Cuomo Press Releases Transcripts April 01, 2020 - April 11, 2020
Cuomo Press Releases Transcripts April 01, 2020 - April 11, 2020
April 01, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo on How COVID-19 will Change Society: 'We're Never Going To Be The Same Again. We're Not Going To Forget What Happened Here'. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-how-covid-19-will-change-society-were-never
Governor Cuomo: "The fear that we have, the anxiety that we have, that's not just going to go away. When do we get back to normal? I don't think we get back to normal. I think we get back, or we get to a new normal. Right? Like we're seeing in so many facets of society right now. So we will be at a different place."
Cuomo: "Our challenge is to make sure that transformation and that change is positive and not negative. Let's make sure we're taking the positive lesson and not the negative lesson."
Cuomo: "The question is, how do you get up? ... We are in control of that. And we have to start to think about that. We also have to be smarter from what we went through. How do you make the economy more resilient? What happens when something like this happens again? And something like this will happen again."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo called on everyone to be conscious of how COVID-19 will transform our society and to think about the lessons the pandemic has taught us moving forward.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
As a society, beyond just this immediate situation, we should start looking forward to understand how this experience is going to change us, or how it should change us, because this is going to be transformative. It is going to be transformative on a personal basis, on a social basis, on a systems basis. We're never going to be the same again. We're not going to forget what happened here.
The fear that we have, the anxiety that we have, that's not just going to go away. When do we get back to normal? I don't think we get back to normal. I think we get back, or we get to a new normal. Right? Like we're seeing in so many facets of society right now. So we will be at a different place.
Our challenge is to make sure that transformation and that change is positive and not negative. Let's make sure we're taking the positive lesson and not the negative lesson.
You could get wary of intimacy, and contact, and density. "Social distancing, don't go near anyone." What a terrible thing to live with as a human being. What a cruel torture. "Isolate yourself from other people. Be afraid of hugging someone." Just think how emotionally and personally repugnant that concept is, right? We crave human connection, and now we're being told that could be dangerous. You can't kiss. You can't hug. You can't hold hands. So how we come out of this, and making sure that it's positive and not negative. How do we learn from this? And how do we grow from this, right?
Society, life - you will get knocked on your rear end. You will deal with pain. You will deal with death. You will deal with setback. You will deal with suffering. The question is, how do you get up? First, do you get up? And second, if you get up, how do you get up? Do you get up smarter? Do you get up wiser? Or do you get up bitter, and do you get up angry? And do you get up fearful? We are in control of that.
And we have to start to think about that. We also have to be smarter from what we went through. How do you make the economy more resilient? What happens when something like this happens again? And something like this will happen again. "Oh, no, this is a once in a lifetime, never again." Something like this will happen again. We're seeing it in the environment. We're seeing it with floods, we're seeing it with hurricanes. Something like this will happen again. You can't just turn off the economy like a light switch.
How do governments work together? You can't figure it out on the fly - what the federal government does, what the state government does, what the local governments do. Figure it out before. Learn the lessons from this. Telemedicine, and tele-education. We have closed the schools. Well why weren't we ready with a tele-education system? Why weren't we better with telemedicine? Why didn't we have the capacity to have that's lines on people coming in to give the same basic diagnosis and the same basic advice? Why don't we have medical supplies made in this country? Why are we shopping in china for basic medical supplies? Why don't we gear our medical research to these types of threats and challenges, which we know are on the horizon? We know these viruses are changing. We know they mutate. Why don't we get ahead of it?
You still have to run society. Let's talk about first responder capacity. We now have first responders who are getting sick, and the workforce is dropping. That was inevitable, right? That was going to happen. What's the backup to that situation? And let's talk about societal stability, and engagement at times of crisis. You can't just tell everyone, "go home and lock your doors and sit on your couch and order takeout," for the foreseeable future. That's not who we are. It's not even a mental health issue. It's just, it's a personal health issue. It's how we relate to one another. We're not built to be isolated for long periods of time and not have human contact. So how do we deal with that?
And these are the types of questions that we have to start to think through. But not today. That is the next challenge, I believe. And that is what we're going to have to think about soon. But for now, one crisis at a time, as they say. And we are planning to handle with the current crisis, preparing for the battle on the mount, which is what we are doing every day. And that's what we are doing. And not only are we doing it, but we have to succeed at it. You know? Government process is very good at saying, "well, we're trying. We're working on this. We're doing our best. We're doing our best." Winston Churchill, "it is no use saying we're doing our best. You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary." Tad harsh goes with that expression, which I think you could say, tad harsh. Handsome, but a tad harsh, but it's true. And that's what I say to my team every day. This is beyond best efforts. This is beyond, "I'm working very hard." We have to get this done. We have succeed. We have to find a way. We have to make it happen, because too much is at stake.
April 01, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Regeneron is Creating 500,000 Test Kits for State at No Charge. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-regeneron-creating-500000-test-kits
Announces New York City Playgrounds Will Close to Address Lack of Adherence to Social Distancing Protocols; Open Spaces Will Remain Open
New PSA Provides Information on How to Apply for Unemployment Benefits, Reassures New Yorkers that Everyone Will Receive Full Benefits Even if Their Filing is Delayed
Reminds New Yorkers to Complete the 2020 U.S. Census Online, Over the Phone or by Mail
Confirms 7,917 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 83,712; New Cases in 42 Counties
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is creating 500,000 test kits for the State at no charge amid a nationwide shortage of test kits and swabs. The first batch of test kits was delivered to the State on Monday and the State will receive an ongoing delivery of 25,000 kits per day. Additionally, Corning has donated 100,000 tubes and provided an additional 500,000 tubes to the State at reduced cost and expedited delivery, and Puritan has sold medical swabs to the State. To date, the State has tested 220,880 individuals, with 15,694 new people tested just yesterday.
Governor Cuomo also announced that New York City playgrounds will close to address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols. Open spaces in New York City will remain open.
Additionally, the Governor announced the launch of a new PSA that provides information on how to apply for unemployment benefits and reassures New Yorkers if their unemployment filing is delayed, they will still receive full unemployment benefits. The PSA is also available with Spanish subtitles here.
The Governor also reminded New Yorkers to complete the 2020 Census online, by telephone or by mail.
Rapid testing is the fastest way to return to normalcy and get the economy back up and running
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
"New York has been very aggressive on testing from day one - so far we have tested more than 220,000 New Yorkers with more than 15,000 new tests every day - and it has helped us slow the spread of this virus," Governor Cuomo said. "Rapid testing is the fastest way to return to normalcy and get the economy back up and running, and will also help end the anxiety that has become the most oppressive part of this situation. We now have new testing capacity in New York thanks to donations from Regeneron and Corning so we can continue our work to plan forward and prepare for when the apex of the curve hits our healthcare system. In the meantime, New Yorkers must continue to comply with all social distancing protocols and stay home as much as possible to prevent spreading this virus to others."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 7,917 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 83,712 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 83,712 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
240
14
Allegany
9
2
Broome
42
4
Cattaraugus
7
1
Cayuga
3
0
Chautauqua
6
0
Chemung
22
2
Chenango
26
7
Clinton
25
4
Columbia
31
1
Cortland
8
0
Delaware
20
4
Dutchess
547
63
Erie
464
26
Essex
6
2
Franklin
9
0
Fulton
2
1
Genesee
13
3
Greene
18
2
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
12
0
Jefferson
12
0
Lewis
2
0
Livingston
14
1
Madison
51
10
Monroe
349
57
Montgomery
7
0
Nassau
9554
1010
Niagara
46
4
NYC
47439
4300
Oneida
50
10
Onondaga
217
23
Ontario
24
2
Orange
1756
200
Orleans
6
0
Oswego
17
2
Otsego
19
1
Putnam
207
21
Rensselaer
43
2
Rockland
3321
458
Saratoga
122
14
Schenectady
93
8
Schoharie
8
2
Schuyler
2
0
Seneca
2
0
St. Lawrence
34
4
Steuben
38
14
Suffolk
7605
892
Sullivan
121
12
Tioga
7
0
Tompkins
68
2
Ulster
221
10
Warren
18
0
Washington
10
0
Wayne
24
5
Westchester
10683
716
Wyoming
10
1
April 01, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Regeneron is Creating 500,000 Test Kits for State at No Charge. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-5
Corning Has Donated 100,000 Tubes and Provided 500,000 Tubes at Reduced Cost and Expedited Shipping to NYS; Puritan Has Sold Medical Swabs to State
Announces New York City Playgrounds Will Close to Address Lack of Adherence to Social Distancing Protocols; Open Spaces Will Remain Open
New PSA Provides Information on How to Apply for Unemployment Benefits, Reassures New Yorkers that Everyone Will Receive Full Benefits Even if Their Filing is Delayed
Reminds New Yorkers to Complete the 2020 U.S. Census Online, Over the Phone or by Mail
Confirms 7,917 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 83,712; New Cases in 42 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "New York is very aggressive on testing. We have been from day one, and we think that has helped us slow the spread of this virus."
Cuomo: "When do we get back to normal? I don't think we get back to normal. I think we get back, or we get to a new normal. Right? Like we're seeing in so many facets of society right now. So we will be at a different place."
Cuomo: "Our challenge is to make sure that transformation and that change is positive and not negative. Let's make sure we're taking the positive lesson and not the negative lesson."
Cuomo: "We also have to be smarter from what we went through. How do you make the economy more resilient? What happens when something like this happens again? And something like this will happen again."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is creating 500,000 test kits for the State at no charge amid a nationwide shortage of test kits and swabs. The first batch of test kits was delivered to the State on Monday and the State will receive an ongoing delivery of 25,000 kits per day. Additionally, Corning has donated 100,000 tubes and provided an additional 500,000 tubes to the State at reduced cost and expedited delivery, and Puritan has sold medical swabs to the State. To date, the State has tested 220,880 individuals, with 15,694 new people tested just yesterday.
Governor Cuomo also announced that New York City playgrounds will close to address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols. Open spaces in New York City will remain open.
Additionally, the Governor announced the launch of a new PSA that provides information on how to apply for unemployment benefits and reassures New Yorkers if their unemployment filing is delayed, they will still receive full unemployment benefits. The PSA is also available with Spanish subtitles here.
The Governor also reminded New Yorkers to complete the 2020 Census online, by telephone or by mail.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 7,917 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 83,712 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 83,712 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
240
14
Allegany
9
2
Broome
42
4
Cattaraugus
7
1
Cayuga
3
0
Chautauqua
6
0
Chemung
22
2
Chenango
26
7
Clinton
25
4
Columbia
31
1
Cortland
8
0
Delaware
20
4
Dutchess
547
63
Erie
464
26
Essex
6
2
Franklin
9
0
Fulton
2
1
Genesee
13
3
Greene
18
2
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
12
0
Jefferson
12
0
Lewis
2
0
Livingston
14
1
Madison
51
10
Monroe
349
57
Montgomery
7
0
Nassau
9554
1010
Niagara
46
4
NYC
47439
4300
Oneida
50
10
Onondaga
217
23
Ontario
24
2
Orange
1756
200
Orleans
6
0
Oswego
17
2
Otsego
19
1
Putnam
207
21
Rensselaer
43
2
Rockland
3321
458
Saratoga
122
14
Schenectady
93
8
Schoharie
8
2
Schuyler
2
0
Seneca
2
0
St. Lawrence
34
4
Steuben
38
14
Suffolk
7605
892
Sullivan
121
12
Tioga
7
0
Tompkins
68
2
Ulster
221
10
Warren
18
0
Washington
10
0
Wayne
24
5
Westchester
10683
716
Wyoming
10
1
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTubehere and in TV quality format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good afternoon. Lots going on today, coronavirus, also have that little thing called the State Budget that we have to get done. Let me give you an update on where we are.
I think everyone knows everyone - to my far right Dr. James Malatras; to my right Dr. Howard Zucker; Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor; Robert Mujica, Budget Director, numbers maven extraordinaire.
Overall the number continue to go up. We're still on our way up the mountain. The number of testing has increased. I'm very proud of this. The more you test, the more positives. I understand that but the more you test the more good you're doing. The number of tested is up 15,000, 220,000 total people now tested. Positive cases are up to 7,900. Total cases 83,712, down to one county that now doesn't have a COVID case.
That's what you're going to see going all across the nation. Well, we're a rural area - we're not going to get it. Oh really? COVID is in upstate New York if you want to talk about rural areas. We have rural areas. And just the way it's gone through rural New York, it will go through rural America.
Total numbers, 83,000 tested positive. 12,000 people currently hospitalized. That's up 1,200 people. 3,000 people in ICU. 6,000 patients discharged. That's up 1,167. People go into the hospital, they get better, they leave the hospital.
Most impacted states, New York is at 83,000. New Jersey is at 18,000. That's Governor Phil Murphy, who has been a great partner to me. Governor Ned Lamont also in Connecticut has done a great part. We've done a lot of great work as a region, which is very unusual. You know those lines between states often become walls. Not with Governor Murphy, and not with Governor Lamont. We're working together. And we're going to work cooperatively with New Jersey because they have a real problem.
California's ticking up. Michigan's ticking up. Florida is even ticking up. Massachusetts. But no one is anywhere near where we are, right? 83,000 compared to 18. Number of deaths, 1,900, up from 1,550. That number will continue to go up. That is people who have been on ventilators for a period of time. If you go on a ventilator, there's roughly only a 20% chance that you will come off the ventilator. The longer you're on the ventilator, the lower the chance you come off.
We're still looking for a curve. We're still looking to see where we hit the plateau. Total number of new hospitalized, again, you see the number goes up and down, but the overall trajectory of the number is up. Change in ICUadmissions, bounce here, bounce there. But the overall number is still up. Change in intubations, same thing. The line is basically a line that is going up. Change in the number of discharged, the line is going up. Why? More people going in, more people get treated, more people coming out.
Everyone asks the same questions, and they're all good questions. When is this going to be over? What happens? How does it end? And people want answers. I understand people want answers. I want answers. The answer is nobody knows for sure. Anyone who goes on cable TV and says, or network TV and says, this is what is going to happen, that's not true. Nobody knows what's going to happen. And I understand the need for closure, the need for control. We're at a place we've never been before, we're out of control. I need to know, I need to know. Nobody can tell you.
What you do know are facts. And you know, facts are funny things. What you're now getting are subjective facts, people who are optimists want to interpret it one way. People who are pessimists want to interpret the other way. People who bring their own subjective agenda tend to interpret the numbers a different way.
For me facts are facts and the facts that we offer the people of this state and the people of this country, they're not pessimistic facts or optimistic facts. They're not interpreted facts. They're just the best information we have as of this time and I think that is empowering and in some ways relaxing.
As I've mentioned to you, I say to my team all the time, I'm interested in your opinion, but I'm interested in your opinion second. I'm interested in the facts first. Give me the facts, unjaded by your opinion, because once a person has an opinion or once a person wants a certain outcome and they look at the facts through that filter, then you can interpret facts differently.
Just give me the straight facts. Sergeant Joe Friday: just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts. No opinion. There's something empowering to that.
We look for the facts to projection models. That's how we gage what we do. We follow the projection model. Every day you get additional data, they run that data into the model and they refine the model. Basically then we have a composite model because you have many different people out there with many different models. We use McKinsey, which is a consultant to the State, for this purpose to basically look at all the models and come up with a composite model. If people wonder, well where do you get these numbers, Governor? How do you decide what you're going to do? We have a model, we have a projection and that's what we follow.
The current model - and the model, by the way, even more maddening - the model changes the more data that comes in. Because they started with assumptions and presumptions and then the more data that comes in either affirms or discounts their presumptions that they started with. So they refine the model over time and the model changes and the numbers change. But what we're looking at now is the apex, top of the curve, roughly at the end of April. Which means another month of this. The apex, the recent number is you can need 110,000 COVID beds. What does that mean? Beds for COVID people as opposed to other people who are in the hospitals for other reasons. Thirty-seven thousand ventilators. That is our current model.
That model is based on minimal impact from social distancing. Meaning what? One of the great variables is how effective is the social distancing? Are people doing it? Are they complying with it and to what extent? And how effective is it? Nobody knows that answer, so they do different projections depending on how well social distancing works. How well people comply with it and how effective it is. Minimal social distancing impact is where we get the 110,000, 37,000 ventilators. High compliance with social distancing, you still have 75,000 COVID beds as opposed to 110,000. You have 25,000 ventilators. So when I keep pushing for high compliance on social distancing, it's because high compliance on social distancing will reduce the number. This is why they began talking about flatten the curve, flatten the curve, flatten the curve with social distancing. This says this is the difference between high compliance with social distancing and less compliance. If you have high compliance, you're down to 75,000 COVID beds, 25,000 ventilators. Less, it goes up to 110,000 and 37,000.
Interestingly, both are looking at the same point of apex, it's just a lower apex. Both models say you apex at the end of April, just a lower need at that apex. And that is what we want because this all comes down to at the apex, can your hospital system manage the volume of people coming into the hospital system. That's all this is about at the final analysis.
Now, there are also different models out there based on different presumptions. People studied China, people studied Wuhan. Well if you have the same compliance that you had in Wuhan. Wuhan basically just locked up society. I don't even know that if the federal government enacted the Wuhan model that the American people would comply. We have a totally different social structure, governmental structure. So you have different models that project higher or lower. What we're doing with McKinsey is studying all of them and coming up with a moderate model that is a basis for us to make planning decisions. Because I have to make decisions and I want to make the decisions off the numbers so that's what we're doing. It's not to say that there aren't other people with other opinions. There are many people with many opinions and some have the apex happening sooner, some have the apex happening later. You can find people who believe the apex will come in 7 days. You can have people who say the apex won't come for 6 weeks. You have that kind of range. You have a board range on the number of beds. You have a broad range on the number of ventilators. Our course for planning purposes is a moderate model because in truth, the higher models we don't even have a chance at meeting that capacity anyway.
You say over 110,000 beds. There is no possible way we could get there. So in some ways, an overly aggressive estimate doesn't even mean anything to us, because it's just unachievable. People ask well what's going to happen? And Dr. Fauci said yesterday or the day before, the days blend together, estimated 100,000 Americans may pass away. Some people have said 100 to 200,000 Americans may pass away before this is over. When is it over? When you achieve what they call herd immunity. How do you say 100 to 200? That's a broad range. Well it goes back to the other point. Nobody really knows. But 100 to 200, you're saying a significant amount of people lose their lives. There is a group that is funded by the Gates Foundation, thank you very much Bill Gates, that projects 93,000 Americans will lose their life by the time this is over. That model suggests 16,000 New Yorkers will pass away by the time this runs its course. My guess is, so when Dr. Fauci says 100,000, there are models out there that make these types of projections.
And what would that mean to New York? That would mean about 16,000. Frankly that would mean that New York is only 16 percent, roughly, of the number of deaths. I don't even understand that since New York is so much higher right now. But what that does say to the rest of the nation is, this is not just New York. If you believe these numbers. 16,000 deaths in New York, that means you're going to have tens of thousands of deaths outside of New York. So to the extent people watch their nightly news in Kansas and say well this is a New York problem, that's not what these numbers say. This says it's a New York problem today. Tomorrow it's a Kansas problem, and a Texas problem, and a New Mexico problem. That's why I say to my fellow governors and elected officials all across this country, look at us today, see yourself tomorrow.
And let's address it in New York, and let's cooperate to address it in New York, because it's going to be in your town tomorrow, metaphorically. And if we learn how to do it right here, or learn how to do it the best we can, because there is no right, it's only the best we can, then we can work cooperatively all across this country. The other thing this model says, people say, well when is it over? Two weeks, three weeks, four weeks? This model projects you're going to have a high death rate through July. If this model is correct, this could go through the summer. Now, other people talk about getting back to work, starting the economy, April, May, June. This model says it could go on through July.
Now the question has become nuanced. Well, could you still be dealing with a virus and get the economy up and running and get people out of their homes? Yes. I think there are ways to do both. Not picking between human life and the dollar bill, because no one is going to pick a dollar bill over human life. But can you come up with public health strategy that is consistent with people getting out of their homes, and starting to get back to work? Yes, you can.
My opinion is the best way to do that is to come up with a rapid testing procedure where people can test. They know who's positive, they know who's negative, and they know who can go back to work and come up with a test quickly, and they're starting, that is readily available, that people can do at home, so you can take the test, know where you are, and we can start ending this terrible situation that we're in. Also, you come up with testing and rapid testing. Not only do you get up, and get the economy running, you end the anxiety. The anxiety is what is most oppressive here. Not knowing. Not knowing if I'm positive, if my friend is positive, if my loved one is positive. Not knowing when this is going to end. The anxiety of dealing with this isolation, day after day after day, it's like a bad groundhog movie, you know. Day after day after day. When does it end? How does it end? I don't know. I'm out of control.
I think the testing is going to be the best mechanism to try to work through that. On the good news front, we have new testing available in New York. Regeneron, which is a great New York company, has created 500,000 testing kits at no charge. Thank you, Regeneron. And they are distributing them, of course across the state. Corning, another great company has donated 100,000 tubes, and 500,000 tubes, at reduced cost. So we can do more tests. New York is very aggressive on testing. We have been from day one, and we think that has helped us slow the spread of this virus.
My favorite topic - young people must get this message. And they still have not gotten the message. You still see too many situations with too much density by young people. They can get it. They're putting their lives at risk. This can kill young people. Rare circumstances, but it can. But you get infected, you give it to someone else. So think about somebody else. And I've said this 100 different ways. The compliance is still not where it should be. You saw the models on the differential in the compliance versus major compliance and minor compliance. So we're going to take more dramatic actions. We are going to close down the New York City playgrounds. I've talked about this for weeks. I warned people that if they didn't stop the density and the games in the playgrounds - you can't play basketball; you can't come in contact with each other - that we would close the playgrounds. I spoke to Speaker Johnson from New York City, who feels very strongly about this and did from day one. We agreed initially with the mayor that we would try compliance and the mayor was going to try to use the NYPD to enforce compliance, social distancing in playgrounds. It is still a problem. We're working with the speaker; we're working with the mayor, but we're going to close down the city playgrounds and leave the open spaces available. So use the open space in a park, walk around, get some sun - great. No density, no basketball games, no close contact, no violation of social distancing, period. That's the rule.
Other good news - we are working with all the hospitals in the state to do something they have never done before, which is to act as one, to cooperate to share supplies, share staff, support one and other, shift patients among hospitals, which really has never happened to any great extent. And the hospitals have been very cooperative and I want to thank them very much.
In this war, we must plan forward for the next battle. Meaning, we have been behind from day one. This virus has been ahead of us from day one. You don't win a war that way. The next battle is the apex. The next battle is on the top of the mountain. See that curve? You see a curve? I see a mountain. The next battle will happen at the top of that mountain. That's where it is going to be joined. And that's where the enemy either overwhelms our healthcare system, or we are able to handle the onslaught of the enemy at the top of that mountain. And that's what we're planning for every day.
But I want to offer you a different perspective that I'm starting to think about and I think we all should start to think about.
As a society, beyond just this immediate situation, we should start looking forward to understand how this experience is going to change us, or how it should change us, because this is going to be transformative. It is going to be transformative on a personal basis, on a social basis, on a systems basis. We're never going to be the same again. We're not going to forget what happened here.
The fear that we have, the anxiety that we have, that's not just going to go away. When do we get back to normal? I don't think we get back to normal. I think we get back, or we get to a new normal. Right? Like we're seeing in so many facets of society right now. So we will be at a different place.
Our challenge is to make sure that transformation and that change is positive and not negative. Let's make sure we're taking the positive lesson and not the negative lesson.
You could get wary of intimacy, and contact, and density. "Social distancing, don't go near anyone." What a terrible thing to live with as a human being. What a cruel torture. "Isolate yourself from other people. Be afraid of hugging someone." Just think how emotionally and personally repugnant that concept is, right? We crave human connection, and now we're being told that could be dangerous. You can't kiss. You can't hug. You can't hold hands. So how we come out of this, and making sure that it's positive and not negative. How do we learn from this? And how do we grow from this, right?
Society, life - you will get knocked on your rear end. You will deal with pain. You will deal with death. You will deal with setback. You will deal with suffering. The question is, how do you get up? First, do you get up? And second, if you get up, how do you get up? Do you get up smarter? Do you get up wiser? Or do you get up bitter, and do you get up angry? And do you get up fearful? We are in control of that.
And we have to start to think about that. We also have to be smarter from what we went through. How do you make the economy more resilient? What happens when something like this happens again? And something like this will happen again. "Oh, no, this is a once in a lifetime, never again." Something like this will happen again. We're seeing it in the environment. We're seeing it with floods, we're seeing it with hurricanes. Something like this will happen again. You can't just turn off the economy like a light switch.
How do governments work together? You can't figure it out on the fly - what the federal government does, what the state government does, what the local governments do. Figure it out before. Learn the lessons from this. Telemedicine, and tele-education. We have closed the schools. Well why weren't we ready with a tele-education system? Why weren't we better with telemedicine? Why didn't we have the capacity to have that's lines on people coming in to give the same basic diagnosis and the same basic advice? Why don't we have medical supplies made in this country? Why are we shopping in china for basic medical supplies? Why don't we gear our medical research to these types of threats and challenges, which we know are on the horizon? We know these viruses are changing. We know they mutate. Why don't we get ahead of it?
You still have to run society. Let's talk about first responder capacity. We now have first responders who are getting sick, and the workforce is dropping. That was inevitable, right? That was going to happen. What's the backup to that situation? And let's talk about societal stability, and engagement at times of crisis. You can't just tell everyone, "go home and lock your doors and sit on your couch and order takeout," for the foreseeable future. That's not who we are. It's not even a mental health issue. It's just, it's a personal health issue. It's how we relate to one another. We're not built to be isolated for long periods of time and not have human contact. So how do we deal with that?
And these are the types of questions that we have to start to think through. But not today. That is the next challenge, I believe. And that is what we're going to have to think about soon. But for now, one crisis at a time, as they say. And we are planning to handle with the current crisis, preparing for the battle on the mount, which is what we are doing every day. And that's what we are doing. And not only are we doing it, but we have to succeed at it. You know? Government process is very good at saying, "well, we're trying. We're working on this. We're doing our best. We're doing our best." Winston Churchill, "it is no use saying we're doing our best. You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary." Tad harsh goes with that expression, which I think you could say, tad harsh. Handsome, but a tad harsh, but it's true. And that's what I say to my team every day. This is beyond best efforts. This is beyond, "I'm working very hard." We have to get this done. We have succeed. We have to find a way. We have to make it happen, because too much is at stake.
