Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped a shocking COVID-19 projection in his letter to President Trump requesting that the Navy Mercy Hospital Ship be sent to the port of Los Angeles.

“We project that roughly 56 percent of our population — 25.5 million people — will be infected with the virus over an eight-week period,” Newsom wrote on Wednesday.
In some parts of the state, Newsom wrote, “our case rate is doubling every four days. Moreover, we have community acquired transmission in 23 counties with an increase of 44 community acquired infections in 24 hours.”
Thus far, 19 people have died in California from the coronavirus and 958 have tested positive for the disease.
The governor’s office released the letter Thursday.
Later Thursday, a spokesman for the governor said that the projections cited in the letter to Trump didn’t account for coronavirus mitigation efforts underway.

While an important clarification, we would ask the governor — if we could: Why didn’t the letter say that? https://t.co/cYljJUdf6h

— John Myers (@johnmyers) March 19, 2020

Other social media commenters pointed out that 56% of California’s roughly 40 million population is 22.5 million.

Math… and a good point. Hopefully @CAgovernor‘s office can explain? https://t.co/lMXtYWKKLE

— John Myers (@johnmyers) March 19, 2020

California Needs the Hospital Ship: Newsom

Talking about the hospital ship, Newsom told the president:
“This resource will help decompress the health care delivery system to allow the Los Angeles region to ensure that it has the ability to address critical acute care needs, such as heart attacks and strokes or vehicle accidents, in addition to the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases.”

Other Governors Seek Federal Assistance

Many governors told the president on a conference call Thursday that their states are in dire need of federal help as they expand measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak,
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said a surge in new cases filling hospital beds could push past the state’s capacity to deliver health care in seven to 10 days as New Orleans becomes one of the nation’s virus hot spots.
Louisiana had nearly 400 positive tests for COVID-19 Thursday, up from 280 a day earlier, Edwards said. Ten people have died.
“Our trajectory is basically the same as what they had in Italy. And if there’s anything I said today that ought to get people’s attention, it is that,” Edwards said.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf tightened his directives to businesses to shut down, issuing a dire warning and saying that all “non-life-sustaining” businesses in the state must close their physical locations by 8 p.m. to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Enforcement actions against businesses that do not close their physical locations will begin Saturday, Wolf said.
And, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order calling on all nonessential state employees to stay home.

$150 Million to Protect California Homeless

Newsom on Wednesday said it’s possible that 60,000 homeless people could contract the virus and overwhelm the state’s health care systems. On that day, he announced spending of $150 million to shield homeless residents from the virus.
The Associated Press reported that two-thirds of the money will go directly to local governments for spending on homeless services. Some $50 million will be used to buy 1,300 travel trailers and lease hotel rooms for emergency housing.

(Associated Press contributed to this report.)