had received 200 ventilators from the federal government but still expected to run out on April 9.
The federal government shipped 170 ventilators to Los Angeles County on March 29 to help California respond to the fatal disease.
Newsom said Monday that California hospitals now had an inventory of 11,036 ventilators, a jump from their original estimate of 7,587 ventilators. That increase is due to old ventilators being refurbished and the acquisition of new ventilators.
As of Monday, there have been 14,336 confirmed case of COVID-19 and 343 deaths in California, while New York has recorded more than 4,000 deaths.
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