Last point on a personal note - my brother Christopher, as I told you yesterday, tested positive for the coronavirus. He's at home. He's doing fine enough. He has a fever, he has chills, symptoms of basically a very bad flu. But I want - I think this is illustrative in a number of ways. First of all, anyone can get this disease. Relatively young people, strong people, people who take a lot of vitamin pills. People who go to the gym a lot. Anyone can get this disease. There is no superhero who is immune from this disease. That goes for a New Yorker, as well as a Texan, as well as a Californian. Anyone can get it. No one can be protected from it. I couldn't protect my own brother. With all he knows, and as smart as he is, he couldn't protect himself. So, anyone can get it. And everyone has to be protected. I understand the data. I understand 80% self-resolve, 20% going to the hospitals. Christopher is not in the category that is problematic, by all the data he should have it, he'll have it for a period of time, and he will then resolve. If he has bad symptoms, he'll go into the hospital, he'll be treated, and he'll be released. That's what all the numbers say.
Even though that's what all the numbers say, when he told me he had the coronavirus, it scared me. It frightened me. Why? Because we still don't know. We still don't know. And even if there's just a 1 percent, 2 percent chance, it's frightening. It is frightening. It frightened me. And I deal with all sorts of stuff, and I've seen all sorts of things, and it frightened me. Why? Because we're talking about my brother. We're talking about my little brother. This is my best friend. Talk to him several times a day. Basically, spent my whole life with him. And it is frightening on a fundamental level. And it's frightening because there's nothing I can do, and I'm out of control, and there's nobody who can tell me, and Doctor Zucker can't tell me anything, and Tony Fauci can't tell me anything, because nobody really knows. And this situation is the same situation for everyone. For everyone. So yes. I'm frightened for my brother. I'm worried about my brother, as everyone is worried about everyone in their family, and everybody they love.
I take solace in the numbers, and the facts, because you can't divorce yourself from the facts, otherwise you go to a place of irrationality. But we're emotional beings. And as an emotional being, it is frightening, and it is unknown. And it is threatening, and it is scary and people are dying. He's going to be okay. I believe that. He's in his basement. And I sent him over a book that could be helpful. "Beginner's Guide to Striped Bass Fishing." I hope he picks up some tips from that.
But I also want to say to him, because I want him to know, he found out yesterday morning that he had coronavirus. He did his show last night. He did a show last night from his basement. What a gutsy, courageous thing to do. And we talked about it. And in some ways this can be very instructive, I think, to many people. Because everybody wants to know well what happens if you get coronavirus? All right, he did. And he does this show every night. Maybe some nights he won't be able to do it, but he does this show every night.
So, what's the positive? Show the country what it means to have coronavirus. And that information, that experience can be helpful to people. And that's why he did the show last night. Okay, I have coronavirus. But you know what? Here I am. I'm doing my show. I didn't fall over. I didn't collapse. It's not a death sentence. Here I am. I'm doing my show. Kudos to him. My pop would be proud. I love you little brother. And even though this isn't a flattering picture, I did not pick this picture with your mouth open, but it is suitable in some ways. Any questions, comments?
April 01, 2020.
Video, Audio & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces New York City Playgrounds Will Close. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-new-york
Governor Cuomo: "I've said this 100 different ways. The compliance is still not where it should be. You saw the models on the differential in the compliance versus major compliance and minor compliance. So we're going to take more dramatic actions."
Governor Cuomo: "I've talked about this for weeks. I warned people that if they didn't stop the density and the games in the playgrounds - you can't play basketball; you can't come in contact with each other - that we would close the playgrounds."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that New York City playgrounds will close to address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols. Open spaces in New York City will remain open.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
My favorite topic - young people must get this message. And they still have not gotten the message. You still see too many situations with too much density by young people. They can get it. They're putting their lives at risk. This can kill young people. Rare circumstances, but it can. But you get infected, you give it to someone else. So think about somebody else. And I've said this 100 different ways. The compliance is still not where it should be. You saw the models on the differential in the compliance versus major compliance and minor compliance. So we're going to take more dramatic actions.
We are going to close down the New York City playgrounds. I've talked about this for weeks. I warned people that if they didn't stop the density and the games in the playgrounds - you can't play basketball; you can't come in contact with each other - that we would close the playgrounds. I spoke to Speaker Johnson from New York City, who feels very strongly about this and did from day one. We agreed initially with the mayor that we would try compliance and the mayor was going to try to use the NYPD to enforce compliance, social distancing in playgrounds. It is still a problem. We're working with the speaker; we're working with the mayor, but we're going to close down the city playgrounds and leave the open spaces available. So use the open space in a park, walk around, get some sun - great. No density, no basketball games, no close contact, no violation of social distancing, period. That's the rule.
April 02, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces State Department of Health Has Approved New Protocol to Allow BiPAP Machines to be Converted Into Ventilators. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-state-department-health-has-approved
State Has Purchased 3,000 BiPAP Machines from Philips in Pittsburgh; 750 BiPAP Machines Already In Stock
State Will Conduct a Hospital-by-Hospital Survey on a Nightly Basis to Take Inventory of Every Hospital's Supplies; All Hospitals Are Being Asked to Contribute Supplies They Don't Currently Need to a Centralized Stockpile to be Distributed to Hospitals with Greatest Need
21,000 Out-of-State Individuals Have Volunteered to Work in New York's Healthcare System During COVID-19 Pandemic; 85,400 Health Professionals Have Signed up to Volunteer as Part of the State's Surge Healthcare Force to Date
Urges Businesses to Begin Manufacturing PPE Products; State Will Pay to Convert Manufacturing Facilities to Make PPE Products
Consumers and Small Businesses Experiencing Financial Hardship Due to COVID-19 May Defer Paying Health Insurance Premiums through June 1, 2020
Special Enrollment Period for Uninsured New Yorkers to Apply for Coverage Through NY State of Health or Directly to Insurers Extended Through May 15, 2020
If You Lost Employer Coverage, You Must Apply Within 60 Days of Losing That Coverage; Because of Loss of Income, New Yorkers May Also Be Eligible for Medicaid, the Essential Plan, Subsidized Qualified Health Plans or Child Health Plus
Confirms 8,669 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 92,381; New Cases in 46 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the State Department of Health has approved Northwell's protocol allowing BiPAP machines to be converted into ventilators. The State has purchased 3,000 BiPAP machines from Philips in Pittsburgh, and 750 machines are already in stock and will be distributed to hospitals. The State has already taken a number of extraordinary measures to acquire more ventilators and build the State's stockpile, including tracking where all the ventilators are located in New York and shifting their locations to meet the highest need and ending elective surgeries. If necessary, hospitals may also use anesthesia machine ventilators or use a "splitting" protocol where one ventilator is used for two patients using separate tubes.
Governor Cuomo also announced the State has begun conducting a hospital-by-hospital survey on a nightly basis to take inventory of every hospital's supplies. Additionally, all hospitals are being asked to contribute the supplies they don't currently need to a central stockpile to be distributed to hospitals with the greatest need.
The Governor also announced that 21,000 out-of-state individuals have volunteered to work in New York's healthcare system on a temporary basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, 85,400 health professionals in New York have signed up to volunteer as part of the State's surge healthcare force.
The Governor is also encouraging any company with the proper equipment or personnel to begin to manufacture PPE products if possible. The state is willing to provide funding to any company to obtain the proper equipment and personnel. Businesses interested in receiving state funding to manufacture PPE products should call 212-803-3100 or email COVID19supplies@esd.ny.gov.
The Governor announced that, through June 1, 2020, consumers and businesses experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 may defer paying premiums under individual and small group health insurance policies. DFS shall consider any liquidity or solvency concerns of the health plans. During this period, health plans will be required to continue to pay claims, not to report late payments to credit rating agencies, and to work with individuals to help them transition to new coverage, if appropriate. In addition, insurers are reminded that they cannot impose late payment fees. Governor Cuomo thanked Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont for his collaboration on this initiative.
We are continuing to plan forward and prepare our healthcare system for when the apex of the curve hits.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
The NY State of Health and the New York State Department of Financial Services announced a one-month extension of the special enrollment period through May 15, 2020 to allow uninsured New Yorkers to apply for coverage through NY State of Health or directly to insurers. If you lost employer coverage, you must apply within 60 days of losing that coverage. Because of a loss of income, New Yorkers may also be eligible for Medicaid, the Essential Plan, subsidized Qualified Health Plans or Child Health Plus.
"We are continuing to plan forward and prepare our healthcare system for when the apex of the curve hits," Governor Cuomo said. "We are taking extraordinary measures to acquire more personal protective equipment, find beds to increase hospital capacity and recruit staff, but there is still a critical need for all three of these components, and we need all three in order for our hospitals to actually function and provide care. Ventilators remain our most significant challenge, and today the State Department of Health has approved protocols that will allow us to use BiPAP machines as ventilators, and we have already acquired 3,000 of these machines to be deployed to hospitals with the greatest need."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 8,669 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 92,381 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 92,381 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
253
13
Allegany
12
3
Broome
46
4
Cattaraugus
8
1
Cayuga
4
1
Chautauqua
8
2
Chemung
22
0
Chenango
28
2
Clinton
25
0
Columbia
36
5
Cortland
8
0
Delaware
22
2
Dutchess
667
120
Erie
617
153
Essex
6
0
Franklin
9
0
Fulton
6
4
Genesee
14
1
Greene
21
3
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
14
2
Jefferson
15
3
Lewis
2
0
Livingston
14
0
Madison
60
9
Monroe
420
71
Montgomery
8
1
Nassau
10,587
1,033
Niagara
76
30
NYC
51,809
4,370
Oneida
61
11
Onondaga
234
17
Ontario
26
2
Orange
1,993
237
Orleans
6
0
Oswego
22
5
Otsego
21
2
Putnam
216
9
Rensselaer
53
10
Rockland
3,751
430
Saratoga
132
10
Schenectady
101
8
Schoharie
8
0
Schuyler
3
1
Seneca
4
2
St. Lawrence
39
5
Steuben
43
5
Suffolk
8,746
1,141
Sullivan
143
22
Tioga
7
0
Tompkins
74
6
Ulster
240
19
Warren
18
0
Washington
12
2
Wayne
27
3
Westchester
11,567
884
Wyoming
14
4
Yates
1
1
April 02, 2020.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Announces Temporary Hospital Facility at Javits Convention Center Will Treat COVID-19 Patients. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-andrew-m-cuomo-announces-temporary-hospital-facility-javits-convention-center-will
"As we all know the growing coronavirus cases are threatening the capacity of our hospital system. The state-owned Javits Center has been turned into a 2,500-bed emergency medical facility being run by the US Army. The original plan for Javits was that it be used to take non-COVID patients from hospitals to open up hospital beds. However, the number of COVID positive patients has increased so dramatically that it would be beneficial to the state if Javits could accept COVID positive patients.
"I asked President Trump this morning to consider the request and theurgency of the matter, and the President has just informed me that he granted New York's request. I thank the President for his cooperation in this pressing matter and his expeditious decision making."
April 02, 2020.
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-msnbcs-rachel-maddow-show
Governor Cuomo: "New York is going to have one apex. Detroit will have another. New Orleans will have another. Texas will have another. Los Angeles will have another. Why don't we devise a national strategy that moves with that rolling apex, if you will? I need roughly 30,000 ventilators, which I can't get, but I only need 30,000 ventilators for two or three weeks at the top of my curve. I need backup public health professionals. But I only need them for two or three weeks at the top of my curve. Why don't we use our national unity and our commonality and say, let's be smart, let's go help this place, when that town goes over its curve, then we'll go to the next[?]"
Cuomo: "We will return the favor. When we get past our apex, I will pack up every ventilator, I will bring our entire health team and I will go to any community across the country. I will drive personally, and provide them the assistance and thank for them for what they did for New York."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on MSNBC's the Rachel Maddow Show to discuss New York's ongoing effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
AUDIO is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Rachel Maddow: Governor, thank you so much for making time to be here tonight. I really appreciate it.
Governor Cuomo: Thank you. Thank you, Rachel.
Rachel Maddow: First of all, if you don't mind me asking, I do wonder how you are, and how you are holding up, weeks into this crisis now. I have on this show sort of called you the president of the coronavirus response because of the national leadership that you've shown and the national attention to what you are contending with in New York. I just wonder how this is wearing on you after these few weeks.
Governor Cuomo: Well, first, thank you for having me on, and more importantly, on behalf of all Americans, thank you for your coverage. It has really been extraordinary. You know, it's hard. It is really hard. I take my responsibilities seriously. I don't make excuses. When you have 2,300 people who die, and you see it every day and it's only getting worse, that's tough, Rachel, just to deal with, day in and day out. Obviously on an organizational basis, it's hectic. It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week but I've been through that before. It's the death, it's the human suffering, it's the fear, it's the anxiety, that weighs on you. More than the physical fatigue it's the emotional fatigue.
Rachel Maddow: I showed the daily number of how hospitalizations have increased day by day in New York City. We've also seen similar rises in New York State. You've talked very publicly about trying to understand what the models are creating in terms of an imperative for New York, the need to simultaneously hospitalize somewhere on the order of 110,000, 140,000 at the same time in New York at peak. I know you're adding bed capacity everywhere you can, but do you have a clear expectation when every bed will be full and there won't be room to take more patients? Are you sure New York will hit that point and do you know when it might be?
Governor Cuomo: Well, that's the $64,000 question, Rachel. We only know what the projection models say. And by the way, the projection models say different things. For example, when do you hit the top of the curve? Some models say seven days from now. Some models say 21 days from now. So there is a variable about how effective they believe social distancing is. The number of total beds that we would need ranges 60,000 to 110,000, so the range in these models is maddening, frankly, because if you're trying to plan for it it's very hard. But whatever model you pick it eclipses everything we have. We have a 50,000-bed system. We have 36,000 beds in downstate New York where this will hit. It's beds. It's staff. It's equipment. And the easiest thing to do is get the beds frankly. It's going to be about the staff and the equipment and it may even be about the equipment more than the staff, right? You need all three for the system to work and the first one that crumbles, the system crumbles.
Rachel Maddow: Governor, you talk about the anxiety and the fear and the grind of the logistical work that you're doing. I have a base fear when I think about there being severely ill Americans, even by the tens, let alone by the hundreds of the thousands, who need to be hospitalized, who need to be hospital, and need intensive care in order to stay alive, not being able to go anywhere to get that care. I know that we talk about these number and these models and I know lots of states right now are looking at those curves and looking at those projections and seeing how many more beds they are going to need, and how many more ICU beds they are going to need, but I don't know how to prepare people for what it might mean when the hospitals are full and what that is going to do in terms of us as a culture and a society, seeing that kind of level of human suffering.
Governor Cuomo: Rachel, God forbid we get there. God forbid this country gets to a point where you see people literally on gurneys in hallways. For this state I am not going to accept that. We are doing everything we can to mobilize. We're trying everything. For us it is going to come down to not the beds; it is going to be staff fatigue and it is ventilators. You know, most of, almost all of these people now at this point are almost all ICU cases. They all need ventilators and the ventilator becomes a question of life and death and we've been talking about these ventilators for a long period of time. And they're impossible to get, any ventilators. So we've come up with an elaborate plan on how to move around ventilators and splitting ventilators and using anesthesia machines and BiPAP machines. We stopped all elective surgery to free up ventilators. First we have to avoid it. Second we have to be smarter. The one silver lining here is not every place in this country gets hit at the same time. There's going to be a different curve for the disease in different areas depending on when it started. Those curves will have a lag. The problem for every area is the apex of the curve where it just overwhelms the health care system.
New York is going to have one apex. Detroit will have another. New Orleans will have another. Texas will have another. Los Angeles will have another. Why don't we devise a national strategy that moves with that rolling apex, if youwill. I need roughly 30,000 ventilators, which I can't get, but I only need 30,000 ventilators for two or three weeks at the top of my curve. I need backup public health professionals. But I only need them for two or three weeks at the top of my curve. I need backup public health professionals, but I only need them for 2 or 3 weeks at the top of my curve. Why don't we use our national unity and our commonality and say, let's be smart, let's go help this place, when that town goes over its curve, then we'll go to the next, and then we will go to the next, and then we'll go to the next. I think Americans have a lot more commonality and volunteerism than we're using. I asked for national public health people to come into New York. We had over 20,000 volunteers in three days. Twenty thousand. I have 60,000 volunteers in the state. There is more goodwill and American spirit than we are using and I think there's a smarter deployment.
Rachel Maddow: You have been making that case for the federal deployment of resources for the sort of mutually-supportive deployment of resources to the places that most need them, understanding that not everybody is going to hit their apex at the same time. Has that resonated at all with the federal government? I know that you've got a mixed relationship with the Trump administration right now, and they have been able to talk to you about some things and you have been critical of them on others. Has that point that you've been making come home to them at all? I don't see any way that other states or any other cities, that are approaching what New York is in right now, I don't see any other way that they are going to be able to deal with the rolling apexes that you're describing.
Governor Cuomo: You're right. First, to say that I have a mixed relationship with the President is very kind. There is probably no Governor in the country that has been more critical, and probably no Governor in the country that he has been more aggressive towards with his tweets. But on this one, the President and I have said look, this is not about politics. If you help New York State, I will be gracious and say thank you and be in partnership. And if you don't help New York State, I will say that the states can't organize this rolling deployment on their own. It would have to be federally organized. I don't see how you do it otherwise.
Otherwise you're saying to every state, every locality, you must be prepared on your own to handle this. The federal government will give you some back support, but it's up to you. It's not going to work that way, or it could work better the other way. Let's say it that way, Rachel. Which is let the federal government say, look, this is like a slow-moving hurricane across the country, and we know the track that it's going to take. Let's go to New York, board it up, do what we have to do. We all go to New York, and then we all go to Detroit, and then we all go to the next place. I think that's the only way you do it.
Where we are now, 50 states all trying to buy the same equipment, from China, and then the federal government comes in with FEMA, which is trying to purchase the same equipment. This is not the way to do it. I mean obviously, if you could design a system, nobody would design a system where you say to the states, "Okay, you're on your own. You go buy equipment, all shopping the same manufacturers in China." Emergency management rule 101 is leave it to the local governments, right? Local government knows best. That is emergency management rule 101. I was in the Clinton administration, as the HUD Secretary, as you know, and I did emergency management work for eight years. Rule one is leave it to the localities. Rule two is, if the localities can't handle it, then the federal government steps in. Remember what happened with President Bush with Hurricane Katrina. He blamed the Mayor. Why? Because that was rule one. The Mayor didn't know how to handle it and it's the Mayor's fault. Yeah, but it was rule two, which is if it's beyond the capacity of the local government, then the federal government should step in. No state is equipped to handle this situation. State emergency management does hurricanes, floods of moderate dimension, if they are really big, the federal government comes in; that's what FEMA is all about. States don't do public health emergencies. There is no capacity in my state health system that runs 50,000 beds to create and maintain an additional 50,000 beds, just in case once every 20 years, there is a pandemic. You know, it doesn't work that way. But that's where we are now. Hindsight is 20/20. But the states are responsible for their own purchasing, and frankly, there's nothing left to buy anymore anyway. I bought 17,000 ventilators, ordered 17,000 ventilators from China, but I think what's happening is when somebody else outbids you, your order just is gone. I haven't even received 1,000. So that horse is out of the barn. The deployment we could still do, and I think Americans would support that.
Rachel Maddow: In terms of the way it has worked thus far with the federal government, one of the things that we've covered here on the show is the federal government, the Army Corps coming in and helping build out, for example, the Javits Center in New York. Lots of cities are setting up their convention centers as hospitals to house coronavirus patients and you were the first out of the gate with that with this Javits Center buildout in Manhattan. We also saw the navy hospital ship, the Comfort arrive in New York harbor, but there has been some intriguing twists around both of them. The New York Times reporting tonight that the Comfort has a grand total of three patients on board. The Comfort of course has been set up to not take coronavirus patients, until today, the Javits Center was not planning on taking any coronavirus patients either but your office released a statement tonight saying that now that has changed. It seems odd for those things to be changing course now. It seems weird for the hospital ship to essentially be disused in the harbor when New York hospitals are full up. What can you tell us about those federally supported facilities right now?
Governor Cuomo: In fairness, Rachel, the plan was both the U.S. Navy ship Comfort, and the Javits Center emergency medical facility were supposed to be for non-COVID-19 people. The plan was they would be a relief valve for the local hospitals to take the non-COVID patients, and then more COVIDpatients could go into the hospitals. What has happened is the COVIDpatients have overwhelmed the hospitals. Hospitals have now just basically turned into ICU units with COVID patients and because everything is closed down, there are fewer normal trauma cases, and since I stopped all of the elective surgery, you don't have those patients. So the offloading of non-COVID patients really doesn't exist. The Javits Center is at 2,500 beds. We are at desperate search for beds with staff. Javits has beds but more importantly federal staff, and federal equipment. And I called the President this morning, and I explained the situation to him, and to his credit, to his credit, Rachel, in one day he turned around, and he called me this afternoon and said we're going to use Javits for COVID patients, which is a big deal. It's25 additional, 2,500 additional beds. The military apparently doesn't want to use the ship for non-COVID-19, because of a protocol on how they would then disinfect the ship which I don't really understand, frankly. But the ship was never supposed to be for COVID patients. The original understanding was non-COVID-patients.
Rachel Maddow: There is this alarming report today from the entity that manages New York City hospitals, that, if you're in cardiac arrest somewhere in New York City, and EMTs show up and they can't revive you on-site, there is now a change in protocol, where they are not taking you to a hospital to try to revive you there because the hospitals are so overwhelmed. It does seem like having that hospital ship in New York harbor with no coronavirus patients on it, with, as far as we can tell, hundreds of empty beds, and staff there, to deal with it, they could be taking the few trauma patients, the few heart attack patients, the other people who now can't get into the New York city hospitals.
Governor Cuomo: Well, theoretically, they can. This is all new. You have protocols that aren't really established, that have to be set up. Theoretically, the U.S. Navy ship comfort could take a non-COVID trauma case. So I don't know how that protocol works on that. But look, this is, we're all doing the best we can, trying to put together a system, that can handle over 150, 200% of what the system is designed to do. And the federal facilities are an advantage. For us, what it is going to come down to is the staff burnout, staff getting sick, we have 80,000 volunteers, can we get them oriented to the right hospitals and in the right places. And then the equipment, and these ventilators that I never heard of before, now become the most precious piece of equipment, and the difference between life and death. You literally can't acquire them. And we're looking at right now, we have about enough ventilators for six days at our current burn rate, right, of how many we use, how many additional ventilators we use every day. We get past that point, if we're not yet at the apex, we're going to be in a bad place. We have a backup plan to come up, and with additional ventilators, by basically McGyvering the ventilators, but this is truly frightening. I've handled a lot of emergencies, a lot of disasters, as Governor and in the federal government, but this by far and away, nothing comes close to this, in terms of the need for intelligent, rigorous, muscled government to respond quickly and smartly. It all comes down to whether your health care system can handle it. There is no concept here. There is no philosophy. It's can you handle the number of people walking in the door. That's all this is. And if you can't, people die. That's what this is.
And the simplicity is what makes it so tragic, frankly. Because we don't have a piece of equipment, someone is going to die? Because we don't have staff, someone is going to die? How did we get to this place? In this country? That we have to buy all of our supplies from China? I can't get protective equipment because China is making it? China is making the ventilators? We couldn't figure out how to make protective equipment quickly enough? We couldn't figure out how to make ventilators? We can't figure out this rolling deployment? Which makes all the sense in the world and it frankly is simpler for every locality. I said we have all of 20,000 volunteers coming across the country, I said we will return the favor. When we get past our apex, I will pack up every ventilator, I will bring our entire health team and I will go to any community across the country. I will drive personally, and provide them the assistance and thank for them for what they did for New York. That's what we do. There is something called mutual aid in emergencies, in a flood or in a power utility, where utility companies flex. If you remember, you will see on the road, large utility trucks, whenever there is a national emergency, Arizona trucks driving to New York City, New York City trucks driving to Florida. That's how we react to those emergencies. We, mutual aid, you flex, with the need. That we could be doing here. And the consequences are going to be devastating. And what keeps me up at night, is not just the numbers, but a deep sense that it didn't have to be. It didn't have to be.
Rachel Maddow: Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York. I know you have to go, sir, I will just say one last thing before I go, is please give your brother my love and the love of all of us at the Rachel Maddow show, we are not as much rivals as we think of ourselves as colleagues and we are really all hoping the best for him.
Governor Cuomo: He has tremendous respect for you, as do I.
Rachel Maddow: Thank you.
April 03, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa Announces Domestic Violence Hotline. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amidst-covid-19-pandemic-secretary-governor-melissa-derosa
State Domestic Violence Hotline Can Be Reached at 1-800-942-6906
Melissa DeRosa: "Women should know that they don't have to stay in those situations. We will help them relocate. We will help them find safe shelter."
Earlier today at a briefing on New York's COVID-19 response, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa announced that State Police will respond to all calls to New York's domestic violence hotline.
VIDEO of the remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the remarks is available here.
PHOTOS are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
The State has a 1-800 number. It is 1-800-942-6906. That is our domestic violence hotline. Women should know that they don't have to stay in those situations. We will help them relocate. We will help them find safe shelter. And if there is an issue where you are in immediate harm, call 911 immediately. I spoke to the State Police this morning. There is a reported uptick, as you said, some reports as high as 15 to 20 percent. It's unacceptable on any day and I want people to know that in every single case that is reported, the State Police is going to investigate fully and bring the full bear of the law behind it.
April 03, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic, Secretary to the Governor Melissa Derosa Announces Domestic Violence Hotline. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amidst-covid-19-pandemic-secretary-governor-melissa-derosa-0
State Domestic Violence Hotline Can Be Reached at 1-800-942-6906
Melissa DeRosa: "Women should know that they don't have to stay in those situations. We will help them relocate. We will help them find safe shelter."
Earlier today at a briefing on New York's COVID-19 response, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa announced that State Police will respond to all calls to New York's domestic violence hotline.
VIDEO of the remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the remarks is available here.
PHOTOS are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
The State has a 1-800 number. It is 1-800-942-6906. That is our domestic violence hotline. Women should know that they don't have to stay in those situations. We will help them relocate. We will help them find safe shelter. And if there is an issue where you are in immediate harm, call 911 immediately. I spoke to the State Police this morning. There is a reported uptick, as you said, some reports as high as 15 to 20 percent. It's unacceptable on any day and I want people to know that in every single case that is reported, the State Police is going to investigate fully and bring the full bear of the law behind it.
April 03, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Executive Order Allowing State to Redistribute Ventilators & Personal Protective Equipment to Hospitals with Highest Need. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-executive-order-allowing-state
The Equipment Will Be Returned to the Hospital or the Hospital Will Be Reimbursed for the Equipment in the Future
Temporary Hospital Facility at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Will Be Used for Only COVID-19 Patients
Launches New Website to Provide New York's Comprehensive COVID-19 Testing Data to the Public
New Drive-Through Mobile Testing Facility Will Open in Albany Next Week - State Has Opened 7 Mobile Facilities to Date
Confirms 10,482 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 102,863; New Cases in 49 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo will issue an Executive Order allowing the state to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment, or PPE, from institutions that don't currently need them and redeploy the equipment to other hospitals with the highest need. The National Guard will be used to transport the ventilators and PPE across the state. The equipment will be returned to the hospital or the hospital will be reimbursed for the equipment in the future.
Governor Cuomo also announced the temporary hospital facility at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center will now be used for COVID-19 patients only. Yesterday, President Trump granted the Governor's request for the Javits facility to accept COVID-19 positive patients.
Governor Cuomo also announced the launch of www.ny.gov/covid-19tracker, which will provide New York State's comprehensive coronavirus testing data to the public. The website, which will be updated daily with the latest data, presents visualizations of statewide and county-level testing and results. The public can also access the testing data through Open NY at data.ny.gov, New York State's open data portal, which offers machine readable datasets in downloadable standard formats that can be sorted, searched, analyzed and applied to new uses.
The Governor also announced the State will open a critical new COVID-19 mobile testing site for the Capital District region in partnership with Albany Medical Center, St. Peter's Health Partners and The University at Albany. The mobile testing center will be located in a parking lot at the State University of New York at Albany campus - 1400 Washington Avenue, Colonial Quad parking lot, accessible from main UAlbany entry, off Washington Avenue, Albany. The site will prioritize tests for individuals that are among the highest risk population. Residents who would like to be tested must make an appointment by calling 888-364-3065. There will be no walk-ins allowed and all patients must be in a vehicle. The center is slated to be operational on Monday, April 6, at 10 am. Site hours will be Monday - Sunday, 8 am - 6 pm.
Our greatest challenge has been ventilators - we are running out of them in our most stressed regions.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Drive-through mobile testing facilities help keep people who are sick or at risk of having contracted coronavirus out of healthcare facilities where they could infect other people. New York is currently testing more than 16,000 people per day, more than any other state and more than China and South Korea on a per capital basis.
"We have taken extraordinary measures to build our stockpile of ventilators, masks and other personal protective equipment, but we still do not have enough," Governor Cuomo said. "Our greatest challenge has been ventilators - we are running out of them in our most stressed regions of the state, and there are hospitals in other parts of the state that have ventilators that they are not using and I will not be in a position where people are dying and we have several hundred ventilators in our own state somewhere else. I am signing a new Executive Order that will allow the state to redistribute these ventilators from institutions that don't need them now and send them to hospitals in other parts of the state that do need them. And when our curve is over, New Yorkers are going to take our equipment, our personnel and our knowledge and we will go to any community in this nation that needs help, because that outpouring has been there for us."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 10,482 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 102,863 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 102,863 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
267
14
Allegany
14
2
Broome
56
10
Cattaraugus
9
1
Cayuga
6
2
Chautauqua
9
1
Chemung
35
13
Chenango
32
4
Clinton
30
5
Columbia
42
6
Cortland
10
2
Delaware
24
2
Dutchess
809
142
Erie
720
103
Essex
6
0
Franklin
10
1
Fulton
6
0
Genesee
16
2
Greene
23
2
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
14
0
Jefferson
18
3
Lewis
2
0
Livingston
16
2
Madison
70
10
Monroe
464
44
Montgomery
10
2
Nassau
12,024
1,437
Niagara
94
18
NYC
57,159
5,350
Oneida
71
10
Onondaga
252
18
Ontario
28
2
Orange
2,397
404
Orleans
9
3
Oswego
26
4
Otsego
21
0
Putnam
252
36
Rensselaer
56
3
Rockland
4,289
538
Saratoga
141
9
Schenectady
110
9
Schoharie
9
1
Schuyler
3
0
Seneca
6
2
St. Lawrence
43
4
Steuben
46
3
Suffolk
10,154
1,408
Sullivan
168
25
Tioga
7
0
Tompkins
84
10
Ulster
263
23
Warren
19
1
Washington
15
3
Wayne
30
3
Westchester
12,351
784
Wyoming
15
1
Yates
1
0
April 03, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Executive Order Allowing State to Redistribute Ventilators & Personal Protective Equipment to Hospitals with Highest Need. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-7
The Equipment Will Be Returned to the Hospital or the Hospital Will Be Reimbursed for the Equipment in the Future
Temporary Hospital Facility at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Will Be Used for Only COVID-19 Patients
Launches New Website to Provide New York's Comprehensive COVID-19 Testing Data to the Public
New Drive-Through Mobile Testing Facility Will Open in Albany Next Week - State Has Opened 7 Mobile Facilities to Date
Confirms 10,482 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 102,863; New Cases in 49 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "I'm not going to get into a situation where we're running out of ventilators and people are dying because there are no ventilators but there are hospitals in other parts of the state that have ventilators that they're not using. I'm just not going to allow us to go there. I think it would be wholly irresponsible. I'm going to sign an executive order that says the state can take ventilators and PPE from institutions that don't need them now and redeploy them to other parts of the state and other hospitals that do need them. Those institutions will either get their ventilator back or they will be reimbursed and paid for their ventilator so they can buy a new ventilator."
Earlier today, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo will issue an Executive Order allowing the state to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment, or PPE, from institutions that don't currently need them and redeploy the equipment to other hospitals with the highest need. The National Guard will be used to transport the ventilators and PPE across the state. The equipment will be returned to the hospital or the hospital will be reimbursed for the equipment in the future.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTube here and in TV quality format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Good to see most of you. No, good to see all of you. New state seal. That's right. This is the seal of the State of New York. The Legislature passed my modification to the seal. You see in the middle of the seal two words, Excelsior - State motto. Ever upwards. Aspirational. We can be better. We can lift ourselves. Excelsior. An we added e pluribus unum, which is actually more appropriate today than when we started this process. E pluribus unum - out of many one. It was our Founding Father's fundamental belief for this nation. Adams spoke to it. Madison spoke to it. Jefferson spoke to it. Although they had a lot of different opinions while they were doing the Constitution, the one thing they agreed was e pluribus unum. Out of many one. And it was good then and it's even better advice today.
The curve continues to go up. The number of tests has reached a new high. We did over 21,000 tests. Thank you to our great health department. We have over 10,000 new cases; 102,000 total tested positive, 14,000 hospitalized, 3,700 ICU patients, 8,800 patients discharged, that's good news. Number of deaths: Highest single increase in the number of deaths since we started, 2,300 to 2,900 deaths.
You see the totality for New York State, 102,000. New Jersey, California. Remember when this started, New York had airports that were designated entry zones. This is an international destination, international hub. You have people coming from across the world. Sooner and at a higher rate than anyone else. Total hospitalization, 1,400. It's also a new high. Daily ICU admissions is down a little bit, but you had more deaths, you have more people coming in to hospitals than any other night. Also more people going out which is obviously the ebb and flow that's coming in and out of the hospital system.
The hot spots we now track on a nightly basis. How many people go into what facility, so we can track the increase in what's happening? You see an increase in New York City as we knew. Certainly communities, frankly more in New York City than other communities. But you also see an increase on Long Island which is something we're concerned about. Long Island does not have as elaborate a health care system as New York City. We don't have the same amount of resources on Long Island and we see an increase in the number of cases on Long Island and that has us very concerned.
Supplies, PPE are in short supply as they are across the country. We need companies to make the materials. It is unbelievable to me that in New York State, in the United States of America, we can't make these materials and that we are all shopping China to try to get these materials and we're all competing against each other. These are not complex materials and will work with New York manufacturers. We'll finance the transition necessary to make these materials. We talk about them as if they're very complicated. This is an N-95 mask. This is it. It was 70 cents before this started. It's now as high as 7 dollars. But this is all that an N-95 mask is. It's fabric, it's material. The FDA has the specifications, then it's two pieces of elastic cord. It can't be that we can't make these. This is a gown. We call them gowns. This is a gown. There is nothing sophisticated about the manufacturing of this garment. There is nothing sophisticated about the material. It can't be that companies in this country, and in this state, can't transition to make those supplies quickly. Again, I understand if there's a financial burden. We will address that and we will work with you. So please, contact us.
Javits is going to be converted to a COVID facility. The original plan was to use Javits - Javits is a State convention center. It was retrofitted by the Army Corps of Engineers to hold 2,500 people. The original plan was that it would not take COVID-positive patients. It would take non-COVID patients and it would be an overflow for hospitals. As it turned out, we don't have non-COVID people to any great extent in the hospitals. Hospitals have turned into effectively ICU hospitals for COVID patients. We wanted to convert Javits from non-COVID to COVID. It is federally run. Frankly, the federal agencies were not eager to do that. FEMA was not eager to do that. I called the President. I spoke to him about it yesterday morning. That afternoon, yesterday afternoon, the president called me back and said he spoke to the task force. They would grant the request to transition the Javits center to COVID only. That adds 2,500 beds. That is a big deal. I thanked the President for doing it. He did it despite the fact that the federal agencies were not eager to do it, and he did it quickly. I thank him for that. It is a big deal for us.
We are still challenging the issue of ventilators. We don't have enough period. This situation is very simple now. People come in and they are almost all COVID people. Ironically, the number of non-COVID cases has dropped, because so many things are shut down that you don't have the same number of automobile accidents, people getting hit by cars. You don't have the same crime rate, so you don't have the same number of trauma cases coming into the hospital. They are COVID cases. Many of them go right to the ICU. In the ICU, you need a ventilator. And if you don't have a ventilator, the process stops and we don't have enough ventilators. We are doing everything possible, splitting the ventilators, using BiPAP machines by this new protocol, using the anesthesia ventilators. We're the government is being as helpful as they can from the federal stockpile. But in truth, I don't believe the federal stockpile has enough to help all of the states because you can't buy the material at this point.
We are still trying to buy from China. We are working with Alibaba, which has been very helpful to us. I spoke to Jack Ma and Mike Evans, who is the president. And they have been personally gracious and very, very helpful in trying to get us to source material from China. But we are going to have to redeploy ventilators from across the system. In other words, there are hospitals that have ventilators. There are hospitals that have PPE equipment. There are private-sector companies that have PPE equipment that they are not using that we are going to need to redeploy to the places in the hospitals where we need them. I had a conversation with the hospital administrator yesterday. I understand they don't want to give up their ventilators. Ventilators are expensive pieces of equipment. I understand that, even if they're not using them, they are reluctant to see them go out the door. The theory is if the government gets them, they will never get them back. I understand that. But I don't have an option.
I'm not going to get into a situation where we're running out of ventilators and people are dying because there are no ventilators but there are hospitals in other parts of the state that have ventilators that they're not using. I'm just not going to allow us to go there. I think it would be wholly irresponsible. I'm going to sign an executive order that says the state can take ventilators and PPE from institutions that don't need them now and redeploy them to other parts of the state and other hospitals that do need them. Those institutions will either get their ventilator back or they will be reimbursed and paid for their ventilator so they can buy a new ventilator. I can't do anything more than that. But I'm not going to be in a position where people are dying and we have several hundred ventilators in our own state somewhere else. I apologize for the hardship for those institutions. Ultimately there is no hardship. If you don't get the ventilator back, I will give you my personal word, I'll pay you for the ventilator. I'm not going to let people die because we didn't redistribute ventilators. The National Guard are going to be deployed to pick up these ventilators which are all across the state and deploy them to places where we need them.
State budget passed last night, 3:00 a.m., as you know. The state budget was extraordinary. First, it passed a lot of major policy initiatives that we should all be very proud of: the nation's first domestic terrorism law. It improved bail reform. It addressed this child vaping scourge going across the nation. We banned fentanyl, a ban against repeat subway sex offenders, campaign finance reform, paid sick leave, middle class tax cut, very aggressive airport construction program and accessible renewable energy sightings.
I understand we're all consumed with the coronavirus situation but we have to be able to walk and chew gum. We have to move forward at the same time and that's why passing the budget and these pieces of legislation were important. These issues are still important and child vaping, etcetera, surrogacy, these are major issues for people. And they passed last night and congratulations.
The budget was difficult because the State has no money and how do you do a budget when you can't really forecast revenues and we came up with a somewhat novel budget that actually is calibrated to future revenues or losses. So we really start with an assumption and then what we're saying is when we see how much revenue the state makes, how fast the economy comes back, what the expenses are, we'll calibrate accordingly.
We are heavily reliant on the federal aid legislation that gets passed. The federal government has passed a couple of pieces of legislation. They're planning to pass another piece of legislation. It's very important that whatever legislation they pass helps state and local governments. When you deprive a state government all you are actually achieving is that that state government has to turn around and not fund the programs that were dependent on that state government. We fund education, health care. I spoke to Speaker Pelosi today. She's working on the program for the next piece of legislation. She understands fully the need of state government. She understands fully the need of local governments. She understands my position on how New York was shortchanged in the past bill and she said she's going to do everything she can do to help New York. I've worked with the Speaker many times. I've known her for 30 years and I believe her and her credibility and her competence is unparalleled, in my opinion. So I'll be working with the Speaker and the rest of the Congressional delegation going forward. But we need federal assistance. Depending on how much federal assistance we get, we'll be that calibration of the budget going forward.
Coronavirus response in general. There is a lot of conversations about how we should respond to this, governmentally, or from an intergovernmental perspective. People want to say this is a states' rights question versus federal interference. Who should decide what is done on a state level? There is no governor who is arguing that their state's rights are being trampled, right? It is not a states' rights issue. No one is standing up saying the federal government is trampling my rights. I have said that on other occasions. No governor, Democrat or Republican, is saying that here. Every state is saying the same thing. I need help, I need assistance. I don't consider this situation with federal government as interfering with a state's rights. This is a situation that is, by definition, a national disaster emergency situation, where the states need and welcome the federal assistance.
I was in the federal government, as you know. I worked on scores of federal emergencies. The only operational model that I see that could potentially work here at this stage, where we are today with the realities we are facing, where no state can get the supplies they need, no state can get the PPE they need. No state can get the ventilators they need. The market has literally collapsed. The only operational model that I see is you have curves - we have been talking about our curve - you have curves in different parts of the country. Those curves occur at different times. It depends on when the outbreak started in that region - how quickly it spread. So, you have different curves in different parts of the country, occurring at different times. I think the only practical solution at this point is focus on the emergency that is in front of you. Focus on the emergency that is at the place and time that is in front of you. And then, redeploy to the next situation.
New York is the tip of the spear, so to speak. We have the high numbers. We have the first major encounter. Deploy resources to New York. We will hit that curve. We will be at the top of the curve. Seventeen days, 21 days, we are on the others of the curve and we are coming down. And then I don't need the ventilators that we have amassed and split and the BiPAP machines. We can redeploy what we have, personnel equipment, to whatever locality is next. Now, it is not a perfect sequential timing. But, if you look at the projected curves, when it is going to hit Michigan, when it is going to hit Illinois, when it is going to hit Florida, you will see that there is a timing sequence to it. Why not, or what is the alternative, to now saying let's help each other? Let's focus on each situation as it develops, and let's move our resources and personnel as it develops.
What is the alternative to the crisis that we see looming nationwide? You can't. You do not have enough. The federal government does not have enough material to sit there and say whatever you need I can get you. Don't worry, California. Don't worry, Michigan, don't worry, New York, don't worry, Florida - they can't. They have essentially said I don't have enough in my stockpile to handle all of this. I will get into a blame game. Should it have been in the federal stockpile, should states have been stockpiled? Forget that. The reality is how do you handle this operation, unless you go from place to place and say each state has to help every other state as we go along? There is a simple analogy to this that we live all the time. When we have minor emergencies with disasters, when we have a minor hurricane that's regional in nature, or minor flood, power goes out. What do we do? All the power and utility companies from all across the country descend on that region that needs help. Right? After a hurricane, power lines are down. You look at the highways you see all those trucks coming in from different states, right? Arizona trucks, Colorado trucks. When Florida has a hurricane what do we do? We get in the trucks, everybody drives down to Florida, personnel, etcetera. When Puerto Rico got into trouble, what did we do? Con Edison, New York, Rochester Gas, they all went down to Puerto Rico. Why? Because help the place that has the crisis. This is that on a macro scale. New York is in crisis. Help New York and then pick up, decamp, and then go to the next place as this rolls across the country.
There's not a perfect timing. There will be two parts of the country that hit an apex at the same time. There will be three parts of the country that hit an apex at the same time. I do not see any operational practical alternative to dealing with this going forward. By the way, this is all operational. There is no concept. There's no abstraction. There's no philosophy to this. This is a person walks in the door. Do you have a bed? Do you have a staff person? Are they wearing PPE and do you have a ventilator? Are they all present at that moment when that person walks in that door? That's all this is. That's all this is. Forget testing, vaccines, that's a separate project. That's not where people are going to die in the near term. People are going to die in the near term because they walk into a hospital and there's no bed with a ventilator. Because there's either no bed, or no staff, or no PPE, or no ventilator. That is what is going to happen. I think this is the only way to avoid it.
Look, I believe the American people are there. How many times have seen a disaster across this country and how many American just show up to help. I mean, it's in the American DNA to say were here to help one another. It is E Pluribus Unum. I didn't have to put that on the seal. That's just a reminder, out of many one. We're community. We're Americans. We're family. We're brothers and sisters. There's a commonality. Well, I am New Yorker. You're from California. I know those are lines on piece of paper. We are the same. We're the same. We know that here in New York.
I asked for people to come help New York, health officials, health professionals. 20,000 people volunteered in a matter of days to come help New York in the middle of a pandemic. 20,000 people. Think about that. 20,000 health professionals said I'll leave my home and come to your state. Systematize that volunteerism. Systematize that genericity, that charity, and that expertise. That's how we beat this damn virus as it marches across the country.
We just deploy in front of the virus as it works its way across the country. In any event, when our curve is over that's what we're going to do. New Yorkers are going to take what we've amassed. We're going to take our equipment, we're going to take our personnel, we're going to take our knowledge and we will go to any community that needs help.
We're learning things that fortunately no other community had to learn because we're first and because of the intensity of the situation here. When our urgent need is over we will help any community in this nation that needs it, because that outpouring has been there for us. You know I remember post 9-11 and I remember post 9-11 without asking anyone for anything, the people who showed up in New York just to help. Tradesmen bringing tools, people bringing food, people trays of cookies, whatever. They just showed up. Nobody asked. They just showed up and said, "I'm here to help," and stood on the corner helping people. That's America at its best and at this time when we're dealing with our worst, let's deploy America at its best. And we know what that is and that can help us.
April 03, 2020.
Statement from Senior Advisor to the Governor Rich Azzopardi. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/statement-senior-advisor-governor-rich-azzopardi
Statement from Senior Advisor to the Governor Rich Azzopardi
"In addressing the coronavirus pandemic, it is essential that we all work together. While the pandemic is primarily in downstate New York now - it is projected to peak and reduce in downstate and then increase in upstate. It is essential that we all help each other and the Governor is asking upstate hospitals to loan 20 percent of their unused ventilators to struggling downstate hospitals.
"Ventilators literally save lives. They will be returned or reimbursed to those hospitals.
"Moreover, when the pandemic wave hits upstate New York, the Governor will ask downstate hospitals for similar help.
"We are not upstate or downstate. We are one state and we act that way."
April 04, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces 1,000 Ventilators Donated to New York State. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-1000-ventilators-donated-new-york-state
Donation Made to the State by the Joseph and Clara Tsai Foundation, and Facilitated by the Chinese Government and Ambassador Huang Ping, Chinese Consul General
Joseph and Clara Tsai Foundation and the Jack Ma Foundation Have Also Donated One Million Surgical Masks, One Million KN95 Masks and More Than 100,000 Pairs of Goggles
Also Announces the NBA is Contributing One Million Surgical Masks in Collaboration with Knicks and Nets
Oregon Governor Kate Brown Has Offered to Provide New York with 140 Ventilators
Governor Cuomo Issues Executive Order Allowing Medical Students Slated to Graduate to Begin Practicing
85,000 Health Professionals Have Volunteered as Part of the State's Surge Health Care Force to Date, Including 22,000 Out-of-State Individuals
Confirms 10,841 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 113,704; New Cases in 47 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that 1,000 ventilators have been donated to New York by the Joseph and Clara Tsai Foundation. The Joseph and Clara Tsai Foundationand the Jack Ma Foundation have also donated one million surgical masks, one million KN95 masks and more than 100,000 pairs of goggles to the state. The Chinese government and Ambassador Huang Ping, Chinese Consul General, have facilitated these donations. The ventilators arrived at JFK Airport today.
The National Basketball Association is also contributing one million surgical masks for New York's essential workers in collaboration with the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and China's New York Consul General Huang Ping.
Additionally, Oregon Governor Kate Brown has offered to provide New York with 140 ventilators from Oregon's stockpile.
This is a painful, disorienting experience, but we will get through it together and we will all be the better for it.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor Cuomo will also issue an Executive Order allowing medical students that are slated to graduate to begin practicing immediately to help with the state's surge health care force. To date, 85,000 health professionals, including 22,000 out-of-state individuals, have signed up to volunteer as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
"This pandemic has been stressing our nation on every level and we are doing everything in our power to prepare for the fight that will come at the apex," Governor Cuomo said. "Ventilators remain our greatest challenge, and we have received a generous donation of 1,000 ventilators from the Joseph and Clara Tsai Foundation and the Chinese government, as well as 140 ventilators from Oregon - and these ventilators will save lives. This is a painful, disorienting experience, but we will get through it together and we will all be the better for it."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 10,841 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 113,704 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 113,704 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
293
26
Allegany
16
2
Broome
65
9
Cattaraugus
9
0
Cayuga
7
1
Chautauqua
10
1
Chemung
36
1
Chenango
39
7
Clinton
31
1
Columbia
49
7
Cortland
10
0
Delaware
26
2
Dutchess
938
129
Erie
808
88
Essex
7
1
Franklin
10
0
Fulton
9
3
Genesee
20
4
Greene
24
1
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
18
4
Jefferson
20
2
Lewis
2
0
Livingston
18
2
Madison
74
4
Monroe
512
48
Montgomery
13
3
Nassau
13,346
1,322
Niagara
101
7
NYC
63,306
6,147
Oneida
80
9
Onondaga
262
10
Ontario
31
3
Orange
2,741
344
Orleans
10
1
Oswego
26
0
Otsego
26
5
Putnam
283
31
Rensselaer
58
2
Rockland
4,872
583
Saratoga
141
0
Schenectady
117
7
Schoharie
10
1
Schuyler
4
1
Seneca
6
0
St. Lawrence
52
9
Steuben
55
9
Suffolk
11,370
1,216
Sullivan
193
25
Tioga
7
0
Tompkins
85
1
Ulster
290
27
Warren
20
1
Washington
16
1
Wayne
30
0
Westchester
13,081
730
Wyoming
18
3
Yates
1
0
April 04, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces 1,000 Ventilators Donated to New York State. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-1000
Donation Made to the State by the Joseph and Clara Tsai Foundation, and Facilitated by the Chinese Government and Ambassador Huang Ping, Chinese Consul General
Joseph and Clara Tsai Foundation and the Jack Ma Foundation Have Also Donated One Million Surgical Masks, One Million KN95 Masks and More Than 100,000 Pairs of Goggles
Also Announces the NBA is Contributing One Million Surgical Masks in Collaboration with Knicks and Nets
Oregon Governor Kate Brown Has Offered to Provide New York with 140 Ventilators
Governor Cuomo Issues Executive Order Allowing Medical Students Slated to Graduate to Begin Practicing
85,000 Health Professionals Have Volunteered as Part of the State's Surge Health Care Force to Date, Including 22,000 Out-of-State Individuals
Confirms 10,841 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 113,704; New Cases in 47 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "This stresses this country, this state, in a way that nothing else has frankly, in my lifetime. It stresses us on every level. The economy is stressed, the social fabric is stressed, the social systems are stressed, transportation is stressed. It's right across the board, but the most difficult level is the human level."
Cuomo: "This is a painful, disorienting experience, but we find our best self, our strongest self. This day will end and we will get through it and we will get to the other side of the mountain. And we will be the better for it. But we have to do what we have to do between now and then. That's just what we're doing here."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that 1,000 ventilators have been donated to New York by the Joseph and Clara Tsai Foundation. The Joseph and Clara Tsai Foundation and the Jack Ma Foundation have also donated one million surgical masks, one million KN95 masks and more than 100,000 pairs of goggles to the state. The Chinese government and Ambassador Huang Ping, Chinese Consul General, have facilitated these donations. The ventilators arrived at JFK Airport today.
The National Basketball Association is also contributing one million surgical masks for New York's essential workers in collaboration with the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and China's New York Consul General Huang Ping.
Additionally, Oregon Governor Kate Brown has offered to provide New York with 140 ventilators from Oregon's stockpile.
Governor Cuomo will also issue an Executive Order allowing medical students that are slated to graduate to begin practicing immediately to help with the state's surge health care force. To date, 85,000 health professionals, including 22,000 out-of-state individuals, have signed up to volunteer as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTube here and in TV quality format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Let's go through some numbers. The increase continues. We're up to 10,482 cases. 23,000 people were tested yesterday, that's the highest number of testing we've ever done. That's good news. 283,000 total tested. Number of new cases, 10,841. New high. Total hospitalizations, 15,000 people currently hospitalized, 4,000 ICU patients. 10,000 patients discharged, right. That's the good news. Number of deaths, all-time increase up to 3,500, 6,500. Most impacted states, you see New York at the top again. New Jersey has a serious problem in New Jersey and a growing problem. Then Michigan, then California, then Massachusetts. Total number of hospitalized is down a blip, but we believe that's not statistically meaningful. You have the number of ICU cases are up. The number of intubations are up.
The number of discharges are also up. And this is interesting, two thirds of the people who have been hospitalized have been discharged. Okay? Two thirds of the people who have been hospitalized have been discharged. That's what we've been saying all along. Most people won't be hospitalized. People who are hospitalized will come in, be treated, and leave. That's two thirds. One third of that number has a serious condition which will require continued hospitalization. We're tracking the growth of the number of infections by hospital, and we can see just where the numbers are increasing.
We've been talking about hitting the apex. The apex is the point where the number of infections on a daily basis is at the high point, and that is the ultimate challenge for the healthcare system. Can we handle that number of cases at the high point of the curve? I call it the battle of the mountaintop because that's what it's going to be. That's going to be the number one point of engagement of the enemy. By the numbers we're not at the apex. We're getting closer, depending on whose model you'll look at. They'll say four, five, six, seven days. Some people go out 14 days. But our reading of the projections is we're somewhere in the seven-day range, four, five, six seven, eight day range. Nobody can give you a specific number, which makes it very frustrating to plan when they can't give you a specific number or a specific date, but we're in that range. So we're not yet at the apex. Part of me would like to be at the apex and just let's do it, but there's part of me says it's good that we're not at the apex, because we're not yet ready for the apex, either. We're not yet ready for the high point. We're still working on the capacity of the system. The more time we have to improve the capacity of the system is better, and the capacity of the health care system, beds, staff, equipment. We'll be doing a conference call with all the hospitals today to coordinate deployment of the equipment.
Watching the spread of the rate of infections is interesting. This chart is what we've been talking about, but you can see it here. The upstate number is the top bar. The rest of New York has been fairly constant, 4%, 5%, 4%, 5%, Westchester, Rockland 8%, 6%, 6%, 7%, 7, 7. Long Island is the area that is growing. You see Long Island goes from 16% to 17% to 18%, to 19 to 20 to 22%. New York City is actually dropping as the number of cases in Long Island increases, as a percentage of cases within the state. For us, this is about tracking the virus, tracking the spread of the virus, and then deploying as the numbers suggest.
In terms of beds, the 2,500-ed facility at Javits is going to make a major difference. That has to work. The White House agreed to make that a COVID-positive facility. Remember, originally the Javits Center, which is a state convention center, we worked with the federal government, they constructed a 2500-bed facility, it was supposed to be non-COVID. I spoke to the president, transferred that with his intervention to a COVID facility. The federal government will staff that and the federal government with equip that. That is a big deal because that 2,500-bed facility will relieve a lot of pressure on the downstate system as a significant number of beds and that facility has to make that transition quickly and that's what we're focused on. It's going to be very staff intensive, very equipment intensive but the theory there is the best we can to relieve the entire hospital system downstate by bringing those COVID patients to Javits and from the intake to the treatment and it's going to be very difficult to run that large a facility. But if that works and that works well that changes the numbers dramatically so that's a top focus for us. I spoke to the White House today on planning the logistical operation to get that up and get that running asap, and that's the top operational priority.
In terms of staffing, we have 85,000 volunteers, 22,000 out-of-state volunteers. How amazing is that? 85,000 volunteers. I'm also signing an executive order to allow medical students who are slated to graduate to begin practicing. We need doctors, we need nurses, so we're going to expedite that.
On ventilators, remember, we ordered 17,000 ventilators. To give you an idea of how many 17,000 is, the federal stockpile was about 10,000 ventilators for the nation. We ordered 17,000 just for the state of New York. When we ordered the ventilators we were paying for the ventilators. So, trust me, you know the financial situation of the state. We were not looking to spend a penny that we didn't have to spend. We placed that order for the ventilators and we were paying for that order. That order never came through. This goes back to the China situation. We had signed documents, we placed the order,Governor Baker talks about this in Massachusetts. But then you get a call that says we can't fill that order because you had all that demand going in. So, what do we do? We find what equipment we have, we use it the best we can. If you ask hospitals today what ventilators do you have that are unused and available that they don't need in the short term and take 20% of that number of available ventilators, that's 500 ventilators. 500 ventilators is a significant number now. China is remarkably the repository for all of these orders. Ventilators, PPE, it all goes back to China. Long term, we have to figure out why we wound up in this situation where we don't have the manufacturing capacity in this country. I understand supply chain issues, I understand the cost of manufacturing, but there's a public health reason, as we've all learned the hard way, why we need the capacity in this country to do this.
Anyway, it all comes back to China. New York has been shopping in China. We're not really China experts, here. International relations is not what we do on a daily basis. I've been to China before when I was HUD secretary, I did a trade mission with China. So, I have a basic understanding, but we went to the Asia Society to help us navigate China. I asked the White House to help us navigate China. I spoke to the ambassador and we got really good news today. That the Chinese government is going to facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that will come in to JFK today. I want to thank Joe Tsai and Clara Tsai and Jack Ma from Alibaba, and the Nets, but I'm not stating a preference, for their donation. That's going to be very helpful and I want to thank Ambassador Huang very much for his help in making all of this happen because this is a big deal. It's going to make a significant difference for us.
Also, the state of Oregon contacted us and is going to send 140 ventilators, which is, I tell you, just astonishing and unexpected. I want to thank Governor Brown, I want to thank all of the people in the state of Oregon for their thoughtfulness. Again, this was unsolicited. But the 140 ventilators will make a difference. I was thinking about it, on behalf of New York and what it means for our - first it was a kind gesture. I know Governor Brown and she is a kind person, but it's also smart from the point of view of Oregon. Why? Because we're all in the same battle and the battle is stopping the spread of the virus, right? Look at what they did in China. It was in the Wuhan province. First order of business was contain the virus in Wuhan. Why? Because you want to contain the enemy. That's always the first step. Oregon, we're dealing with it now, we don't stop the spread in New York, it continues. And if you look at the projections, Oregon could have a significant problem towards May. Our problem is now. So it's also smart from Oregon's self-interest. They see the fire spreading. Stop the fire where it is before it gets to my home. That was the Wuhan province.
Somebody sent me a great quote from FDR, who had such a beautiful way of taking complicated issues and communicating it in common-sense language. FDR was dealing with trying to get the lend-lease program approved and accepted by the public. Why would this country help another country fight its war? That was the lend-lease program. His point was it's a common enemy. We want to contain the enemy. That other country's fight is actually our fight. If we don't stop the spread then it's going to burn down our own country. But this is how he does it, right? The concept is right, but how does he explain that? Suppose my neighbor's home catches fired and I have a length of fire hose 400, 500 feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it with his hydrant, I may help him put out his fire. Now what do I do? I don't say before that operation, neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15, you have to pay me $15 for it. What is the transaction that goes on? I don't want the $15. I want my garden hose back after the fire is over. All right, if it goes through the fire all right, intact without any damage to it, he gives it back to me, and thanks me very much for the use of it. But suppose it gets smashed up? Holes in it during the fire. We don't have to do too much formality about it. But I say to him, I was glad to lend you that hose. I see I can't use it anymore. It's all smashed up. He says how many feet of it were there? I tell him 150 feet of it. He says, alright, I will replace. Now, if I get a nice garden hose back I am in pretty good shape.
The State of Oregon has lent us 140 ventilators. It was kind, it was smart, stop the virus here. It's better for the state of Oregon, it's better for the nation. Their curve comes after ours. We'll return their 140 ventilators, and there's never been a discussion, but frankly I know New Yorkers and I know New Yorkers' generosity. We will turn it double fold, because that's who we are and that's what we believe. So, stop the fire in New York, kind, generous, also smart.
Personal opinion, look I want this to be all over. It's only gone on for 30 days since our first case. It feels like an entire lifetime. I think we all feel the same. This stresses this country, this state, in a way that nothing else has frankly, in my lifetime. It stresses us on every level. The economy is stressed, the social fabric is stressed, the social systems are stressed, transportation is stressed. It's right across the board, but the most difficult level is the human level. It is for me, anyway. It's every day, and it's everywhere. My brother catches the virus. That's stressful. My mother is worried about my brother, and she's concerned. We have a birthday party yesterday for Stephanie, was standing around a cake. Everybody's six feet from each other in this bizarre supposed to be just a fun usual celebration of a birthday. My daughter's cousin has a tragedy and that's just emotionally very painful. They can't hug each other and hold each other. They can't even grieve together. The cyberchats, I mean, this is so emotionally taxing that you can't even begin to -- you can't quantify the effect on society and the effect on individuals. And the burden that we're dealing with.
So, yes, I want it over. If there was anything I could do to accelerate getting it over, I would. In some ways I want to get to that apex, I want to get on the other side of the apex and let's just slide down that mountain. On the other hand, we have to be ready for the fight and we have to handle that fight. That's where we are. So, what do we do? You have to get through it. You have to get through it. There is no simple answer here. You're not going to wish this away. You have to get through it. You have to get through it intelligently, saving as many lives as you can. That's hard work, and that's perseverance, and that's mutuality and that's community, and that's finding your better self, and that's finding inner strength and dealing with a situation that is almost unmanageable on every level. Because you are out of control. This is a painful, disorienting experience, but we find our best self, our strongest self. This day will end and we will get through it and we will get to the other side of the mountain. And we will be the better for it. But we have to do what we have to do between now and then. That's just what we're doing here.
April 05, 2020
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Federal Government is Deploying Approximately 1,000 Personnel to New York State. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-federal-government-deploying
First 325 Personnel Will Be Deployed to NYC Public Hospital System Today
Confirms 8,327 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 122,031; New Cases in 48 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the federal government is deploying approximately 1,000 personnel to New York State, including doctors, nurses, respiratory technicians and therapists, to help the state's overwhelmed hospital systems. The first 325 personnel will be deployed to the New York City hospital system today.
"The operational challenge facing our health care system at the apex of the curve is impossible - we are asking our hospitals to do more than ever before with less equipment, supplies and staff, but we don't have any other options," Governor Cuomo said. "We are continuing to operate on a surge and flex system where all our hospitals across the state are working together as one and sharing resources, and we are receiving help from other states, businesses and the federal government to boost our system's capacity, including 1,000 federal personnel to work in our most stressed hospitals. I know how much we are asking of our health care workers on the frontline, and I thank them for everything they are doing because they are true heroes."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 8,327 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 122,031 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 122,031 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
305
12
Allegany
16
0
Broome
71
6
Cattaraugus
10
1
Cayuga
8
1
Chautauqua
11
1
Chemung
38
2
Chenango
43
4
Clinton
33
2
Columbia
51
2
Cortland
10
0
Delaware
27
1
Dutchess
1,077
139
Erie
918
110
Essex
7
0
Franklin
10
0
Fulton
9
0
Genesee
22
2
Greene
24
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
22
4
Jefferson
26
6
Lewis
3
1
Livingston
19
1
Madison
79
5
Monroe
548
36
Montgomery
15
2
Nassau
14,398
1,052
Niagara
116
15
NYC
67,551
4,245
Oneida
87
7
Onondaga
268
6
Ontario
32
1
Orange
3,102
361
Orleans
11
1
Oswego
28
2
Otsego
29
3
Putnam
314
31
Rensselaer
60
2
Rockland
5,326
454
Saratoga
148
7
Schenectady
128
11
Schoharie
11
1
Schuyler
4
0
Seneca
9
3
St. Lawrence
55
3
Steuben
63
8
Suffolk
12,405
1,035
Sullivan
234
41
Tioga
7
0
Tompkins
88
3
Ulster
332
42
Warren
25
5
Washington
18
2
Wayne
32
2
Westchester
13,723
642
Wyoming
22
4
Yates
1
0
April 05, 2020
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Federal Government is Deploying Approximately 1,000 Personnel to New York State. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-8
First 325 Personnel Will Be Deployed to NYC Public Hospital System Today
Confirms 8,327 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 122,031; New Cases in 48 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "Federal government is also deploying approximately 1,000 personnel to New York. That's doctors, that's nurses, that's respiratory technicians. The immediate priority is to deploy those people to help the New York City public hospitals. The New York City public hospital system, H&H, was a system that was under stress to begin with before any of this. So obviously, you add more stress to institutions that were under stress, it only makes the situation more difficult so we're going to deploy all the federal personnel who are coming in today, 325, to the New York City public hospital system."
Cuomo: "We're going to codify everything we've learned and when we get past this curve, whatever part of the country goes next, we will be there with equipment and personnel and however we can help."
Earlier today, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the federal government is deploying approximately 1,000 personnel to New York State, including doctors, nurses, respiratory technicians and therapists, to help the state's overwhelmed hospital systems. The first 325 personnel will be deployed to the New York City hospital system today.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 8,327 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 122,031 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 122,031 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
305
12
Allegany
16
0
Broome
71
6
Cattaraugus
10
1
Cayuga
8
1
Chautauqua
11
1
Chemung
38
2
Chenango
43
4
Clinton
33
2
Columbia
51
2
Cortland
10
0
Delaware
27
1
Dutchess
1,077
139
Erie
918
110
Essex
7
0
Franklin
10
0
Fulton
9
0
Genesee
22
2
Greene
24
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
22
4
Jefferson
26
6
Lewis
3
1
Livingston
19
1
Madison
79
5
Monroe
548
36
Montgomery
15
2
Nassau
14,398
1,052
Niagara
116
15
NYC
67,551
4,245
Oneida
87
7
Onondaga
268
6
Ontario
32
1
Orange
3,102
361
Orleans
11
1
Oswego
28
2
Otsego
29
3
Putnam
314
31
Rensselaer
60
2
Rockland
5,326
454
Saratoga
148
7
Schenectady
128
11
Schoharie
11
1
Schuyler
4
0
Seneca
9
3
St. Lawrence
55
3
Steuben
63
8
Suffolk
12,405
1,035
Sullivan
234
41
Tioga
7
0
Tompkins
88
3
Ulster
332
42
Warren
25
5
Washington
18
2
Wayne
32
2
Westchester
13,723
642
Wyoming
22
4
Yates
1
0
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTube here and in TV quality format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Happy Sunday. For those of you who celebrate Happy Palm Sunday. Happy Passover week for those who celebrate Passover. Thanks for taking the time to be with us today. We want to give you an update as to where we are.
The number of cases increase which is nothing new. It's happened every day since we've started this. It's been a long month. Something a little bit different in the data today. We're not really 100 percent sure yet what the significance is as we're feeling our way through this.
Number of people tested, 18,000. Positive cases are up 8,000, total of 122,000 cases. Number of patients discharged, total discharged is 12,000 - 1,700 discharged in one day. Number of deaths is up. That's the bad news. It's 44,159 and we pray for each for each and every one of them and their families and that is up and that is the worst news.
But the number of deaths over the past few days has been dropping for the first time. What is the significance of that? It's too early to tell. This is the impact by state. But as I said the interesting blip maybe in the data, or hopeful beginning of a shift in the data and the number of cases, total number of new hospitalizations is 574 which is obviously much lower than previous numbers. That's partially a function of more people being discharged but you see ICU admissions are also down. The daily intubations down slightly from where it was. Again, you can't do this day to day. You have to look at three or four days to see a pattern.
Discharge rate is way up and that's great news and the statewide balance of cases has been relatively stable for the past few days. There is a shift to Long Island. Upstate New York is basically flat and as Long Island grows the percentage of cases in New York City has reduced.
For those people who look at the data, you have all these projection models and what's been infuriating to me is the models are so different that it's very hard to plan when these models shift all the time. But there's also a difference of opinion on what happens at the apex. All the models say you go up until you go down - thank you very much. Then there's a difference of, is the apex a point or is the apex a plateau. In other words you go up, hit the high and the immediately drop, or do you go up and then there's a plateau where the number of cases stays high for a period of time and then drops? There's a difference of opinion.
So you have to think about that when you think about what you're seeing in the numbers because you could argue that you're seeing a slight plateauing in the data which obviously would be good news because it means you plateau for a period of time and then you start to come down and we're all feeling our way through this and we have the best minds in the country, literally on the globe, advising us because New York is the first. I also think it will be very helpful for the other states that follow. I was just talking to Dr. Zucker about codifying everything we're learning because when the next states start to go through this we hope that they can benefit from what we're going through.
But we're looking at this seriously now because by the data we could be either very near the apex or the apex could be a plateau and we could be on that plateau right now. We won't know until you see the next few days. Does it go up, does it go down, but that's what the statisticians will tell you today.
As we've said before, the coronavirus is truly vicious and effective at what the virus does. It's an effective killer. People who are very vulnerable must stay isolated and protected. I mean, that was the point from day one. That was the point with Matilda's Law, my mother. You have to isolate and protect those people. If a very vulnerable person gets infected with this virus, the probability of a quote unquote "cure" is very low. And that's what this has really been about from day one. That small percentage of the population that's very vulnerable. Major effort that has impacted everyone to save the lives of those people who are in the very vulnerable population. If you're not part of that vulnerable population, then you will get sick, 20 percent require hospitalization, but the hospital system is very effective and it makes a real difference. And that's why the highest number of people ever now being discharged, right.
So you're just seeing the evolution of this whole story. You're seeing the narrative unfold, right. We're all watching a movie, we're waiting to see what the next scene is, and as the movie unfolds you start to understand the story better and better. Rush of infection rate, rush of people into the hospital system, hospital system capacity explodes, more people are in, but, more people are coming out. 75 percent of those people who have now gone into the hospital system are coming out of the hospital system. It also helps with the capacity of the hospital system because obviously the more people who are coming out, it makes it easier to handle the large influx that's coming in.
Having said all of that, the operational challenge for the healthcare system is impossible. Because the system is over capacity, all across the board. It's just over capacity. So what we're basically saying to a system is you have to manage with the same resources that you have, same staff, an over-capacity situation. And that is putting a tremendous amount of stress on the healthcare system. You're asking a system to do more than it has ever done before, more than it was designed to do with less. I understand that. I get that. Day in and day out, the commissioner and everyone at this table deals with the healthcare system. I understand what they're dealing with. I understand they're being asked to do the impossible. And they are being asked to do the impossible. But, life is options and we do not have any other options. So you get to a situation and you do what you have to do in that situation. And that's where we are. The only operational plan that can work, right, because you know the system doesn't have the capacity, doesn't have the supplies, doesn't have the staff. So how do you handle this surge over capacity?
We call it, we have to surge and flex, which means you have to deal with, if you're an individual hospital or hospital network, yes, you're going to be over capacity. And the only way we can make this work is if we flex the system so that we take all hospitals, all hospital networks, some hospitals are in networks, and we work together as one system, which has never been done, right. We have public hospitals. We have private hospitals. We have Long Island hospitals. We have New York City hospitals. In totality, it's the health care system, the state manages, regulates the healthcare system, but they're all individual hospitals. And, or individual networks. And they are accustomed to just doing business and managing their own affairs. That doesn't work. We have to balance the patient load among all of these hospitals. So if one hospital starts to get high or has a protected high intake, we have to shift that patient load to other hospitals. That means some patients who show up at their neighborhood hospital may be asked, can we transport you to another hospital, which is not in your neighborhood, but actually has more capacity. So we have to adjust that patient load among all of the hospitals, which is a daily exercise and it's very, very difficult.
We're running short on supplies all across the board. Some hospitals happen to have a greater supply of one thing or another. One hospital has a greater supply of masks, one hospital has a greater supply of gowns. And when we're talking about supply, hospitals are accustomed to dealing with a 60-day supply, 90-day supply. We're talking about 2 or 3 or 4 day supply, which makes the entire hospital system uncomfortable, which I also understand because we're literally going day-to-day with our supplies, with out staff, et cetera. Which is counter-intuitive and counter-operational for the entire health care system and I understand that also.
The big operational shift will be Javits coming online if we get that up and running efficiently. That's 2,500 beds for people who test positive with the COVID virus. That is a major shift for the systems and at a time when we desperately need a relief valve for the system, Javits could do that. We're working very hard to get that up and running. That rolling deployment, that flexibility - there is no other way to do this on the state level. I can't say to a hospital, I will send you all the supplies you need. I will send you all the ventilators you need. We don't have it. We don't have them. It's not an exercise, it's not a drill. It's just a statement of reality. You're going to have to shift and deploy resources to different locations based on the need of that location. I think that's going to be true for the country. The federal government everyone says federal stockpile, federal stockpile. There's not enough in the federal stockpile to take care of New York and Illinois and Texas and Florida and California. It's not an option. The only option I see is there's a national deployment - everyone says this is war time, it is a war and the virus is the enemy - where help New York today, thank you state of Oregon, we're dealing with this curve today and this intensity and then nationally, we shift the resources to the next place that is most impacted.
Just what we're doing in New York City and New York State on a microcosm, we shift resources from the Bronx to Brooklyn to Queens to Nassau. Shift national resources and state resources from New York to Florida to Illinois, whatever is next on the curve. We're going to do that in any event. We get through this, people have been so beautiful to us and it is the New York way. We're going to codify everything we've learned and when we get past this curve, whatever part of the country goes next, we will be there with equipment and personnel and however we can help.
Federal government is also deploying approximately 1,000 personnel to New York. That's doctors, that's nurses, that's respiratory technicians. The immediate priority is to deploy those people to help the New York City public hospitals. The New York City public hospital system, H&H, was a system that was under stress to begin with before any of this. So obviously, you add more stress to institutions that were under stress, it only makes the situation more difficult so we're going to deploy all the federal personnel who are coming in today, 325, to the New York City public hospital system.
I talk to the hospital administrators on a daily basis. We get them on a conference call and we do this shifting of supplies and balancing of patient load. I know that I'm asking them to do really difficult things, I get it. I don't enjoy being in this situation. I don't enjoy putting them in this position. I know their staff is all over burdened, but all I can say is thank you to the administration of this health care system and most importantly thank you to the frontline workers. These people, they are true heroes in the truest sense of the word, what they do day in and day out under very difficult circumstances, and we thank them all.
On a different and somewhat lighter note, there is an accompanying affliction to the coronavirus that we talked about early on. It is cabin fever. It is a real situation. Not medically diagnosed, I asked Dr. Zucker there is no medical diagnosis for cabin fever, but I believe it exists. It is a feeling of isolation. It is often accompanied by radical mood swings, resentment of people around you to varying degrees, for no reason whatsoever. Just an upwelling of resentment, especially toward people who are in apparent positions of authority in this situation which I've noticed. Irrational outbursts can come at any time, without any warning. Just an irrational outburst, frustration, anger, with no rational basis. Cabin fever, in many ways, also threatens the essence of our Constitution, which is premised on people sharing domestic tranquility and it can be disruptive to tranquility. I can attest to that. It is a real thing. Think about it. It has only been one month but it has been a long month.
Positive intervention for cabin fever, I am going to take up running again. I used to run in the normal days before this job. But I am going to start running again. My daughter Cara, we will run as a family and go out there. Cara has a head start. She is out there doing five miles every day. She thinks she can beat me. Give me a couple of weeks and I will be right there, right there. Fast like lightning. We are going to do it. We will make the dog come. The dog is also experiencing cabin fever. He's a little disrupted. The order of the pack has changed. Different people, he does not know where he fits. He has anxiety. He is going to run. Think of ways to deal with it. I don't have any great answer.
But a little perspective on the whole situation is important. I challenged my daughters, this is terrible, this is terrible, this is terrible. I have been saying this is terrible for society, the economy and personally. But, you know, let's look back at history, right? Generations have gone through terrible times. So, my challenge to them is you find me a generation that has had a better overall situation than where we are right now. Go back to World War I, World War II, Vietnam, 1918 flu pandemic, you find me a generation that has not had a challenge to deal with and we will are going to have that discussion. Keep in mind on perspective. This is going to be over. You can see the story developing. You can start to see how the story ends, right? They will have a vaccine. Will it be 12 months or 14 months or 18 months? There are a number of treatments that are being expedited and are being tested right now. Dr. Zucker of New York is working expeditiously and cooperatively with the FDA to try all new different treatments: convalescent plasma, receptor antibody treatments, we are working on the hydroxychloroquine - we are working on it aggressively. So, we are trying all these new treatments. Some of them show real promise. But, you can see where the story ends.
I think, this is opinion and not fact, I think you see the return to normalcy when we have an approved rapid testing program that can be brought to scale. We are now testing rapid testing programs. But, when you get to the point where you can do rapid testing, of scale, and people can start to go back to work because they know they are negative. We continue to protect the vulnerable population, which is what this was about, and we liberate, as my daughters would say they are seeking liberation. We liberate people who can go back to work because we know that they are not in the vulnerable category and they are negative. I think that is, it is under development now, the rapid testing, and we are part of it. That is going to be the answer, I believe. And we get through it because we are New York State tough. Thank you.
April 05, 2020
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on MSNBC's Politics Nation with Al Sharpton https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-msnbcs-politics-nation-al-sharpton
Governor Cuomo: "We've been tracking the numbers. We track the numbers every day. Today for the first day we had a drop. We have to wait for tomorrow's numbers but the optimistic view is that we're starting to see a turn in the curve and then the turn in the curve can either be a plateau, where you have a high rate and you bounce up and down but basically at about the same level and then start to drop, or it could just be a precipitous drop down which would obviously be most beneficial."
Cuomo: "This disease goes right at the lungs and you need a ventilator for people who need to be intubated. ... Every state was left on its own basically. The federal stockpile can't meet the need and it has been chaotic. There's no one who will doubt that. But, you know, at one point, you have what you have and you have to do with what you have. You know the old expression - you don't go to war with what you want; you go to war with what you have. We're doing 'New York smart', 'New York tough' and we're sharing."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on MSNBC's Politics Nation with Al Sharpton.
AUDIO is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Al Sharpton: Welcome, Mr. Governor.
Governor Cuomo: Good to be with you, Reverend. Thank you for your words and thank you for your leadership.
Al Sharpton: Thank you. Let me say this - you and I have known each other, worked over 30 years. You have always been a straight shooter whether we agreed or not on any given subject. We always were straight with each other. I never found anyone more straightforward than you. Where are we in this pandemic? Are we anywhere near the flattening of the curve? You said that New York is an example of the rest of the country. The country has come to know and trust your word. Where are we at this hour, Governor Cuomo?
Governor Cuomo: Well, thank you. Thank you for your kind words, and right back to you. You're right. We haven't always agreed but we always have been 100% straight. I think the dialogue has always been helpful. The short answer is, Reverend, nobody knows. We've been tracking the numbers. We track the numbers every day. Today for the first day we had a drop. We have to wait for tomorrow's numbers but the optimistic view is that we're starting to see a turn in the curve and then the turn in the curve can either be a plateau, where you have a high rate and you bounce up and down but basically at about the same level and then start to drop, or it could just be a precipitous drop down which would obviously be most beneficial.
Al Sharpton: Now, where are we in terms of the ventilators? I know you've been asking for equipment. You have been asking for ventilators. The President said he sent to New York, he sent to other places, and the governors are playing politics. Where are we with the health equipment that we need? This is not about politics; this is life and death. Where are we, Governor Cuomo?
Governor Cuomo: Look, we don't have it. We don't have the supplies we need. What we're doing, Reverend, which we have never done before, we have about 100 hospitals in downstate New York plus or minus, and literally on a daily basis we share supplies and staff among the hospitals. Who has masks but doesn't have gowns? Who has gowns but doesn't have chemical agents to do testing? And we literally on a day-to-day basis go back and share material because we just don't have it. Ventilators, which nobody could really have predicted this situation that you would need thousands of ventilators, we only had 4,000 ventilators in this state when we started. This disease goes right at the lungs and you need a ventilator for people who need to be intubated. Otherwise you can't be of any help to them. Every state was left on its own basically. The federal stockpile can't meet the need and it has been chaotic. There's no one who will doubt that. But, you know, at one point, you have what you have and you have to do with what you have. You know the old expression - you don't go to war with what you want; you go to war with what you have. We're doing New York smart, New York tough and we're sharing.
Al Sharpton: Now, what are you saying to governors and others around the country -- you gave that warning, today it's New York, it will be you next, what are you telling them they should be aware of and how they can get ahead of the curve that you didn't have the benefit of?
Governor Cuomo: well, we are the first ones in, right? And we're at a much higher intensity level than anyone else. Your point earlier was very right. This is a function of density, more urban areas, more dense communities, because it communicates faster. But we are writing a playbook, if you can, we're going through all the lessons we learned, so we can share it with other states. and more importantly, what I'm saying to my governor colleagues around the nation is look, the federal government can't help you here if they wanted to, we have to help each other. And there will be a different time when it gets more intense in different parts of the country. And as soon as New York gets through this, Rev, we'll help every other community and not just with lessons and learning, but we'll send our people, we'll send our equipment to help any other community that we can.
Al Sharpton: Lastly, there has been a sense of unity where people that maybe have not worked together before are trying to work together that I've seen around New York and a lot of that spirit I would give you credit for trying to set that tone. And even President Trump and you have talked often, he's even returned my phone call, though I will not say that I've stopped raising serious questions about him. But in the spirit of unity, what appeal have you made to New Yorkers that has resonated so that so far we have seen New Yorkers and hopefully it can be duplicated, understanding we're all in this together.
Governor Cuomo: Reverend, a little context. remember, there's been no governor in this nation that's been more critical of the president than I have been, and the president hasn't attacked any governor in this nation more than he's attacked me.
Al Sharpton: Oh, you watched his briefing yesterday, I see, but go ahead.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, it's not that it stopped, but it is toned down. What I said to the president is we have to put the politics aside here. We disagree on a lot of issues, but we agree on one thing, which is that we have to work together to save lives. And if he helps New York, I'll be the first to say it. And if he's not doing his part on New York, I'll be the first to say it. To the New Yorkers I say you look at those nurses and those doctors and those emergency rooms and they are the heroes of today. The way the NYPD and FDNY ran into those burning towers on 9/11, these nurses and doctors who are walking into these emergency rooms every morning, they are staring death in the face and they keep going and New Yorkers have to do their part. This social distancing, the masks, staying at home is the least that we can do. And New Yorkers rise to the occasion and they understand our social obligation one to the other. And I think they're responding.
Al Sharpton: So we can say that we do not know if we flattened the curve until we see the numbers tomorrow, and we still don't have all of the equipment that we need.
Governor Cuomo: For sure. We need tomorrow's numbers, and then the next day. some people say, well maybe it's a one-day bounce, maybe it was Saturday reporting. There's all different theories. So we need to see the numbers.
Al Sharpton: All right. Thank you for calling in. I really appreciate it. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
April 06, 2020
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces NYS on Pause Functions Extended for Additional Two Weeks. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-nys-pause-functions-extended-additional
Directs Schools and Nonessential Businesses to Stay Closed for Additional Two Weeks Through April 29th
Increases Maximum Fine for Violations of the State's Social Distancing Protocol from $500 to $1,000
Requests Use of USNS Comfort Hospital Ship for Only COVID-19 Patients
802 Ventilators Have Been Distributed Downstate Through the State's "Surge and Flex" System
Establishes First Responders Fund to Be Used for Expenses Associated with COVID-19 First Responders - Blackstone is Making Anchor $10 Million Donation
State is Partnering with Headspace to Offer Free Meditation and Mindfulness Content for all New Yorkers
South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island & Brooklyn Center Temporary Hospital at 170 Buffalo Avenue Will Open This Week Specifically for COVID-19 Patients
Confirms 8,658 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 130,689; New Cases in 48 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced all NYS on Pause functions will be extended for an additional two weeks. The Governor also directed schools and nonessential businesses to stay closed for an additional two weeks through April 29th. The state will re-evaluate after this additional two-week period.
Governor Cuomo also announced the state is increasing the maximum fine for violations of the state's social distancing protocol from $500 to $1,000 to help address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols. The Governor reminded localities that they have the authority to enforce the protocols.
The Governor today is asking the federal government to allow the USNS Comfort hospital ship to be used for COVID-19 patients. President Trump has already granted the Governor's request for the Javits temporary hospital facility to be used for only COVID-19 positive patients, and the addition of the USNS Comfort would help relieve pressure on the state's hospital system with an addition of 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients.
The Governor also announced that 802 ventilators have been distributed downstate through the state's "surge and flex" system where all hospital systems are working together as one and sharing supplies, equipment and staff. Of the 802 ventilators, 38 were deployed to Rockland County, 36 were deployed to Westchester County, 505 were deployed to New York City and 223 were deployed to Long Island.
Governor Cuomo also announced the creation of the First Responders Fund to assist COVID-19 health care workers and first responders with expenses and costs, including child care. The State Department of Health is accepting donations for the fund, and Blackstone is making an anchor $10 million contribution to the fund. Donations can be made electronically at https://www.healthresearch.org/donation-form/ or by check sent to below address. Donors should specify the donation is for "COVID-19 NYS Emergency Response."
Health Research, Inc.
150 Broadway
Suite 560
Menands, NY 12204
I am not going to choose between public health and economic activity, and to that end I am extending all NYS on Pause functions for an additional two weeks.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
The Governor also announced that the state is partnering with Headspace, a global leader in mindfulness and meditation, to offer free meditation and mindfulness content for all New Yorkers as a mental health resource for residents coping with the unprecedented public health crisis. New Yorkers can access a collection of science-backed, evidence-based guided meditations, along with at-home mindful workouts, sleep and kids content to help address rising stress and anxiety at www.headspace.com/ny.
The Governor also announced that the South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island and the Brooklyn Center Temporary Hospital at 170 Buffalo Avenue will open this week and will be used specifically for COVID-19 patients.
"This virus is an enemy that the entire country underestimated from day one and we have paid the price dearly," Governor Cuomo said. "While the numbers look like they may be turning, now is not the time to be lax with social distancing - that would be a mistake and we all have a responsibility and a societal role in this. As I said from day one, I am not going to choose between public health and economic activity, and to that end I am extending all NYS on Pause functions for an additional two weeks. People are dying and our health care workers are exposing themselves to tremendous risk every day. If we can't convince you to show discipline for yourself in terms of social distancing, show discipline for other people."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 8,658 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 130,689 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 130,689 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
319
14
Allegany
17
1
Broome
76
5
Cattaraugus
12
2
Cayuga
11
3
Chautauqua
15
4
Chemung
47
9
Chenango
46
3
Clinton
36
3
Columbia
59
8
Cortland
13
3
Delaware
29
2
Dutchess
1,189
112
Erie
1,023
105
Essex
7
0
Franklin
10
0
Fulton
11
2
Genesee
23
1
Greene
24
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
25
3
Jefferson
33
7
Lewis
6
3
Livingston
22
3
Madison
82
3
Monroe
574
26
Montgomery
15
0
Nassau
15,616
1,218
Niagara
120
4
NYC
72,181
4,630
Oneida
100
13
Onondaga
271
3
Ontario
32
0
Orange
3,397
295
Orleans
13
2
Oswego
29
1
Otsego
34
5
Putnam
345
31
Rensselaer
62
2
Rockland
5,703
377
Saratoga
153
5
Schenectady
138
10
Schoharie
11
0
Schuyler
4
0
Seneca
9
0
St. Lawrence
59
4
Steuben
75
12
Suffolk
13,487
1,082
Sullivan
253
19
Tioga
8
1
Tompkins
94
6
Ulster
372
40
Warren
26
1
Washington
19
1
Wayne
34
2
Westchester
14,294
571
Wyoming
23
1
Yates
1
0
April 06, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces NYS on Pause Functions Extended for Additional Two Weeks. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-ny-0
Directs Schools and Nonessential Businesses to Stay Closed for Additional Two Weeks Through April 29th
Increases Maximum Fine for Violations of the State's Social Distancing Protocol from $500 to $1,000
Requests Use of USNS Comfort Hospital Ship for Only COVID-19 Patients
802 Ventilators Have Been Distributed Downstate Through the State's "Surge and Flex" System
Establishes First Responders Fund to Be Used for Expenses Associated with COVID-19 First Responders - Blackstone is Making Anchor $10 Million Donation
State is Partnering with Headspace to Offer Free Meditation and Mindfulness Content for all New Yorkers
South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island & Brooklyn Center Temporary Hospital at 170 Buffalo Avenue Will Open This Week Specifically for COVID-19 Patients
Confirms 8,658 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 130,689; New Cases in 48 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "One of the reasons the rate of infection is going down is because social distancing is working. We have to continue the social distancing. Schools and non-essential businesses will stay closed until April 29. I know that's a negative for many, many reasons. I know what it does to the economy. But as I said from day one I'm not going to choose between public health and economic activity because in either event public health still demands that we stay on pause with businesses closed and schools closed."
Cuomo: "I'm going to call the president this afternoon and ask him to shift the Comfort from non-COVID to COVID. ... That is the only way we sustain this level of intensity in the hospital system. I understand what the original plan was with the Comfort, but I understand that there is no preordained strategy here. You have to feel it out day to day and you have to adjust with the facts. We do not need the Comfort for non-COVID cases. We need it for COVID."
Earlier today, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced all NYS on Pause functions will be extended for an additional two weeks. The Governor also directed schools and nonessential businesses to stay closed for an additional two weeks through April 29th. The state will re-evaluate after this additional two-week period.
Governor Cuomo also announced the state is increasing the maximum fine for violations of the state's social distancing protocol from $500 to $1,000 to help address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols. The Governor reminded localities that they have the authority to enforce the protocols.
The Governor today is asking the federal government to allow the USNS Comfort hospital ship to be used for COVID-19 patients. President Trump has already granted the Governor's request for the Javits temporary hospital facility to be used for only COVID-19 positive patients, and the addition of the USNS Comfort would help relieve pressure on the state's hospital system with an addition of 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients.
The Governor also announced that 802 ventilators have been distributed downstate through the state's "surge and flex" system where all hospital systems are working together as one and sharing supplies, equipment and staff. Of the 802 ventilators, 38 were deployed to Rockland County, 36 were deployed to Westchester County, 505 were deployed to New York City and 223 were deployed to Long Island.
Governor Cuomo also announced the creation of the First Responders Fund to assist COVID-19 health care workers and first responders with expenses and costs, including child care. The State Department of Health is accepting donations for the fund, and Blackstone is making an anchor $10 million contribution to the fund. Donations can be made electronically at https://www.healthresearch.org/donation-form/ or by check sent to below address. Donors should specify the donation is for "COVID-19 NYS Emergency Response."
Health Research, Inc.
150 Broadway
Suite 560
Menands, NY 12204
The Governor also announced that the state is partnering with Headspace, a global leader in mindfulness and meditation, to offer free meditation and mindfulness content for all New Yorkers as a mental health resource for residents coping with the unprecedented public health crisis. New Yorkers can access a collection of science-backed, evidence-based guided meditations, along with at-home mindful workouts, sleep and kids content to help address rising stress and anxiety at www.headspace.com/ny.
The Governor also announced that the South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island and the Brooklyn Center Temporary Hospital at 170 Buffalo Avenue will open this week and will be used specifically for COVID-19 patients.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 8,658 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 130,689 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 130,689 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
319
14
Allegany
17
1
Broome
76
5
Cattaraugus
12
2
Cayuga
11
3
Chautauqua
15
4
Chemung
47
9
Chenango
46
3
Clinton
36
3
Columbia
59
8
Cortland
13
3
Delaware
29
2
Dutchess
1,189
112
Erie
1,023
105
Essex
7
0
Franklin
10
0
Fulton
11
2
Genesee
23
1
Greene
24
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
25
3
Jefferson
33
7
Lewis
6
3
Livingston
22
3
Madison
82
3
Monroe
574
26
Montgomery
15
0
Nassau
15,616
1,218
Niagara
120
4
NYC
72,181
4,630
Oneida
100
13
Onondaga
271
3
Ontario
32
0
Orange
3,397
295
Orleans
13
2
Oswego
29
1
Otsego
34
5
Putnam
345
31
Rensselaer
62
2
Rockland
5,703
377
Saratoga
153
5
Schenectady
138
10
Schoharie
11
0
Schuyler
4
0
Seneca
9
0
St. Lawrence
59
4
Steuben
75
12
Suffolk
13,487
1,082
Sullivan
253
19
Tioga
8
1
Tompkins
94
6
Ulster
372
40
Warren
26
1
Washington
19
1
Wayne
34
2
Westchester
14,294
571
Wyoming
23
1
Yates
1
0
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTube here and in TV quality format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks, with Dr. Jim Malatras's explanation of COVID-19 projection models for New York State, is available below:
Governor Cuomo: Good morning. The start of another work week, or not. Everybody knows from my right Dr. Jim Malatras; medical doctor, still a doctor, Dr. Howard Zucker; to my left Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor; to her left Robert Mujica Budget Director, extraordinaire.
On the numbers, the number continues to increase. We're up to 8,658 new cases. Overall we have 130,000 people who tested positive, 16,000 people in our hospital system, 13,000 people have been discharged. Number of deaths are up once again, number of people we lost, number of New Yorkers, 4,758 which is up from 4,159 but which is effectively flat for two days.
While none of this is good news the possible flattening of the curve is better than the increases that we have seen. New York is still far and away the most impacted state. New Jersey is having real difficulty and speaking with Governor Murphy from New Jersey and anything we can do together we will. Michigan also, California has leveled off and Louisiana is having a difficult time so they're in our thoughts and prayers.
Total number of hospitalizations are down. The ICU admissions are down and the daily intubations are down. Those are all good signs and again would suggest a possible flattening of the curve. The number of discharged is down but that reflects the overall reduction in the numbers.
Big question that we're looking at now is, what is the curve? And we've been talking about cases increase, increase, increase - until they don't. When they stop increasing then what happens? The projection models have a number of alternatives. Some suggest basically the curve goes up and then drops precipitously. Some suggest a slight pause at the top. Some suggest there's a longer pause at the top which is effectively a plateau effect, or again the straight up and straight down precipitous drop which is the peak effect. No one can tell you which will occur. They say any one of the three options, you study other countries, you've had a combination of the above. We are studying it as we use the projection models from day one to determine actually what we do, how do we set policy and program by following the data.
Dr. Malatras has been working on the numbers, working with the statisticians and the projection models and helping us incorporate that into an operational model and, Jim, if you want to take a moment and speak about the projection models here please?
Dr. Malatras: Great, thank you, Governor. As the Governor said, we have been looking at projection models from the beginning to determine the size of scope and severity and the Governor has mentioned this over his briefings. We've been working with many organizations and using the data, like Imperial College, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Cornell, McKinsey and others and some of the initial projections that we first saw at the beginning of this was at least up to 110,000 beds for COVID patients alone and the peak would come at the end of April. Those were some of earliest modeling from many organizations that it would be at the end of April around 110,000 beds just for COVID patients. There are other models too that we were tracking, one being lower at around 55,000 COVID beds, but again peaking at the end of April.
We follow, now that we have a pretty robust set to go by for the last several weeks, the bottom line the purple line is sort of where we are tracking today which suggests, it's a lower, and the question was what could you do to lower those initial projections from 110,000 and from 55,000? So a lot of the activity was we saw what the statisticians and the folks looking at these types of models said was going so what activities and what actions could you take to aggressively lower that number and the answer really was and what the Governor has been doing is aggressively enforce and enact social distancing to lower the overall number. This number and the current data suggest that that is exactly what's happening and it's not settled yet because we are going day-by-day, and the numbers as the Governor says, have changed a lot over time based on what numbers come in. But this could suggest that we are indeed potentially at the apex or beginning to be at the apex at this moment. Like the Governor has said, there has been a range of models 7 days, 14 days, 21 days, 30 days. It looks like we're at toward the earlier side of that time frame based on the current projections and modeling that we've been looking at.
Governor Cuomo: You also see on this slide where we are now and it can still go any way. We could still see an increase so it is hopeful, but it's also inconclusive and it's still depends on what we do. These models all have a co-efficient of what we do and how successful we are with social distancing, et cetera. From our decision making point of view, it doesn't really matter if we've hit the plateau or not because you have to do the same thing. If we are plateauing, we are plateauing at a very high level and there's tremendous stress on the health care system. To say to this health care system, which is at maximum capacity today, this is a hospital system where we have our foot to the floor and the engine is at red line and you can't go any faster. And by the way, you can't stay at redline for any period of time because the system will blow. That's where we are. We are at red line. People can't work any harder. The staff can't work any harder and staying at this level is problematic. If we are plateauing, it is because social distancing is working. So we have to make sure the social distancing actually continues.
On the relieving the pressure on the hospital system, which is unsustainable at this rate, we're continuing what we call our surge and flex program where we get all the hospitals on the line on a daily basis. They're all doing inventories, they're all doing data sheets, they're all on the telephone, and we are shifting among the hospitals the ventilators, PPE equipment, who has gowns, who has masks, that happens on a daily basis, that adjustment. Also to relieve pressure on the hospital system, the Javits coming online is a very big deal. That is the relief valve for the entire downstate system.
The 1,100 military personnel started to come in. 300 were sent to New York City public hospitals to help the New York City public hospital system, the H&H system, which has been in distress. The rest will go to Javits to bring that up and running to full capacity. That transition is happening now. That is a COVID center now; it started as non-COVID; it's now a COVID center. The majority of the military personnel will be coming in tomorrow and the next day, but that Javits Center is going to be major release valve.
Second, the United States Navy ship Comfort, the original plan was that that would come in for non-COVID people. The original plan was it would also be a relief valve on the hospitals but not for COVID people, that it would take all of the non-COVID patients, if you will, from the hospital system. That was the plan. As it turned out, there's not a lot of non-COVID people in the hospital system, which is a separate story - happens to be a good news story. A byproduct of shutting everything down is you have fewer car accidents, crime rates is way down, fewer trauma cases, so there is not a large non-COVID population in the hospitals.
I'm going to call the president this afternoon and ask him to shift the Comfort from non-COVID to COVID. Then we would have Javits and the ship Comfort as a relief valve, that's 2,500 beds and 1,000 beds - that's 3,500 beds - which could serve as a relief valve for the whole downstate system. That is the only way we sustain this level of intensity in the hospital system.
I understand what the original plan was with the Comfort, but I understand that there is no preordained strategy here. You have to feel it out day to day and you have to adjust with the facts. We do not need the Comfort for non-COVID cases. We need it for COVID.
If we had those two facilities as a relief valve that would make a significant difference. Bringing online 3,500 beds is no small task. Northwell Health is going to help us manage those. But they will be staffed by military personnel. Only the military could bring in that many people that quickly with that logistical operation and I want to thank DoD very much for their cooperation, because God bless the U.S. Military. We are fully aware of what they do to defend this nation, but this is a different application that we do not see every day and they are doing an extraordinary job. So I will call the President. He has been helpful to New York in the past and he has moved quickly in the past. I will ask him if he can make this adjustment for us because it would be truly beneficial. We would feel much better knowing that we can sustain this pace if we could start to offload patients to these two facilities.
In any event, plateau or not plateau, we still have to extend New York Pause because if that curve is turning it's turning because the rate of infection is going down. One of the reasons the rate of infection is going down is because social distancing is working. We have to continue the social distancing. Schools and non-essential businesses will stay closed until April 29. I know that's a negative for many, many reasons. I know what it does to the economy. But as I said from day one I'm not going to choose between public health and economic activity because in either event public health still demands that we stay on pause with businesses closed and schools closed.
Whether we've hit the apex or whether we haven't hit the apex, you would have to do the same thing. There is also a real danger in getting overconfident too quickly. This is an enemy that we have underestimated from day one and we have paid the price dearly. Well, the numbers look like they may be turning, yay it is over. No, it is not. Other places have made that mistake. Hong Kong has made that mistake, South Korea has made that mistake, and we are not going to make that mistake.
The weather is turning, people have been locked up, we've been talking about cabin fever. Now it is a nice day, I'm going to get out, I'm going to go take a walk. Now is not the time to do that. And frankly there has been a laxness on social distancing, especially over this past weekend, that is just wholly unacceptable. Look, people are dying. People in the health care system are exposing themselves every day to tremendous risk walking into those emergency rooms, then they have to go home to their family and wonder if they caught the virus and they're bringing it home to their family. If I cannot convince you to show discipline for yourself, then show discipline for other people. If you get infected, you infect someone else and you go an emergency room and you put a burden on all sorts of other people who you do not know, and who frankly you do not have the right to burden with your irresponsibility. And people, especially in New York City, the level of activity is up, partially due to the weather, made it a nice day. I understand people have been locked up for a long time, but now is not the time to be lax and it is a mistake. We all have a responsibility. We all have a role in this. We said that from day one. We have to respect the role that we play. Because the role we play is a societal obligation, that is how I see it.
I want local governments to enforce the social distancing rules. The local governments are charged with enforcement. I want them to enforce them. I want to be frankly more aggressive on enforcement, because all of the anecdotal evidence is people are violating it at a higher rate than before. So, we are going to increase the potential maximum fine from $500 to $1000. But it's not really about the fine. Nobody wants the money, we want the compliance. We are serious. And, again, it is not about your life, but you do not have the right to risk somebody else's life. You do not have the right, frankly, to take a health care staff, and people who are literally putting their lives on the line, and be cavalier or reckless with them. You just do not have the right. And we want to thank all the people who are getting us through this every day under very tough circumstances. And we see the illness rate among these essential workers, and we know the sacrifice they are making and we should respect it. It is that simple. You have the first responders who are out there, you have police officers who are out there, the transit workers who have to drive the bus and train every day, the health care workers who are doing extraordinary work -- so let's respect them, and let's help them.
We're also going to set up a fund run by the Department of Health to assist the health care workers with expenses, costs, childcare, etcetera. I want to thank Blackstone for making the first contribution to that fund of $10 million to assist the first responders. I hope other individuals and corporations follow their lead. We are also very aware of the mental health aspect of this situation, and the stress, and the isolation that this has caused. And people are trying in their own way to grapple with what this means, and what is the impact? How do you rationalize this situation? And the mental health aspect of it is very real. Headspace is going to partner with New York. They're an app. They're going to have content for New York and free membership for New York. So we thank them. But we also have an emotional support hotline. We have thousands of mental health professionals who have signed up to volunteer to provide mental health services. So we want people to make sure they know about that and it's available.
I talk about perspective a lot. Maybe, frankly, because partially I'm speaking to myself. I had a good conversation with my daughters last night, Cara and Michaela, who are often wiser than I am and wiser than their years. It's very hard to see the number of deaths we're having. It's frightening, it's disturbing, that amount of loss. I'm the governor of New York. I see my job as preventing that kind of disturbance and negativity and loss for the people of the state. Perspective, you know, we like to think that we can control everything. We can't. We like to think that we can fix everything and fix all the problems for people. We can't. The undeniable truth here is that this virus is a deadly enemy and we will lose and we are losing people who are vulnerable to the virus. That can't be controlled, that can't be fixed. Why? That's Mother Nature, that's a question God can only answer. But, control what you can. Do what you can.
The challenge is to make sure that we don't lose anyone who could've been saved if our healthcare system was operating fully. Don't lose anyone who you could save. That is a legitimate, ambitious goal of government. And that we have done so far. That we have done so far. Have we saved everyone? No. But have we lost anyone because we didn't have a bed or we didn't have a ventilator or we didn't have healthcare staff? No. The people we lost are the people we couldn't save. Not for lack of trying and not for lack of doing everything that we could do as a society, not only as a government and as a healthcare system. So, to the extent we can find peace in that, it helps me. We are still New York tough. New York tough means tough, but tough in a New York sense also means compassionate. It means that we are unified, it means that we are loving, because if you're really tough, the really tough guys, they're tough enough to show love. And because we're smart. And that's how we're going to get through this.
April 6, 2020.
Governor Cuomo Announces Federal Government has Granted His Request to Allow COVID-19 Patients to be Treated at USNS Comfort. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-federal-government-has-granted-his-request-allow-covid-19-patients-be
Governor Cuomo Called President Trump Earlier Today to Make the Request
Provides an Additional 1,000 Beds with Federal PersonnelDedicated to Caring for COVID-19 Patients
Governor Cuomo: "I spoke with the President this morning and asked if the USNS Comfort, the United States Navy Ship the Comfort, which is an additional 1,000 beds, could also take COVID patients. The original plan was they would do non-COVID patients from the hospital system. As it turns out, we don't have many non-COVID symptoms because when you close everything down, the silver lining was traffic accidents, crime went down. So, we really need help with the COVID patients. The President spoke to the Department of Defense and granted that request to use the Navy Ship Comfort for COVID patients. So, that's an additional 1,000 beds with federal personnel managing that ship. So, that's a welcome relief and the President granted the request. ... Between the 2,500 at the Javits Center and the 1,000 beds of the Comfort, that should be a major, major relief system for already overtaxed hospital system."
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the federal government has granted his request to allow COVID-19 patients to be treated on the USNS Comfort. The approval will provide an additional 1,000 beds, staffed by federal personnel, to care for COVID-19 patients in New York. Governor Cuomo called President Trump earlier today to make the request. The Governor made today's announcement during an interview with MSNBC's Katy Tur.
AUDIO is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Katy Tur: We go now to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is joining us by phone. We understand, Governor Cuomo, thank you first of all for being here, but we understand you have an announcement about the USNS Comfort. Tell me what you have.
Governor Cuomo: Yes Katy, thank for having me - good afternoon. As you just heard on your coverage, obviously, the entire downstate metropolitan area has been a hot spot, Long island, Westchester, New York City, and the system is at capacity and people have been working at capacity for 30 days now. The outlet valve, if you will, that we are creating for the entire downstate area is a major facility at the Javits Convention Center, 2,500 beds, which the President agreed to and will be staffed by federal personnel, which is a major benefit because these are professional personnel who can take a load off the existing system.
And I spoke with the President this morning and asked if the USNS Comfort, the United States Navy Ship the Comfort which is an additional 1,000 beds, could also take COVID patients. The original plan was they would do non-COVID patients from the hospital system. As it turns out, we don't have many non-COVID symptoms because when you close everything down, the silver lining was traffic accidents, crime went down. So, we really need help with the COVID patients. The President spoke to the Department of Defense and granted that request to use the Navy Ship Comfort for COVID patients. So, that's an additional 1,000 beds with federal personnel managing that ship. So, that's a welcome relief and the President granted the request. He did it quickly. I spoke to him this morning and he called back this afternoon and he said that it was done. So, between the 2,500 at the Javits Center and the 1,000 beds of the Comfort, that should be a major, major relief system for already overtaxed hospital system.
Katy Tur: You talk about an overtaxed system. I can tell you from personal stories that I'm getting from loved ones of mine. I have a friend whose mother is a 73-year-old woman, sat in a chair in the emergency room of Interfaith in Brooklyn for over 30 hours. She tested positive for COVID. She had a cough, fever, chills, has COVID-related pneumonia. There just wasn't a bed for her, no shade toward the doctors or nurses or that hospital. There just was not a bed for her. So, given that a lot of these ERs are overloaded, there is giant wait times, will ambulances start to be redirected to the Javits Center, to the USNS Comfort and how quickly can that happen?
Governor Cuomo: Well, the Javits Center - What you're talking about is happening all over the downstate area. We have a system that is overcapacity, period. Physical bed capacity in most cases, staff, stress, supplies, et cetera. The relief valve of the Javits and the Comfort will help alleviate the situation you're talking about. We're not planning the ambulances to go directly to Javits and Comfort because these are emergency facilities that are obviously just being set up, and they don't really have the intake assessment that you need. So, the ambulance would still go to the local hospital, which is the shortest trip, you know. We're talking about the downstate area, but it can take you a significant amount of time to drive from Nassau county, let's say, to the west side of Manhattan, which is where the Comfort is.
Governor Cuomo: We're talking about the down state area, but it can take you a significant amount of time to drive from Nassau County, let's say, to the west side of Manhattan, which is where the comfort is. So you still go to the local hospital and do the intake there, but then the hospital would refer the person and the person would be transported to the Comfort. So the person receives immediate assessment, immediate relief and then gets transported to Javits Center or the Comfort.
Katy Tur: Are you hearing about any issues with that or any issues that might come up with that? When I was speaking to an ER doctor yesterday, I asked about moving patients to facilities that might be less overwhelmed than others. They said the issue that they are having with patients with COVID is that their conditions can turn on a dime. They can be fine one moment and then in respiratory failure the next, or cardiac arrest the next. Are there going to be issues with transferring some patients?
Governor Cuomo: Well, we have so many, Katy, that the condition that they are in ranges. Some are more towards the convalescent stage; some are in the earlier stage. And then you're right, you have many which are sort of right on the bubble where they could become an acute situation right away. That's why the hospital as the assessment center, determining which patients to refer to the Javits Center and the Comfort, makes sense because if a person can turn acute on a moment's notice, then they shouldn't be taking the ambulance ride. So that's a determination the hospital will make. But any relief that we can bring to these emergency rooms and intensive care units is good. And this will be significant capacity on, basically, a back-end relief valve basis.
Katy Tur: Can you clear up where the State stands with ventilators? I know you deployed the National Guard the other day to redistribute ventilators from upstate to downstate to the places that need it the most immediately. Today, you said that the hospital system is overcapacity with ventilators, but then there are also some still in reserve. Can you explain how we can be over capacity and still have some in reserve?
Governor Cuomo: Because we have gotten very creative on how we use ventilators and what can be used as ventilators. There's a machine called the BiPAP machine, which is not technically considered a ventilator in the way we define it. But you can use BiPAP machines. You can use ventilators that run a system that handles two patients. So we have gone to strategies like that, and right now we have ventilating capacity for every hospital. We have a couple hundred in reserve. We sent out 800 ventilators today - actual ventilators. So there's no hospital in downstate New York that needs ventilating capacity today. As you heard on a previous report that you did, every hospital will say we're okay for today. We're okay for the next couple days. But beyond that, we can't answer, and that's true for the entire system. We are hoping, hoping, that we're see a flattening of the increase and if the increase in cases is flattening, then where we are today we think we can stretch and manage that need. God forbid, the cases go up again, we're going to have a real problem. If the curve is flattening for the next 2-3 days, the entire system, we're okay and we have some in reserve. Again, that's only if the curve is flattening. If the curve continues to go up we're going to have a different set of issues to deal with.
Katy Tur: Governor, I know you said you don't want to get into a back and forth with the President, but it seems like the President is constantly responding to a request that you made publicly by saying that you're exaggerating the need or that you're always asking for more or that you're not grateful enough to him. Do you have to be grateful to the President in order to make sure that New Yorkers and the hospitals here are getting the equipment they need?
Governor Cuomo: Katy, what's most important to me right now is that New York gets the help that it needs. That's my singular focus. I will do whatever I can do to help achieve that. The President is right, I have continually asked the federal government for assistance. You look at the numbers in New York, no one anticipated these numbers and this level of need and the state can't do it on it's own. We do need federal assistance. I was in the federal government, I believe that the federal government in these types of situations, it's a federal emergency they obviously have a role, so I believe the requests are justified. He's right. I've constantly requested assistance because we need it and I said that to the President from day one. There's no doubt that he and I have different views on many issues. I'm probably the governor in the country who's been most critical of the President's policies and I can tell you that I am the governor in the country who the President has most criticized in the past. When this started I said, "Look, I need help for New York. We have to work together and if you help me for New York, I will call it the way it is and say you delivered." And he delivered today. And if I don't think the federal government is meeting its responsibility, I will say that. So, it's just the plain truth. Sometimes it comes down to the plain truth and where we are as a nation, this is plain truth time. There's no political nuance. There's no spin. People are dying. Everybody has a role to play. Everyone has to do their job. And we have to cooperate and work together. And if I believe you're doing your job, I will say it. And I will thank you. If I believe you're not doing your job and you're not being helpful where you should, I will say that too. And I don't care what political party you are. I don't care what happened in the past. It's the here and now that matters.
Katy Tur: Spoken like a true New Yorker, plain truth. I'm sorry to hog all your time, but I want to ask one question before we go to the briefing. We're under two minutes. How is your brother?
Governor Cuomo: He is doing okay. There's no doubt this is a tough one. And we will all experience it with different people, if we didn't experience it ourselves. I can tell you that Chris is a tough guy. He's truly a tough guy. He's gone through a lot. He's had a lot of illnesses. And I talked to him, obviously, constantly. And this is really been difficult for him. And he's not a complainer, by and large. This has really been a tough one. He's in good shape. He's relatively young. So, he's not in the vulnerable category we talk about. But I can tell you he's suffering.
Katy Tur: Governor Andrew Cuomo, thank you so much. Best to you and your family. Stay safe, sir. We appreciate your time.
April 7, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces State Will Invest in Private Companies to Bring Rapid Testing to Scale. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-state-will-invest-private-companies
Interested Businesses Should Contact Empire State Development at 212-803-3100 or COVID19Supplies@esd.ny.gov
State Department of Health has Developed a Test to Detect Antibodies to the COVID-19 Infection in an Individual's Blood
Issues Letter to New York's Congressional Delegation Outlining the State's Need in the Next Federal COVID-19 Legislation
Governor Announces Relief for Approximately 300,000 New York Student Loan Borrowers Not Covered by Federal CARES Act
Agreement with Major Servicers Including, Navient, Nelnet, PHEAA, MOHELA, and Others Includes Deferred Collection of Payments, Waived Late Fees
Governor Signs Executive Order Allowing State to Redistribute Ventilators & Personal Protective Equipment to Hospitals with Highest Need
Confirms 8,174 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 138,863; New Cases in 45 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the state will invest in private companies to bring rapid COVID-19 testing to scale and accelerate testing capacity. Businesses interested in working with the state to manufacture these rapid tests on a large scale should contact Empire State Development at 212-803-3100 or COVID19supplies@esd.ny.gov.
The Governor also announced that the State Department of Health has developed a test to detect antibodies to the COVID-19 infection in an individual's blood. This test is an important step towards determining whether New Yorkers are developing immunity and when they could potentially return to work or school.
Governor Cuomo also issued a letter to New York's Congressional Delegation outlining the state's needs in the next federal COVID-19 legislation. The previous COVID-19 stimulus bills failed to adequately address New York's revenue losses and included restrictions affecting the state's Medicaid reforms.
The Governor also announced an agreement with the largest student loan servicers in New York to obtain relief for student loan borrowers experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 who contact their private student loan servicer. Available relief includes 90 days of deferred monthly payments, waived late fees, no negative reporting to credit agencies, and enrolling eligible borrowers in available long-term assistance program. The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, only provides relief to borrowers whose loans are owned by the federal government. This agreement with the student loan industry provides much-needed relief to these outstanding borrowers whose loans are privately owned.
The New York State Department of Financial Services will issue guidance that reflects and complements the State's agreement with the private student loan industry and that also directs regulated student loan servicers to quickly and appropriately implement the relief provided by the federal CARES Act for borrowers whose loans are federally owned. New York student loan borrowers should visit DFS' website for more information about available student loan relief.
This is not a light switch that we can just flick on one day and everything goes back to normal.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
The Governor today signed an Executive Order allowing the state to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment to hospitals with the highest need. The Executive Order also extends all NYS on Pause functions for an additional two weeks until April 29th and allows medical students that are slated to graduate to begin practicing immediately to help with the state's surge health care force.
"We've been working to reduce the spread of COVID-19 through aggressive actions to reduce density, increase testing and properly equip and staff our hospitals, and we're also looking at how to restart the economy in a thoughtful and responsible way," Governor Cuomo said. "This is not a light switch that we can just flick on one day and everything goes back to normal - we have to come up with a smart approach to restart the systems we shut down so abruptly, and testing is going to be one of the key components of that. We are going to continue working to get rapid testing up to scale so we can get people back to work."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 8,174 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 138,863 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 138,863 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
333
14
Allegany
17
0
Broome
86
10
Cattaraugus
13
1
Cayuga
14
3
Chautauqua
16
1
Chemung
49
2
Chenango
51
5
Clinton
37
1
Columbia
61
2
Cortland
16
3
Delaware
36
7
Dutchess
1,249
60
Erie
1,135
112
Essex
7
0
Franklin
10
0
Fulton
13
2
Genesee
33
10
Greene
24
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
27
2
Jefferson
39
6
Lewis
6
0
Livingston
23
1
Madison
88
6
Monroe
596
22
Montgomery
18
3
Nassau
16,610
994
Niagara
126
6
NYC
76,876
4,695
Oneida
118
18
Onondaga
335
64
Ontario
33
1
Orange
3,599
202
Orleans
15
2
Oswego
31
2
Otsego
34
0
Putnam
366
21
Rensselaer
67
5
Rockland
5,990
287
Saratoga
155
2
Schenectady
145
7
Schoharie
12
1
Schuyler
4
0
Seneca
10
1
St. Lawrence
60
1
Steuben
75
0
Suffolk
14,517
1030
Sullivan
270
17
Tioga
8
0
Tompkins
97
3
Ulster
398
26
Warren
31
5
Washington
19
0
Wayne
35
1
Westchester
14,804
510
Wyoming
23
0
Yates
1
0
April 7, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces State Will Invest in Private Companies to Bring Rapid Testing to Scale. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-9
Interested Businesses Should Contact Empire State Development at 212-803-3100 or COVID19Supplies@esd.ny.gov
State Department of Health has Developed a Test to Detect Antibodies to the COVID-19 Infection in an Individual's Blood
Issues Letter to New York's Congressional Delegation Outlining the State's Need in the Next Federal COVID-19 Legislation
Governor Announces Relief for Approximately 300,000 New York Student Loan Borrowers Not Covered by Federal CARES Act
Agreement With Major Servicers Including, Navient, Nelnet, PHEAA, MOHELA, and Others Includes Deferred Collection of Payments, Waived Late Fees
Governor Signs Executive Order Allowing State to Redistribute Ventilators & Personal Protective Equipment to Hospitals with Highest Need
Confirms 8,174 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 138,863; New Cases in 45 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "It's going to come down to how good we are with testing. ... But you have to have that testing and you have to have that testing on a scale. You have 19 million people in the State of New York. Just think of how many people you would need to be able to test and test quickly."
Cuomo: "That is the largest single day increase and we talk about numbers but that's 731 people who we lost. Behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father, is a sister, is a brother. So a lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers and they're in our thoughts and prayers."
Cuomo: "It's not about me. It's about we and what's good for all of us. My health is in your hands and your health is in my hands. The health of those healthcare workers and those first responders and all those people who have to show up to work every day to keep society functioning, we are responsible to them, also."
Earlier today, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the state will invest in private companies to bring rapid COVID-19 testing to scale and accelerate testing capacity. Businesses interested in working with the state to manufacture these rapid tests on a large scale should contact Empire State Development at 212-803-3100 or COVID19supplies@esd.ny.gov.
The Governor also announced that the State Department of Health has developed a test to detect antibodies to the COVID-19 infection in an individual's blood. This test is an important step towards determining whether New Yorkers are developing immunity and when they could potentially return to work or school.
Governor Cuomo also issued a letter to New York's Congressional Delegation outlining the state's needs in the next federal COVID-19 legislation. The previous COVID-19 stimulus bills failed to adequately address New York's revenue losses and included restrictions affecting the state's Medicaid reforms.
The Governor also announced an agreement with the largest student loan servicers in New York to obtain relief for student loan borrowers experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 who contact their private student loan servicer. Available relief includes 90 days of deferred monthly payments, waived late fees, no negative reporting to credit agencies, and enrolling eligible borrowers in available long-term assistance program. The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, only provides relief to borrowers whose loans are owned by the federal government. This agreement with the student loan industry provides much-needed relief to these outstanding borrowers whose loans are privately owned.
The New York State Department of Financial Services will issue guidance that reflects and complements the State's agreement with the private student loan industry and that also directs regulated student loan servicers to quickly and appropriately implement the relief provided by the federal CARES Act for borrowers whose loans are federally owned. New York student loan borrowers should visit DFS' website for more information about available student loan relief.
The Governor today signed an Executive Order allowing the state to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment to hospitals with the highest need. The Executive Order also extends all NYS on Pause functions for an additional two weeks until April 29th and allows medical students that are slated to graduate to begin practicing immediately to help with the state's surge health care force.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 8,174 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 138,863 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 138,863 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
333
14
Allegany
17
0
Broome
86
10
Cattaraugus
13
1
Cayuga
14
3
Chautauqua
16
1
Chemung
49
2
Chenango
51
5
Clinton
37
1
Columbia
61
2
Cortland
16
3
Delaware
36
7
Dutchess
1,249
60
Erie
1,135
112
Essex
7
0
Franklin
10
0
Fulton
13
2
Genesee
33
10
Greene
24
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
27
2
Jefferson
39
6
Lewis
6
0
Livingston
23
1
Madison
88
6
Monroe
596
22
Montgomery
18
3
Nassau
16,610
994
Niagara
126
6
NYC
76,876
4,695
Oneida
118
18
Onondaga
335
64
Ontario
33
1
Orange
3,599
202
Orleans
15
2
Oswego
31
2
Otsego
34
0
Putnam
366
21
Rensselaer
67
5
Rockland
5,990
287
Saratoga
155
2
Schenectady
145
7
Schoharie
12
1
Schuyler
4
0
Seneca
10
1
St. Lawrence
60
1
Steuben
75
0
Suffolk
14,517
1030
Sullivan
270
17
Tioga
8
0
Tompkins
97
3
Ulster
398
26
Warren
31
5
Washington
19
0
Wayne
35
1
Westchester
14,804
510
Wyoming
23
0
Yates
1
0
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTube here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Everyone I think knows who is here. To my far right Dr. Malatras; Dr. Zucker; I'm technically a doctor also but not really; Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor; Robert Mujica, Director of the Budget.
Let's talk about today's numbers and where we are today. Total number of newly hospitalized is up from yesterday but when you look at the three-day averaging of these numbers the three-day average is down which is good news. This is the three-day hospitalization rate. We tend not to look at any one day, day to day it's up somewhat, but if you look at the three-day average it's moving down which is good news.
We talk about the apex and is the apex a plateau and right now we're projecting that we are reaching a plateau in the total number of hospitalizations and you can see the growth and you see it starting to flatten again. Again, this is a projection. It's still depends on what we do and what we do will affect those numbers. This is not an act of God that we're looking at. It's an act of what society actually does.
Change in daily ICU admissions is way down and that's good news. The daily intubations numbers down and that's good news. The discharge rate is right about where it was. The bad news is 5,489 New Yorkers have lost their lives to this virus. That is up from 4,758. That is the largest single day increase and we talk about numbers but that's 731 people who we lost. Behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mothers, is a father, is a sister, is a brother. So a lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers and they're in our thoughts and prayers, many people across this country.
While the discrepancy or the discordancy number of deaths is up, number of hospitalization dropping, the number of losses is a lagging indicator to the number of hospitalizations. What happens is a person goes into the hospital, if they're treated most of them are then released, they're discharged. Some stay. Some get put on a ventilator. The longer you are on a ventilator the less likely that you will ever come off that ventilator and that's why you're seeing the number of deaths increase, because these are people who came in at the peak. They were not successfully treated. They're on a ventilator. The longer you're on a ventilator the less likely you come off the ventilator.
New York is still the most heavily impacted state in the nation and New Jersey which is on the curve a little bit behind New York is suffering, and again our thoughts and prayers are with them. I spoke to Governor Murphy of New Jersey today and we talked through the situation and working on joint strategies but our heart goes out to all of our neighbors in New Jersey, Michigan, California, Louisiana.
In terms of how we're operating, how we're managing the situation, as we know the hospital system basically is a three-legged stool. It relies on the number of beds, number of staff, and the equipment. Number of beds, we have started with the system about 53,000 beds statewide. We're up to about 90,000 available beds. So we have more than enough beds available. Staff has been a problem, staffing. Health care staff is getting sick, they're overworked, they're stressed, they're under great emotional stress. You know, think about these health care workers. You're working in a hospital, in an emergency room that's overwhelmed. You're worried about your own health. You then go home. You're worried about bringing a virus home, if you're infected. At home is under stress as every home is under stress.
About 7,000 new staff have been hired from the pool that we have identified. These are retired health care workers who came forward. These are people from across the country who came forward. The state has a pool of potential employees. The hospitals hire from that pool, and they've hired about 7,000 to date. Equipment, that's the protective equipment. Ventilators, where we are. We are stretching and moving, but every hospital has what they need today. And then we balance the patient load among all hospitals, so no hospital, single hospital, or system gets overburdened. And that's a daily adjustment which takes tremendous cooperation among all of the health care institutions. I thank them very much for what they're doing.
And then we have the overload relief which is the Javits Center. 2,500 beds and the U.S. Navy Ship Comfort. the U.S. Navy Ship Comfort had 1,000 bed capacity. It was originally for non-COVID patients. What wound up happening was we don't really have non-COVID patients. Closed down society, there's fewer traffic accidents, crime is down. So the original plan which was the Comfort would take non-COVID cases did from the hospitals didn't really work, because the hospitals didn't have non-COVID cases. I called the president yesterday morning, asked him to speak to the Department of Defense to see if they would change it to COVID. The president, to his credit, moved expeditiously, called me back yesterday afternoon, said they would make the Comfort COVID. When they make that transition, the capacity of the ship comes out from 1,000 to 500 beds because COVID patients require a greater treatment area, more space. And therefore the capacity of the ship came down from 1,000 to 500. It's still a tremendous benefit. So between Javits and the Comfort that's 3,000 beds, which is a welcome overload relief to the hospital system, which is already extraordinarily stressed.
But I spoke to General O'Shaughnessy today, who we spoke through the Comfort and Javits. The Department of Defense has been fantastic, and the number of military personnel they've sent up here and how quickly they've been sent up here. This is a tough assignment to run facilities this large and to come up to speed and to be handling this many COVID patients in a new startup emergency facility. This is a really difficult undertaking and they have really been fantastic. I want to thank them all and I want to thank the President for moving as quickly as he did.
We're working on a tri-state cooperative. As I mentioned, I spoke to Governor Murphy from New Jersey. I spoke to Governor Ned Lamont from the State of Connecticut. We coordinated the shutting down, if you will, when we did schools, businesses, et cetera, because this really operates as a tri-state area. A lot of people who live in New Jersey or work in New York or live in New York, work in New Jersey or Connecticut, so we talk about the tri-state area which is true. We try to operate to the best we can as that regional collaboration and that has been working well for us on schools, on the economy, on health care issues. We have to start planning restarting life. We're not there yet, but this is not a light switch that we can just flick one day and everything goes back to normal. We're going to have to restart that economy. We're going to have to restart a lot of systems that were shut down abruptly and we need to start to plan for that. I spoke to the governors, Governor Murphy and Governor Lamont about coming up with a regional metropolitan, tri-state approach to do just that. How do we, when we get to that point, which we're not at but how do we restart our economy and get everything up and running as quickly as possible.
My personal opinion, it's going to come down to how good we are with testing. You're not going to end the infection and end the virus before you start restarting life. I don't think you have that luxury. How do you start the economy back up? How do you start getting back to work as quickly as possible? It's going to come down to testing. You're going to have to know who had the virus, who resolved the virus, who never had it and that's going to be testing. And that is an entirely new field that we're just developing now. The New York State Department of Health developed an anti-body testing regiment that Department of Health has approved for use in New York State. That has to be brought to scale and the Department of Health is going to be working with the FDA to do just that.
This tests the blood to determine whether you have the anti-bodies which means you had the virus and resolved the virus. That's why you would have the anti-bodies for the virus. That would mean that you're no longer contagious and you can't catch the virus because you have the anti-bodies in your system which means you can get to work, you can go back to school, you can do whatever you want. But you have to have that testing and you have to have that testing on a scale. You have 19 million people in the State of New York. Just think of how many people you would need to be able to test and test quickly. The anti-body testing is part of that. Also, rapid testing to determine whether or not you have the virus now exists. They have quote, unquote 15 minute tests that are commercially available. But again, they have to be brought to scale. No private company has the capacity to bring those to scale. I was speaking with Governor Murphy and Governor Lamont - we are interested in working with private companies that can actually bring this testing capacity to scale and to scale quickly because again if you have the antibody testing that's part, if you can then test if a person is positive for the virus and you can do it that day you can get those results in 15 minutes, that's also another way to get back to life and do it quickly. So we're very interested in that New York, so is New Jersey, so is Connecticut. There are private companies that have these tests. Again, it's all up to scale. We're starting them in the state of New York. We only have about a 50,000 person testing capacity, which is nice, but is not of a scale that's actually going to make a large difference so private companies that are interested in getting into this space and coming up to scale quickly we are interested in those companies and we're interested in investing in those companies and they should contact us at empire state development corporation.
Also restarting life. The state budget, not just this state, but every state budget has been decimated by the situation. We shut down the economy. People aren't working; they're not paying income taxes. Businesses aren't operating so our budget just collapsed, right? Our revenues just collapsed. You want to restart the economy, you have to help restart the local governments, and that's going to be a federal act. I don't have the capacities of governor, no governor, does to generate revenue in a positive way from an economy that's not operating. That is going to be a federal stimulus bill. There's no other way to do this, and it has to be a stimulus bill that actually understands you have state and local governments that have to be brought up to speed and functioning if you want to facilitate this re starting up the economy. Federal government passed some legislation. As I've said at the time it was woefully inadequate from New York's point of view. We then have had some time to actually study the legislation - it actually gets worse when you read it. And it's not even what was represented to us initially, so I'm sending our congressional delegation later today saying the past legislation did good for the nation, I have no doubt gave aid to a lot of people in places that needed it, but it was not fair to New York and that has to be remedied in any legislation that goes forward.
The last I know it's been a frustrating 37 days, but it's only been 37 days, on the other hand. I know it feels like a lifetime. It's been so disruptive, so abrupt, so frightening, so disorienting, but it's only been 37 days, right? Everything in context and everything in perspective. I know it's tough to get up every day, and this is like Groundhog Day living through this bizarre reality that worry. It's even more difficult I think with the weather changing you feel the seasons changing and it's getting nicer and you start to open a new book of possibilities, and you know, now the weather is getting nice and I should be getting outdoors and I should be doing this and I should be doing this. I get it, but it's only been 37 days. I started by saying those numbers of cases, that's not arbitrary. What we do effects the number of cases. Our behavior effects the number of cases. We're generating the cases. They're not descending on us from heaven, right? It's our behavior. It's been 37 days.
The 1918 pandemic that we talk about peaked in New York for six months. It came through in three waves and it peaked for six months. 30,000 people died in New York during that pandemic. Why? They didn't react the way we did, they didn't know as much as we know today, they didn't have the same drug therapies, but we are changing the curve in that virus growth. You see that plateauing, that's because of what we are doing. If we don't do what we are doing that is a much different curve and that's what happened in the past. So, social distancing is working. Well, you shut down all the businesses. I know. Well you shut down all the schools. I know, but it is working. That's why you see those numbers coming down. If we were doing the same rate of interaction, those numbers would still be going up. So, to the extent we see a flattening or a possible plateau, that's because of what we are doing and we have to keep doing it. I know it's hard, but we have to keep doing it.
To the extent it takes an effort, remember at this time it's about we and it is not about me. I know what I would like to be doing. I would like to be going - it's motorcycle weather for me. It's time to get out on the water. It's time to go hiking in the Adirondacks. I get it, it's not about me. It's not about me. What I do will affect other people. It will affect my family, it will affect other people. It will affect people in those emergency rooms who are killing themselves every day to keep other people safe. I get infected, I will affect them. So, we all talk about society and community and interconnect and interrelation and family and life is bigger than us. Now's the time to live that, right? Now is the time to live that. So when you feel that need, I have to do this, it's not about me. It's about we and what's good for all of us. My health is in your hands and your health is in my hands. The health of those healthcare workers and those first responders and all those people who have to show up to work every day to keep society functioning, we are responsible to them, also.
So, to the extent it's hard, I get it, but maybe if we think about it through a different lens, a broader lens, it'll be a little easier. Let's not get complacent. We have to stay disciplined, we have to stay smart, we have to stay safe, and we do that by staying at home. We will get through this together.
April 7, 2020.
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on CNN's Erin Burnett Outfront https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-cnns-erin-burnett-outfront-0
Governor Cuomo: "The number of deaths is at an all-time high today but the hospitalization rate is slowing. ... People talk about projection models. There is no model. It is what we do. The number is determined by us. ... If we get complacent and the weather starts to turn warm in the Northeast and people start to go out you're going to see that number go up. None of this is predetermined."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront with Erin Burnett.
AUDIO is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Erin Burnett: Governor, I don't know if you just heard Sanjay. We were talking about the terrible news today, which is the death rate record in New York, 806 deaths, but your hospitalizations have started to slow. What do you read into that?
Governor Cuomo: Good evening, Erin. I did hear Sanjay and I agree with what he's saying, not just tonight but in general. He's a great source. It is a terrible day today in New York - the highest number ever of deaths. As Sanjay was saying it's called a lagging indicator. If you come into the hospital and you're not treated and discharged you wind up on a ventilator. The longer you're on a ventilator the less likely you get off the ventilator, and two weeks later you tend to see the number of deaths increasing. That's what we're seeing now. So you have two numbers really. The number of deaths is at an all-time high today but the hospitalization rate is slowing. So the number of people coming into the system is slowing, apparently leveling off, plateauing. We're not 100% sure yet, but a spike in the number of deaths.
Erin Burnett: So when you look at things like the Javits Center where you had around 50 people but you had the capacity for many more than that, well over 1,000, do you think you may end up, because of the social distancing, not actually needing, I know your hope is you won't need it, is it possible you won't need that extra capacity?
Governor Cuomo: Well, two things, Erin. The entire hospital system is overcapacity right now. So the relief valve is the Javits Center which is converted into a 2,500-bed facility and a Navy ship called Comfort which can hold an additional 500 COVID-positive patients. That's basically a relief valve to the hospital system and the hospital system not only is over capacity but they have been over capacity for weeks and they are stressed and the staff is getting sick. So that's very important. But the second point is, you know, people talk about projection models. There is no model. It is what we do. The number is determined by us. The quote unquote social distancing, if we do a better job at social distancing the number comes down. If we get complacent and the weather starts to turn warm in the Northeast and people start to go out you're going to see that number go up. None of this is pre-determined. God hasn't said, "This is what's going to happen." It depends on what we do and people have to remember that.
Erin Burnett: So when Larry Kudlow today says we could re-open the economy in 4 to 8 weeks, obviously, that's a big range. But you talk about the good weather and you do see more and more people coming out. When you start to see numbers plateau and people internalize that, people are presumably going to come out. How worried are you, Governor, about - at that point it wouldn't even be a second surge - but about this really taking you off course over the next few weeks?
Governor Cuomo: I am concerned about it. Look, I just doubled the fine for violators of social distancing because of exactly what you said was happening. The weather has turned warm, people have been in their homes for now one month. People have cabin fever and they are coming out in greater and greater numbers. Places like New York City, you can't really walk down a crowded sidewalk and maintain social distancing. It's a physical impossibility. If that happens the numbers will go up. And you're right, not even worried about a second wave, I'm worried about getting out of the situation we're in right now and saving as many lives as possible. That will be a direct co-efficient of how well we comply with social distancing. So what I'm saying to New Yorkers is, look this is not about me, this is about we. This really is a time where your own individual actions effect other people. It can literally kill other people. For you to be irresponsible in your actions and jeopardize someone else's life is the height of irresponsibility. We have first responders, we have nurses that are literally killing themselves every day in hospitals. We should be helping them, not creating more of a burden for them.
Erin Burnett: Another question tonight, the President just said, Governor, about ventilator resources. He said that we have 110,000 ventilators coming over a short period of time. That's his quote. He said that 60,000 of those though won't arrive until June 29. Obviously, you can do the math so you have 50,000 between now and then from the federal supply. What does that say to you? Is that a surprise to you? Do you have what you need now?
Governor Cuomo: It's not a surprise to me. We know that no one had the number of ventilators that were going to be required here. These ventilators sort of came out of the blue of just for this pandemic and this particular respiratory disease. We have been scrambling with ventilators. We move them all over the state like pieces on a chess board literally whatever hospital has the greatest inflow that night we move ventilators around the state. We have also used other machines that have a ventilating capacity, something called the BiPAP machine. There's something called a splitting capacity where you can take one ventilator and literally run two sets of tubes to treat two patients. I understand there's going to be a delivery of ventilators in June or whatever and that's going to be past our problem, hopefully. The apex in New York and my guess is most other places but God forbid there's a second wave, the ventilators will be here. But they're not going to make a difference in the next two weeks obviously. And right now we are okay. But we're literally moving pieces all across the chess board every day.
Erin Burnett: So Trump also just said a few moments ago at his press conference, Governor Cuomo, and I quote him: I will protect you if your governor fails. This was not a reference to you specifically but in general to governors across the country. What do you say to that?
Governor Cuomo: I don't know what the President meant by that, Erin. If I were to try to interpret every statement he made there's a whole occupation in that, so I don't know. I know I have been working with him. The federal government has a very important role here. I served in the federal government for eight years. I was a cabinet secretary. I know how important the federal government's role is. I know how important the state's role is. So far, so good working with the federal government. But every day is a new day.
Erin Burnett: All right, Governor Cuomo, I appreciate your time. Thank you, sir.
Governor Cuomo: Thank you, Erin.
April 8, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Launches Multi-Platform, Multi-Language Education and Awareness Campaign to Reach All New Yorkers Across the State in All Zip Codes and Communities https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-launches-multi-platform-multi-language-education
Outreach to Wider Audience Will Emphasize State's Core Message to New Yorkers to Stay Home
Governor Launches Instagram Campaign, #IStayHomeFor, with Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez to Reach the Widest Audience Possible
Builds on Ongoing State Efforts to Reach All Communities in New York with the Life-Saving Stay Home Message
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today launched a multi-platform, multi-language education and awareness campaign to reach all New Yorkers across the state in all zip codes including hard-to-reach communities. The campaign will emphasize the state's core message to stay home and will expand outreach and awareness of this critical mandate to new and wider audiences. The Governor launched the Instagram campaign, #IStayHomeFor, with Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez to help reach the widest audience possible with the state's life-saving stay home message.
"This virus is truly vicious, and we all have an obligation to do what we can to protect each other and to protect the most vulnerable," Governor Cuomo said. "We will only be effective if social distancing is enforced and maintained. That's why we are using every tool at our disposable to reach everyone, everywhere in every way -- particularly communities we don't normally reach -- to reinforce the message to stay home and stop the spread, if not for ourselves, for the vulnerable people we love around us."
This builds on the state's ongoing efforts to reach all communities across the state with the message to stay home, including:
"Go Paper" Campaign: In recognition of the fact that not all New Yorkers are on social media, the state has created the "Go Paper" campaign, which partners with delivery services including FreshDirect to print flyers - which encourage people to abide by social distancing protocols, wash their hands and stay home -- and attach them to local deliveries. Starting this week, FreshDirect will include the flyers in 100,000 deliveries a week. The state is reaching out to local businesses and asking them to include the flyer with all deliveries. The flyer is available in English and Spanish here.
Nightly Newsletter: Launched on March 17th, this nightly email newsletter provides 190,000 subscribers with reliable facts and updates on New York State's response to coronavirus. Individuals can subscribe to receive the newsletter here.
Leveraging Radio DJs: New York State is working with DJs at the state's most popular radio stations in key communities to raise awareness about the facts regarding the spread of coronavirus and to share key crucial social distancing messages to their listener audiences.
LinkedIn: To engage with business-oriented thought-leaders, the Governor's team uses LinkedIn to highlight messages on sourcing personal protective equipment, the impact of the private sector during the pandemic and the importance of mental health.
NY Hub on the Ad Council's PSA Portal: NYS has partnered with the Ad Council to create a NYS specific hub highlighting our Stay Home, Save Lives messaging in English and Spanish. Assets include :30 and :60 second TV spots and pre-roll, radio spots, social media posts, online banners and OOH signs and billboards.
New York State Department of Health Preparedness Messaging: To ensure New York's diverse and multi-lingual communities are receiving critical information to prevent the spread of COVID-19, The Department produced a series of public service announcements featuring Health Commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker. Those ads are currently airing in English on broadcast, cable and streaming video services with subtitles in Spanish, Chinese and Korean. Public service announcements are also airing on streaming and broadcast radio, and print ads have been developed in multiple languages for placement in ethnic newspapers. DOH is also engaging in a digital advertising campaign targeted to reach all communities.
Highway Signs and Billboards: Individuals driving on the road are reminded of the Governor's important "Stay Home, Save Lives" by digital signage on major roadways.
Graphics Campaign - Save a Life-Put a Life in Danger: Data shows that social distancing is working. To reinforce social distancing practices, this graphic campaign features a side by side comparison of crowded versus empty New York spaces.
Nextdoor: The Governor has launched a messaging program on the Nextdoor app to keep New Yorkers updated on important Coronavirus news including the extension of New York on PAUSE and social distancing practices.
Snapchat: New York State is working with Snap Inc. on filters that New Yorkers can use on Snapchat to spread the critical stay home message on its platform, which reaches 75 percent of all 13-34 year olds in the US. The filters will be launched this week and targeted specifically in New York. Governor Cuomo also recently launched his own Snapchat account — nygov — as a strategic way to reach young people across the state and provide critical updates.
April 8, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Directs Flags to Be Flown at Half-Staff in Honor of Those We Have Lost to COVID-19. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-directs-flags-be-flown-half-staff-honor-those-we
Flags Will Remain Lowered While New York is on PAUSE
Kosciuszko Bridge, Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, Spire of One World Trade Center and LaGuardia Airport Parking Garages Will Be Lit Blue on Thursday, April 9th as Part of the #LightItBlue Campaign
Announces SUNY Albany President Havidan Rodriguez Will Work with State Department of Health and Northwell Health to Conduct More COVID-19 Data Research and Increase Testing in Minority Communities
Directs State Department of Labor to Make $600 in Additional Weekly Unemployment Benefits Available to All New Yorkers -- Extends Period Covered by Unemployment Benefits for Another 13 Weeks, for Total of 39 Weeks
Governor Will Issue Executive Order to Ensure New Yorkers Can Vote Absentee in the June 23rd Primary Elections
2,400 Brand New BiPAP Machines Donated to the State by Mercury Medical, Flown to New York from Florida for Free by JetBlue and Transported on the Ground by Southern Glazer's
Announces Delta, JetBlue and United are Offering Free Travel to New York for COVID-19 Medical Workers
State Has Distributed Over One Million Free Bottles of NYS Clean Hand Sanitizer AcrossAll 62 Counties
Confirms 10,453 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 149,316; New Cases in 52 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today directed flags on state government buildings to be flown at half-staff in honor of those we have lost to COVID-19. The flags will remain lowered while New York is on pause.
Governor Cuomo also announced that on Thursday, April 9th, the Kosciuszko Bridge, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the spire of One World Trade Center and LaGuardia Airport parking garages will be lit blue as part of the #LightItBlue campaign. The initiative simultaneously lights up buildings, landmarks and LED screens across the US to show support and gratitude to those health care professionals and essential workers on the frontlines and create a universal symbol of solidarity and hope.
The Governor also announced that SUNY Albany President Havidan Rodriguez will work with the State Department of Health and Northwell Health to conduct more COVID-19 data research and increase testing in minority communities to determine why more people in minority and low-income communities have higher rates of infection.
Governor Cuomo also directed the State Department of Labor to immediately make $600 in additional weekly unemployment benefits available to all New Yorkers. The additional benefits were included in the Federal CARES Act, but, unlike other states, New York began delivering the extra unemployment insurance to unemployed individuals before Federal funds are disbursed to the states. New York is also extending the period covered by unemployment benefits for another 13 weeks, for a total of 39 weeks.
Every number is a face and we have lost so many people, many of them front-line workers putting themselves at risk to do the essential functions that we all need for society to go on.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
The Governor also announced he will issue an Executive Order to ensure New Yorkers can vote by absentee ballot in the June 23rd primary elections. The Governor previously issued an Executive Order to move the presidential primary election from April 28 to June 23, aligning it with the congressional and legislative primaries in New York.
The Governor also announced that 2,400 brand new BiPAP machines have been donated to the state by Mercury Medical and are being flown to New York from Florida for free by JetBlue and transported on the ground by Southern Glazer's.
The Governor also announced that Delta, JetBlue and United are offering free travel to New York for COVID-19 medical workers. To date, more than 90,000 health professionals, including more than 25,000 out-of-state individuals, have signed up to serve as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The Governor also announced that the state has distributed over one million free bottles of NYSClean hand sanitizer across all 62 counties in the state. The hand sanitizer has been distributed to county emergency managers, first responders, health care workers, nursing homes, law enforcement, homeless organizations and other non-profits, transportation systems including the MTA, Port Authority, Thruway and other public transportation entities across the state.
"We are flattening the curve because we are rigorous about social distancing, and if we continue doing what we are doing, we believe the curve will continue to flatten, but this is not a time to get complacent," Governor Cuomo said. "That is the good news, but the bad news is terrible - the death toll has been going steadily up and it reached a new height yesterday. Every number is a face and we have lost so many people, many of them front-line workers putting themselves at risk to do the essential functions that we all need for society to go on. In honor of those we have lost to the virus, I am directing all flags to be flown at half-mast. And I continue to urge all New Yorkers to be responsible, adhere to all social distancing protocols and remember the life you are risking may not be your own."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 10,453 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 149,316 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 149,316 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
342
9
Allegany
21
4
Broome
88
2
Cattaraugus
15
2
Cayuga
14
0
Chautauqua
17
1
Chemung
55
6
Chenango
53
2
Clinton
39
2
Columbia
63
2
Cortland
16
0
Delaware
37
1
Dutchess
1,395
146
Erie
1,205
70
Essex
7
0
Franklin
10
0
Fulton
14
1
Genesee
47
14
Greene
25
1
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
29
2
Jefferson
40
1
Lewis
6
0
Livingston
25
2
Madison
90
2
Monroe
651
55
Montgomery
18
0
Nassau
18,548
1,938
Niagara
134
8
NYC
81,803
4,927
Oneida
125
7
Onondaga
347
12
Ontario
39
6
Orange
3,865
266
Orleans
16
1
Oswego
33
2
Otsego
38
4
Putnam
403
37
Rensselaer
75
8
Rockland
6,413
423
Saratoga
162
7
Schenectady
149
4
Schoharie
12
0
Schuyler
4
0
Seneca
12
2
St. Lawrence
69
9
Steuben
82
7
Suffolk
15,844
1,327
Sullivan
279
9
Tioga
12
4
Tompkins
99
2
Ulster
422
24
Warren
33
2
Washington
20
1
Wayne
39
4
Westchester
15,887
1,083
Wyoming
27
4
Yates
1
0
April 8, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Directs Flags to be Flown at Half-Mast in Honor of Those We Have Lost to COVID-19. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-directs-flags
Flags Will Remain Lowered While New York is on PAUSE
Kosciuszko Bridge, Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, Spire of One World Trade Center and LaGuardia Airport Parking Garages Will Be Lit Blue on Thursday, April 9th as Part of the #LightItBlue Campaign
Announces SUNY Albany President Havidan Rodriguez Will Work with State Department of Health and Northwell Health to Conduct More COVID-19 Data Research and Increase Testing in Minority Communities
Directs State Department of Labor to Make $600 in Additional Weekly Unemployment Benefits Available to All New Yorkers -- Extends Period Covered by Unemployment Benefits for Another 13 Weeks, for Total of 39 Weeks
Governor Will Issue Executive Order to Ensure New Yorkers Can Vote Absentee in the June 23rd Primary Elections
2,400 Brand New BiPAP Machines Donated to the State by Mercury Medical, Flown to New York from Florida for Free by JetBlue and Transported on the Ground by Southern Glazer's
Announces Delta, JetBlue and United are Offering Free Travel to New York for COVID-19 Medical Workers
State Has Distributed Over One Million Free Bottles of NYS Clean Hand Sanitizer Across All 62 Counties
Confirms 10,453 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 149,316; New Cases in 52 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "It's not a time to get complacent. It's not a time to do anything different than we've been doing. Remember what happened in Italy when the entire health care system became overrun. So we have to remain diligent, we have to remain disciplined going forward. There's no doubt that we are now bending the curve and there's no doubt that we can't stop doing what we're doing."
Earlier today, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo directed flags on state government buildings to be flown at half-staff in honor of those we have lost to COVID-19. The flags will remain lowered while New York is on pause.
Governor Cuomo also announced that on Thursday, April 9th, the Kosciuszko Bridge, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the spire of One World Trade Center and LaGuardia Airport parking garages will be lit blue as part of the #LightItBlue campaign. The initiative simultaneously lights up buildings, landmarks and LED screens across the US to show support and gratitude to those health care professionals and essential workers on the frontlines and create a universal symbol of solidarity and hope.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTube here and in TV quality format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good afternoon to everyone. These are stressful, emotional times as we know. Today is a day in the State of New York with very mixed emotions based on two very different pieces of information we have. I'm trying to work through the mixed emotions for myself, so I'll just present the facts and then we'll go from there.
There is good news in what we're seeing that what we have done and what we are doing is actually working and it's making a difference. We took dramatic actions in this state. We did the New York PAUSE program to close down schools, businesses, social distancing and it's working. It is flattening the curve and we see that again today so far. Meaning what? Meaning that curve is flattening because we are flattening the curve by what we are doing. If we stop what we are doing, you will see that curve change. That curve is purely a function of what we do day-in and day-out.
Right now it's flattening. The number of patients hospitalized is down. Again, we don't just look at day-to-day data, you look at the three-day trend but that number is down. The three-day average trend is also down. Anecdotally there are individual hospitals, the larger systems are reporting that some of them are actually releasing more people than are coming in. They're net down. So we see the quote, unquote flattening of the curve.
We have more capacity in the hospital system than ever before. We've had more capacity in that system to absorb more people. The sharing of equipment, which has been really one of the beautiful cooperative, generous acts among different partners in the health care system has worked. If the hospitalization rate keeps the decreasing the way it is now, then the system should stabilize over these next couple of weeks, which will minimize the need for overflow on the system that we have built in at Javits and at the USNS Comfort.
That is all good news. There's a big caution sign, that's if we continue doing what we're doing. If we continue doing what we're doing. We are flattening the curve because we are rigorous about social distancing, et cetera. So if we continue doing what we're doing then we believe the curve will continue to flatten. But, it's not a time to get complacent. It's not a time to do anything different than we've been doing. Remember what happened in Italy when the entire health care system became overrun. So we have to remain diligent, we have to remain disciplined going forward. There's no doubt that we are now bending the curve and there's no doubt that we can't stop doing what we're doing.
That's the good news. The bad news isn't just bad, the bad news is actually terrible. Highest single day death toll yet, 779 people. When you look at the numbers on the death toll, it has been going steadily up. It reached new height yesterday. The number of deaths, as a matter of fact, the number of deaths will continue to rise as those hospitalized for a longer period of time pass away. The longer you are on a ventilator, the less likely you will come off the ventilator. Dr. Fauci spoke to me about this and he was 100 percent right. The quote unquote lagging indicator between hospitalizations and deaths. The hospitalizations can start to drop, but the deaths actually increase because the people who have been in the hospital for 11 days, 14 days, 17 days pass away. That's what we're seeing. Hospitalizations drop and the death toll rises. I understand the science of it. I understand the facts and the logic of it. But it is still incredibly difficult to deal with. Every number is a face, right. And that's been painfully obvious to me every day.
But we have lost people, many of them front line workers, many of them health care workers, many of them people who were doing the essential functions that we all needed for society to go on, and they were putting themselves at risk. And they knew they were. Many of them vulnerable people who this vicious predator of a virus targeted from day one. This virus attacked the vulnerable and attacked the weak. And it's our job as a society to protect those vulnerable. And that's what this has always been about from day one, and it still is about.
Be responsible, not just for yourself, but to protect the vulnerable. Be responsible because the life you risk may not be your own. Those people who walk into an emergency room every day and put themselves at peril, don't make their situation worse. Don't infect yourself or infect someone else or their situation becomes more dangerous. Just to put a perspective on this, 9/11, which so many of us lived through in this state and in this nation, 2,753 lives lost. This crisis we've lost 6,268 New Yorkers. I'm going to direct all flags to be flown at half-mast in honor of those who we have lost to this virus.
Big question from everyone, from my daughters, I'm sure around most people's dinner table, when will things go back to the way they were? I don't think it's about going back. I don't think it's ever about going back. I think the question is always about going forward, and that's what we have to deal with here. It's about learning from what we've experienced and it's about growing and it's about moving forward. Well, when will we return to normal? I don't think we return to normal. I don't think we return to yesterday, where we were. I think if we're smart, we achieve a new normal. The way we are understanding a new normal when it comes to the economy and a new normal when it comes to the environment. Now we understand a new normal in terms of health and public health and we have to learn just the way we've been learning about the new normal in other aspects of society.
We have to learn what it means - global pandemic, how small the world has actually gotten. Someone sneezes in Asia today, you catch a cold tomorrow. Whatever happens in any country on this globe can get on an airplane and be here literally overnight and understanding this phenomenon and having a new appreciation for it, how our public health system has to be prepared and the scale to which we need a public health system. Look at the way we're scrambling right now to make this work. We have to learn from that.
I think we've also learned positive lessons. We found ways to use technology that we never explored before. You have a New York State court system that - thank you, Chief Judge - is basically developing a virtual online court system which has all sorts of positive benefits going forward. Using technology for health care, using technology to work from home, using technology for education. These are all positives that we can learn.
Testing capacity which we still have to develop - that is going to be the bridge from where we are today to the new economy in my opinion. It's going to be a testing informed transition to the new economy where people who have the antibodies, people who are negative, people who have been exposed and now are better, those are the people who can go to work and you know who they are because you can do testing. But that we've all developed a sense of scale over the past few weeks in dealing with this.
There's also lessons to be learned - why are more African-Americans and Latinos affected? We're seeing this around the country. Now the numbers in New York are not as bad as the disparities we see in other places across the country but there still are apparently disparities. Why? Comorbidity - I understand that. But I think there's something more to it. It always seems that the poorest people pay the highest price. Why is that? Why is that? Whatever the situation is, natural disaster, Hurricane Katrina, the people standing on those rooftops were not rich White people. Why? Why is it that the poorest people always pay the highest price? But let's figure it out. Let's do the work. Let's do the research. Let's learn from this moment and let's learn these lessons and let's do it now.
We're going to do more testing in minority communities but not just testing for the virus. Let's actually get research and data that can inform us as to why are we having more people in minority communities, more people in certain neighborhoods, why do they have higher rates of infection? I get the comorbidity. I get the underlying illness issue, but what else is at play? Are more public workers Latino and African-American who don't have a choice, frankly, but to go out there everyday and drive the bus and drive the train and show up for work and wind up subjecting themselves to, in this case, the virus whereas many other people who had the option just absented themselves. They live in more dense communities, more urban environments. But what is it? And let's learn from that and let's do it now.
I'm going to ask our SUNY Albany chief Dr. Havidán Rodriguez to head an effort to do it right now. We'll do more testing in minority communities now with more data research done now. So let's learn now. The Department of Health will be doing it along with Northwell. But let's learn these lessons now.
We're also going to make an additional $600 payment to all unemployed New Yorkers. The federal government says they will reimburse us for it, but people need money now in their pocket. New York will be doing that immediately. We're also extending the period coverage of unemployment benefits for an additional thirteen weeks. Goes from 26 weeks to 39 weeks. That should be a relief.
On voting, I've seen lines of people on television voting in other states. This is totally nonsensical. God bless them for having such diligence for their civic duty that they would go stand on a line to vote. People shouldn't have to make that choice and, by executive order, all New Yorkers can vote absentee on the June 23 primaries coming up.
I want to say thank you to all the places and people who are working with the State of New York. Mercury Medical dedicated 2,400 BiPAP machines. BiPAP machines are technically not ventilators, but they can be modified to effectively ventilate even though they are not ventilators and we are using them. They were brought up from Florida, thank you very much JetBlue for doing that. I also want to thank Oregon and Washington State and California for freeing up ventilators. I want to thank the direct care workers who are doing a fantastic job and they're doing it every day. I want to thank the state workers who are showing up and doing a great job every day. Every first responder. This has been a long battle and it's going to go on, but I want them to know how thankful we all are of them for what they're doing. I want people to remember that we're flattening that curve and if anything, we double down now on our diligence.
We're going to start a social media campaign. Who are you staying home for? It's not about staying home for yourself, stay home for others. Stay home for the vulnerable people who, if they get this virus, are in a really bad place in life. Stay home for the health care worker who's in the emergency room because you don't want to infect anybody else who then puts another greater load on our health care system. So who are you staying home for? I'm staying home for my mother. It's not about just you. It is about all of us. Who are you staying home for? We'll start a social media campaign that does that.
Thank you to all the New Yorkers for all they have done and we still have more to do. We are by no means out of the woods. Do not miss read what you have seen in that data and on those charts. That is a pure product of our actions and behavior. If we behave differently, you will see those numbers change. I just doubled the fine on disobeying the social distancing rules. Why? Because, if anything we have to get more diligent, not less diligent, and we have more to do. And that's New York tough, but tough is more than just tough. Tough is smart and disciplined and unified and tough loving. The toughest guys are tough enough to love, right?
Last point, our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community celebrate Passover tonight. We wish them all a happy Passover. The Jewish community has had a long and difficult year, besides any of this. The number of incidents of anti-Semitism across this country, the violence that they have seen even in this state of New York that has such a large Jewish population. So, we wish them all well on Passover. The message of Passover I know helps me today, and I offer to others to consider. Passover says we remember the past. We learn from the past. We remember the lessons of the past. We teach a new generation those lessons. But, there is also a message of hope in Passover. Next year in Jerusalem. Next year the promised land. Next year will be better. And yes, this has been a difficult month. We'll learn a lot and we'll move forward, and we'll be better for it.
April 8, 2020.
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on CNN's Cuomo Prime Time. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-cnns-cuomo-prime-time-3
Governor Cuomo: "You have this theoretical good news, that flattening of the curve. And the worst news that you could possibly have with the record number of deaths. How do you hold both of those emotions at the same time? It's an emotional time. It's a stressful time for everyone. It's not going to get better any time soon. That's the truth, the plain truth. And it depends on what we do. It is our actions that is flattening the curve. Why were all those projections wrong? Because our actions have been better than the statisticians believed. So we can flatten the curve. We are flattening the curve. We have to maintain it, but the human cost here, the human toll, the suffering is just incredible. It's just incredible."
Earlier tonight, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on CNN's Cuomo Prime Time to discuss New York's plan to combat the novel coronavirus crisis.
AUDIO is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Governor Cuomo: Happy Passover to you, brother. Next year in Jerusalem, right.
Chris Cuomo: That's right. That is the hope. Certainly, it's really going to resound with people differently this year. A lot of people are doing Zoom Seders because they can't be in close contact. What is your message when you and I say our Jewish brothers and sisters, we mean it. We have Jews in our family. We have Jews in our blood, our nieces. What is the message to the faithful this year and what Passover means?
Governor Cuomo: Well I think the message of Passover resonates totally. The first part is to learn the lessons from the past, pass them on to a new generation, to make sure we remember what we learned. The second part of the message is is a message of hope. It can be better, it will be better next year.
I have to tell you, so many people, everyone I talk to - whether they like me, dislike me - they're all concerned about you and they all send their best wishes. They all respect the guts that you've shown here, televising as you're going through this and getting the message out. That's universal. We're all proud of you.
Chris Cuomo: Good. I'm glad. I'm glad that it's helping people. Making them feel that this isn't a boogeyman that they can't beat. And the little tips that I'm learning, if it helps somebody then it was all worth it. There's got to be a purpose to the pain. Let me ask you something about purpose and pain. It is hard for people to get, Andrew, thatseeing a lot of people die can mean something better is coming. How do you sell that message?
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, you don't. It's hard for me. It's hard for me to hear it. I said I do these daily press briefings to go through the facts, because I think more than anything, people want information. They don't want political spin, they don't want garbage. They just want the facts. So I do these briefings that give people the facts. I had trouble today. I'll tell you the truth, Chris, because talk about mixed emotions. Good news, bad news. Good news, the curve is flattening if - if - we are still conscientious because we are flattening the curve. That's the good news. We can flatten the curve.
Bad news, record number of deaths: 779. We're up to 6,268 deaths, Chris. 9/11 was 2,700 deaths, just to give you an idea of where we are. So yeah, you have this theoretical good news, that flattening of the curve. And the worst news that you could possibly have with the record number of deaths. How do you hold both of those emotions at the same time? It's an emotional time. It's a stressful time for everyone. It's not going to get better any time soon. That's the truth, the plain truth. And it depends on what we do. It is our actions that is flattening the curve. Why were all those projections wrong? Because our actions have been better than the statisticians believed. So we can flatten the curve. We are flattening the curve. We have to maintain it, but the human cost here, the human toll, the suffering is just incredible. It's just incredible.
Chris Cuomo: And look, people know it's not going to end any time soon, that's why, you know, I tell you I think you're right to play it straight with them. I think it's better to give people the straight information. Now media coverage is going to look and see how we got here. You and the mayor have been cited in New York for catching on slowly here. And that is something that they don't just talk about you guys, but that you are part of the mix of politicians who waited too long. With the benefit of hindsight, do you agree with that criticism?
Governor Cuomo: Look, in these situations, Chris, they're going to criticize you whichever way you go. I've been through too many emergencies, too many disasters. If you take a lot of action and then the storm doesn't come they say you were overcautious, over-preventative. So they'll second-guess any decision. That's what the quote unquote, some of you guys in the media like to do, right? First thing I say to you is, look in a mirror before you open your mouth, right? So before you want to talk about what others did, what did you do and when did you do it? Second, you're not going to be able to find a state in the United States of America that moved faster than New York State.
We had our first case. Fifteen days later I closed the schools. Nobody had called for that. Nineteen days later I closed down the state. When you close down New York you close down one of the economic engines on this globe and no state did that faster than we did it. As a matter of fact, I took a lot of heat for moving as fast as I did. Now they want to say, oh, Governor, maybe you were too prepared, maybe you didn't need to do everything you did. You know, they're going to do that game all day long. But look, I react to numbers and data and science. We are looking at projections and models by experts who analyze this data and I follow the data. This is not about what I think politically or what I think because I think really I'm a doctor. I just follow the data and that's what we did.
Chris Cuomo: Just smiling because in the control room they just said, you have like three minutes left, and I'm like, my brothers takes five minutes to say hello. You think I'm going to be done with this interview in three minutes? Who's got the fever? Just so you know, on the side—
Governor Cuomo: Who controls the shows? You or the control room?
Chris Cuomo: Here's what I'll tell you, in three minutes, we're not going to be done. I'm just telling you that right now. If anybody is sitting back enjoying family right now, kick back, we're not going anywhere. But let me ask you this.
Governor Cuomo: I have a zoom Seder that I have to get to.
Chris Cuomo: I'm sure we all do. Actually, I didn't get invited to any.
Governor Cuomo: No surprise.
Chris Cuomo: I will buy you lunch -
Governor Cuomo: You dressed for it.
Chris Cuomo: - for every time that you can show me one piece that showed you were too prepared for the pandemic, okay? Any piece you can show me that says -
Governor Cuomo: A dime?
Chris Cuomo: Cuomo, you were too prepared for this pandemic. You did too much too soon. I don't think you'll find any piece like that.
Governor Cuomo: What is the wager?
Chris Cuomo: Whatever you want. That you were too prepared, that you did too much too fast.
Governor Cuomo: Oh, really?
Chris Cuomo: Yes.
Governor Cuomo: That compared to the projections that the actuality -
Chris Cuomo: I'll give you any context you want.
Governor Cuomo: - never came to the projections that we were following.
Chris Cuomo: Look, that's a separate question.
Governor Cuomo: Bring it on.
Chris Cuomo: I hope you're right about that. I think you have got to prepare more than the actual numbers. You are right about that, all day. This is the segue point. The President says, here's how you lead well. I'm not going to tell you these bad what ifs. I'm a cheerleader, baby. I'm a leader for this country. Why aren't you more like the President that way? Instead of telling people, it could be this, it could be that, yeah, you could be wrong, just avoid it all. Don't fill their heads with these ugly potentials.
Governor Cuomo: Look, this is not - There's a time and place for everything, right? And there's going to be a discussion about who did what when? Who should have done what when? Where were the whistleblowers? Where were the people that were supposed to be blowing the bugle on this global pandemic - which by the way started in November, December in China, right? There will be a discussion. Why didn't anyone blow a bugle.
Chris Cuomo: Maybe here, too. All the cases that were here -
Governor Cuomo: That's exactly right. State and local governments, we're not in charge of global pandemics, right? That's not in our job description. Where were the world health organizations, et cetera? Where were with the media, all are all those great scientific minds being interviewed? So, anyway, they'll do that. The President as cheerleader - I'm an advocate for my state, I'm a cheerleader for my state also. Maybe not a cheerleader, but I'm a promoter of my state. But in a situation like this, I think it's about - It's about the facts, right? Sometimes it's just about the facts and doing what you have to do for the facts. I don't think there's a positive spin or a negative spin on facts and that's what we followed in this situation.
Chris Cuomo: I don't disagree that following the facts is the right thing, especially the more serious the situation is you got to trust people to do the right thing with the information. I just don't see how it gives real optimism to give hollow hope. Now, you know, I've seen you referred to a little bit recently as the love gov and I'm wondering if that's bleeding into your demeanor at all and making you a little soft on the President. That you don't want to really criticize him because you need him and now's not a time for fighting, but don't you have to balance that with calling him out if he's doing things that you don't think are great for the people of your state to be hearing and experiencing? Love gov?
Governor Cuomo: I've always been a soft guy. I am the love gov. I'm a cool dude in a loose mood, you know that. I just say, let it go, just go with the flow, baby. You know. You can't control anything, so don't even try.
Chris Cuomo: You have never said any of those things.
Governor Cuomo: Water off a duck's back. That's me.
Chris Cuomo: That's the first time you've said any of those.
Governor Cuomo: Really?
Chris Cuomo: Never said any of those.
Governor Cuomo: Look, I have to--
Chris Cuomo: I've known you my whole life.
Governor Cuomo: Alright, well, that's your opinion. yeah. You should listen better. Listening works. Not always talking.
Chris Cuomo: What?
Governor Cuomo: What was the question? Oh, I remember the question.
Chris Cuomo: You're soft on the president. Why?
Governor Cuomo: I am in a situation, yeah, well, that's your characterization, first of all. You don't state it as a question, because you have a characterization in there that is a premise. I am working with the President, cooperatively. It's very important that the federal government and state government work together during this time. I have to do my best job for the people of this state. You cannot say, look, I've been the governor in this country that has been the most critical of the president up until now. And by the way, there's no governor that he's been more critical of than me. So, nobody's going to say I've gone too soft on the President. We're working together to help the state. That's what's important now, no politics, no personality, no ego, no ego. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's about we and getting through this and that's my singular focus. There will be a day and a time for everything. But this is not the time and place. Capeesh?
Chris Cuomo: Yes. Capeesh. Bernie Sanders is out. The word is that this increases the chances, with Senator Sanders out, that you may get in the race for president. Is that true?
Governor Cuomo: Is that the word? Well, then it must be true, if that's the word.
Chris Cuomo: That's the word on the street.
Governor Cuomo: Oh, the word on the street?
Chris Cuomo: I'm sorry, I didn't hear an answer.
Governor Cuomo: I'm just saying, if that's the word, who am I to argue with the word, right?
Chris Cuomo: Right, so, then, the senator leaving the race has changed your thinking? Is that what you're saying, Governor?
Governor Cuomo: Has the senator's leaving the race changed my thinking? In what way?
Chris Cuomo: Are you now giving different consideration to running for president?
Governor Cuomo: No. But it was a good question.
Chris Cuomo: So, you are still not thinking?
Governor Cuomo: But why?
Chris Cuomo: It's definitely a good question.
Governor Cuomo: I'm a thinking being. I'm thinking about a lot of things.
Chris Cuomo: I bet. Are you not thinking about running for president because now there's more political momentum around the idea of you accepting a vice presidential bid from Joe Biden? Is that something that you're considering?
Governor Cuomo: First of all, I'm glad to see you're feeling better, because -
Chris Cuomo: Time is precious.
Governor Cuomo: Your animation - yeah, I know.
Chris Cuomo: Answer whenever you like.
Governor Cuomo: Joe Biden is a personal friend of mine, I've worked with him, he's been a great friend to this state. I support him. I have for years. And he's going to be, I believe, an excellent Democratic candidate and a leader. Second, I have said repeatedly my plans. When I said I wanted to run for governor, I said to the people of my state, I will serve as your governor. People asked me, "Well, will you run for president," I said no. I'm not that guy, Chris. I'm not that politician who says, yeah, I want to - it's all about me and next step on the ladder.
Chris Cuomo: Even if your party's jumping up and down, signs at a digital convention and they call you and say, we need you, love gov?
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, they can jump up and down - yeah, love gov says no way. I gave my word and my word is good, I'm not your typical guy. Don't laugh. You're going to pay, Chris. One day, you're going to be better. And then -
Chris Cuomo: I hope.
Governor Cuomo: And then we'll have another discussion.
Chris Cuomo: I just want to ask the question. For right now -
Governor Cuomo: I'm not going to president, I'm not going to be vice president. What does VP stand for?
Chris Cuomo: Vice president.
Governor Cuomo: Principal?
Chris Cuomo: So, neither one, okay, good. There's an important campaign you are pushing for people right now called stay home and who you are staying home for? It's a good idea. It's a good way to connect, the personal commitment of what they're doing. My decision is, and as I posted today, very early before anybody else responded to the call that you put out, I'm staying home for my mother. Because I love her and at her age, she's uniquely vulnerable to the virus and that's why making the move out of the house that Christina and I made was 100 percent our own and we did it early. Who are you staying home for? Because I'm staying home for my mom.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah. The whole campaign is dedicated to my mother. And I said that first thing this morning when I posted my picture.
Chris Cuomo: I didn't hear you say anything.
Governor Cuomo: My mother. My mother. I'm staying home -
Chris Cuomo: You're staying home for your mom, too? Isn't that weird though after I just said it?
Governor Cuomo: No. I went first. I had my picture at my press conference saying I'm doing it for my mother.
Chris Cuomo: Really?
Governor Cuomo: Yes. Because it's a point that I want people to understand.
Chris Cuomo: But there's me with mom right now.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, well I had my picture this morning while you were still sleeping and I showed it at my press conference. And people have to understand, you want to be reckless with your own life, don't endanger others. And that's what the stay at home for campaign is all about.
Chris Cuomo: Beautiful.
Governor Cuomo: Don't endanger health care workers, don't endanger vulnerable people.
Chris Cuomo: I love it, and --
Governor Cuomo: And she was my mother first, by the way.
Chris Cuomo: That is true. That one you win, that point. 100 Percent. You were born first.
Governor Cuomo: Yes. Thank you.
Chris Cuomo: And the healthcare workers are begging us to do this for them, and I love the idea of the campaign. So I'm shifting my answer. You can have it. You can have mom because that's what, you know, the bigger person does. I'm going to stay at home for these two guys. Here's my new choice. I'm staying home for these guys. Put up the picture, that's what I'm queuing right now. Put up the picture. Yes. I'm staying home for these two guys in the front. You know why? Can you see the picture?
Governor Cuomo: Alright. No I can't see it.
Chris Cuomo: You can see it.
Governor Cuomo: No I can't see it.
Chris Cuomo: So I'm staying home for these two guys.
Governor Cuomo: I can't see it.
Chris Cuomo: So there's you and one of your signature --
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, I can't see it. Bye, Chris.
Chris Cuomo: No, no. Don't you do it. Put the microphone back on. Don't be like that. And don't hold it in your hand because the hand swallows up the whole microphone. I can't get any sound out of it.
Governor Cuomo: Take that picture down.
Chris Cuomo: Put it back up.
Governor Cuomo: Take the picture down.
Chris Cuomo: Put it back up. There he is, and here's why I'm doing it for these guys: because this is the guy who helped me shape who I am today. Look at how I was looking at him so lovingly back then. I know it looks like I'm just staring at his diamond crusted belt buckle, but I'm not. I'm actually staring up at the young man who made me so proud as his brother back then, and my Billy the Kids, and now. And just if you want to tell people huckapoo was your signature look back then. You've abandoned it, why?
Governor Cuomo: Huckapoo. There are no words. There are no words. That was not me.
Chris Cuomo: Straight down the middle.
Governor Cuomo: Three minutes is up. Three minutes is up.
Chris Cuomo: Governor, it is good to remind people that they are just coming to love you now as much as I have my whole life, and it's because of your commitment to what you do for other people. It's what matters most to me about you, and I love you very much. Thank you for coming on this show. Thank you for keeping my spirits up, and thank you for what you're doing for this State.
Governor Cuomo: I'd like to say it was my pleasure, but it wasn't.
Chris Cuomo: Why? Come on.
Governor Cuomo: We'll talk later. Have a good show.
Chris Cuomo: I thought this was a fruitful conversation. Governor, thank you. I'll talk to you soon.
Governor Cuomo: Bye. Thank you.
April 9, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Five New COVID-19 Testing Facilities in Minority Communities Downstate. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-five-new-covid-19-testing-facilities
Announces "New York Loves" Effort to Coordinate All Foundations, Philanthropies, Not-for-Profits, Charities and Other Entities that Want to Help or Donate to the State
Asks New Yorkers Who Have Recovered from Virus to Donate Blood
Governor Will Issue Executive Order to Bring in Additional Funeral Directors to Help with High Number of Deaths
Confirms 10,621 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 159,937; New Cases in 55 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced five new testing facilities downstate, primarily in minority communities. A drive-through mobile testing facility will open at the Sears Parking Lot at 2307 Beverly Road in Brooklyn tomorrow at 12:30 p.m., and a drive-through mobile testing facility opened at the Club House at Aqueduct Race Track Parking Lot, 110-00 Rockaway Blvd, in Queens on Monday April 6th. In addition, the state is opening three walk-in facilities at health care centers in the South Bronx; Jamaica, Queens; and in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The walk-in facilities will open next week and will be by appointment only.
The state has opened nine testing facilities to date. The sites will prioritize tests for individuals that are among the highest risk population. Residents who would like to be tested at these facilities must make an appointment by calling 888-364-3065.
The Governor also announced the "New York Loves" effort to coordinate all foundations, philanthropies, not-for-profits, charities and other entities that want to help or donate to the state during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New York Secretary of State Rosanna Rosado and State Director of Nonprofits Fran Barrett will coordinate this effort and any resources that are collected, and will work with local governments that need additional help.
The Governor is also asking all New Yorkers who have recovered from COVID-19 to contact the state and donate blood. Individuals who have recovered from the virus may have convalescent plasma in their blood, which has antibodies against the virus and could help with the development of a treatment for the virus. More information about how to donate is available here.
We are going to increase testing and open new testing sites to collect more data in African-American and Latino communities.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor Cuomo will also issue an Executive Order to bring additional funeral directors to New York to help with the high number of deaths due to COVID-19.
"Our efforts to reduce the spread of the virus through social distancing are working better than we expected because people are complying with them," Governor Cuomo said. "Rapid testing and increasing our testing capacity is going to be the bridge to the new economy and restarting, but we also need to make sure we are learning the lessons of what we're going through now because we haven't finished going through it yet. We are going to increase testing and open new testing sites to collect more data in African-American and Latino communities so we can better understand why this virus kills and has higher fatality rates in certain communities, and what we can do to address it."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 10,621 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 159,937 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 159,937 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
CountyTotal PositiveNew PositiveAlbany37937Allegany221Broome10517Cattaraugus172Cayuga162Chautauqua181Chemung594Chenango552Clinton401Columbia707Cortland160Delaware370Dutchess149398Erie1362157Essex81Franklin111Fulton151Genesee569Greene283Hamilton31Herkimer323Jefferson422Lewis60Livingston261Madison911Monroe69847Montgomery2810Nassau201401592Niagara14612NYC870285225Oneida15833Onondaga35811Ontario434Orange4090225Orleans226Oswego363Otsego391Putnam43835Rensselaer794Rockland6665252Saratoga17210Schenectady16718Schoharie120Schuyler40Seneca153St. Lawrence767Steuben897Suffolk174131569Sullivan29415Tioga175Tompkins1056Ulster46038Warren407Washington255Wayne390Westchester170041117Wyoming292Yates
April 9, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Five New COVID-19 Testing Facilities in Minority Communities Downstate. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-five
Announces "New York Loves" Effort to Coordinate All Foundations, Philanthropies, Not-for-Profits, Charities and Other Entities that Want to Help or Donate to the State
Asks New Yorkers Who Have Recovered from Virus to Donate Blood
Governor Will Issue Executive Order to Bring in Additional Funeral Directors to Help with High Number of Deaths
Confirms 10,621 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 159,937; New Cases in 55 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "There are always two questions: can you enact these policies, and then can you enact the policies in a way that people will follow? You know, we can enact a policy, and people thumb their nose to it and continue doing what they're doing. So there has to be a social acceptance, an adherence, to the policy. And New Yorkers are doing that. They're acting responsibility, and diligently, and we are saving lives by what people are doing today. Our expression has been New York Tough, because every day is tough on many, many levels. I get it. But, every day that we are New York Tough, we are actually saving lives."
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo earlier today announced five new testing facilities downstate, primarily in minority communities. A drive-through mobile testing facility will open at the Sears Parking Lot at 2307 Beverly Road in Brooklyn tomorrow at 12:30 p.m., and a drive-through mobile testing facility opened at the Club House at Aqueduct Race Track Parking Lot, 110-00 Rockaway Blvd, in Queens on Monday April 6th. In addition, the state is opening three walk-in facilities at health care centers in the South Bronx; Jamaica, Queens; and in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The walk-in facilities will open next week and will be by appointment only.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTube here and in TV quality format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Today is Thursday, April 9 if you were wondering about where we are today. Seems like one day blends into the other. You have weekdays and you have weekends. But do you really have weekdays and weekends if you're not working? Today I think it's important to take an overall look at where we are. The context, the perspective because we're starting to see a shift and I want to make sure that people actually keep the shift in perspective and understand where we are in the scope of our journey in this situation.
It's been 18 days since we closed down New York. I know it feels like a lifetime. I tell my daughters every day, "It's only 18 days since everything days." It's 39 days since the first COVID case in New York. It feels like a lifetime. It's 80 days since we had the first COVID case in the United States. Eighty days. Been an intense, life-changing 80 days, but that's what it has been.
When we started this situation that we are still in the midst of, before people get complacent. The end of the March, the White House task force, coronavirus task force, was still talking about 1.5-2.2 million deaths. The best case scenario with quote, unquote mitigation efforts, was 100,000-240,000 deaths in the United States, which is breathtaking. For New York, there were a number of models that were put out that we are following. The most frightening was Columbia University that said we could have 136,000 people in New York City only who would be hospitalized. Not infected. We had the McKinsey model which suggested 110,000 people could be hospitalized statewide. We had a second scenario from McKinsey which is 55,000 people hospitalized. Then the Gates Foundation, thank you very much, funded the IHNE study which said a highpoint of 73,000 statewide.
Any of these scenarios are devastating for New York. Because remember we only have a 53,000 bed capacity system statewide; 36,000 beds in New York City. Any of these scenarios are problematic. Luckily, the current trend, if it continues - and if we continue the flattening of the curve - we're at about 18,000 people hospitalized right now. We have increased the capacity of the system dramatically. We have moved pieces around the state like never before. Our health care system has done a phenomenal job of doing an insurmountable task. Our federal partners, the Army Corps of Engineers, they have just really all done a great, great job. Our theory, and I believe my job as Governor, prepare for the worst, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
Now, we're at about 90,000 bed capacity in our overall system today with everything we've done. Even the 90,000 beds, as you see, doesn't compare with the most problematic scenarios. Ninety thousand beds, we can handle the McKinsey moderate scenario. We don't make the McKinsey severe scenario at 110,000. I believe that 90,000 we have a plan to get to 110,000, converting dormitories, et cetera, et cetera. But it would be a massive undertaking and a massive scramble. We do make the Gates funded projection model. The Columbia University model we can never, that would just be a nightmare. That's the one that keeps me up at night because you couldn't get anywhere near that projection.
All of the statisticians also said, "Look, we don't know how effective you can be at closing things down and social distancing," because we've never done it before. But they all said that's the chance to so-called flatten the curve if you actually got people to comply with all these measures, and we have never seen it done before in this country and we don't know if you can do it. So that is the big if in the equation. And that remains the big if in the equation. You can flatten the curve, we are flattening the curve, by what we're doing, and we're flattening the curve so far. We should all be concerned, especially New Yorkers, well, we're flattening the curve, that's good news. It is good news. Well now I can relax.
No, you can't relax. The flattening of the curve last night happened because of what we did yesterday and the day before and the day before that. This is all a direct consequence to our actions. If we stop acting the way we're acting, you will see those numbers go up. And I showed the projection models because we can't handle the worst-case scenarios. We can't even handle the moderate case scenarios with all we've done. So it is essential that we keep that curve flattened because we don't have an option of handling the curve if it goes higher.
The additional good news is the hospitalization rate does suggest that it's coming down and we are flattening the curve. We had 200 net increase in hospitalizations, which you can see is the lowest number we've had since this nightmare started, actually. Change in ICU admissions is the lowest number we've had since March 19 or so. All of this data suggests that we are flattening the curve so far, and the numbers are coming down so far. Number of intubations is down, three-day average on intubations is down. So far our efforts are working. They're working better than anyone projected they would work. That's because people are complying with them.
You know there are always two questions: can you enact these policies, and then can you enact the policies in a way that people will follow? You know, we can enact a policy, and people thumb their nose to it and continue doing what they're doing. So there has to be a social acceptance, an adherence, to the policy. And New Yorkers are doing that. They're acting responsibility, and diligently, and we are saving lives by what people are doing today. Our expression has been New York Tough, because every day is tough on many, many levels. I get it. But, every day that we are New York Tough, we are actually saving lives.
And don't underestimate this virus. I think that is a mistake we made from day one. We is the collective we, we is the global community. This virus is very, very good at what it does. We lost more lives yesterday than we have to date. We understand, and all the experts have said, Dr. Fauci said from day one to me, you will see the deaths increasing after the hospitalizations because the deaths increase the longer a person is in the hospital, the longer a person is on the ventilator. I understand the scientific concept. I understand the data. But you're talking about 799 lives. The highest number ever. It's gotten to the point, frankly, that we're going to bring in additional funeral directors to deal with the number of people who have passed. If you ever told me that as governor I would have to take these actions, I couldn't even contemplate where we are now.
And to put all of this in perspective, I lived through 9/11. 9/11 was supposed to be the darkest day in New York for a generation. We've done everything we can since 9/11 to make sure 9/11 didn't happen again. We lose 2,753 lives on 9/11. We've lost over 7,000 lives to this crisis. That is so shocking, and painful and breathtaking I don't even have the words for it. 9/11 was so devastating, so tragic, and then in many ways we lose so many more New Yorkers to this silent killer. There was no explosion but it was a silent explosion that just ripples through society with this same randomness, the same evil that we saw on 9/11.
What we do we do? We move forward and we do the work that we need to do. We're going to start an effort called New York Loves which is going to be a coordination of all the charities and not-for-profits and foundations and people who want to help. There's been a tremendous outpouring of support from organized not-for-profits, et cetera, but also people just wanting to donate, people just wanting to help. The best effort is if we can coordinate all those resources to make sure there's not duplication and we're actually addressing the right need. So the Department of State, Rossana Rosado, Secretary of State, and Fran Barrett who coordinates not-for-profits - we will coordinate all the people who want to donate and help and will work with the local governments that need help.
Also let's learn the lessons of what we're going through now because we haven't finished going through it. Let's learn how and why this virus kills especially why we have higher fatality rates among African Americans and Latinos and what we do about it. Let's understand it but let's also address it. We're going to be doing more testing in African-American and Latino communities. With more data we're going to open new testing sites primarily in African American and Latino communities. With SUNY Albany, Department of Health, Northwell - collect the test results but also collect the information that we need to come up with policies to fix this. Where do people live? Where do people work? What's the socioeconomic status? Where do they socialize? What are the previous health conditions? Why do we have these higher rates and what do we do about it in? Let's do that.
Rapid testing and testing is going to be the bridge to the new economy and getting to work and restarting. We're not going to go to go from red to green. We're going to go from red to yellow. Yellow is let the people who can go back to work start going back to work. How do you know who can go back to work? Test them. You have rapid testing capacity. We have to bring it to scale. We have to bring it to scale quickly and that's something that the State is working on as well as the federal government.
Let's also find the treatment for this disease - a convalescent plasma which is plasma from people who were infected that can be then used to treat people who get infected. We need that plasma from people who were infected. We're starting up lot blood drive and asking those who have recovered from the virus to contact us and to donate blood so we can develop the convalescent plasma treatment and there's a website on the screen that they can go to to help.
We also have to be prepared and stay prepared. We have to have the supplies. We have to have the right laws. We have to have the right procedures because remember the 1918 Spanish flu came in three waves. We're on the first weight. Everybody is assuming well once we get through this we're done. I wouldn't be so quick to assume that. This virus has been ahead of us from day one. We've underestimated the enemy and that is always dangerous my friends and we should not do that again. There is an article in the LA Times that says the communities that have dealt with this before like Wuhan and Singapore are now seeing a second wave of infection. There is a theory that this virus can mutate and change and come back. We're in a battle but this is about a war and we're only on one battle here. Even once we get through this battle, we have to stay prepared for what could come down the road. And we also have to start to repair the immense damage.
Before you start talking about restarting the economy you're going to have to address the damage that is done to society today which is intense. The economic damage. People who are now living in poverty. I mean, people have been without a check, without a job, for weeks. Most people in this state live paycheck to paycheck and all of a sudden the paychecks stop. We're doing everything we can on the unemployment benefits and increasing the unemployment benefits. But, you have families that are in true economic hardship and are impoverished because of this situation.
What we do with the housing market, the healthcare system we have pushed to the max. We have pushed people to the max, we have pushed facilities to the max. We have beds in lobbies, in conference rooms, in hallways. I mean, we did what we had to do to be ready, but we have done a lot of damage in the midst that has to be undone. So, that's something that we're working on immediately.
We need the federal government to be responsible. We need the federal government to pass legislation that helps. We have to stabilize state and local governments across this country. New York State has had the highest number of cases by far and away. Our costs have been the highest in the country. They passed legislation that was enacted. We were told it would bring 6 billion dollars to healthcare. When we did our state budget a couple of weeks ago, we believed what they said and we believed we were looking at 6 billion dollars in healthcare funding. Turns out, when we actually read the language, it was about 1.3 billion dollars to the state of New York, which is much different than 5 or 6 billion dollars. The funding disqualified one third of New York's Medicaid recipients, which nobody said. To our federal representatives, I spoke to Senator Schumer, I spoke to Senator Gillibrand, this is no time for politics. This is a time to enact the legislation that actually addresses the need. I was in Washington for eight years, I get how the political process works in Washington. Not here and not now, my friends.
We also have a significant mental health issue that comes with what we've done. The isolation, the disorientation. It's a growing problem. We have a growing problem with the number of domestic violence cases. If you need help during this highly stressful period, and I suspect more people need help than acknowledge that they need help, we have a support hotline. We have thousands of people who have volunteered to help. People should reach out and ask for it.
We have to stay ahead of this virus. We're watching Rockland, Nassau, and Suffolk. The numbers have come down in New York City. But you look at the concentric circles around New York City, the natural spread, the natural concentric circles, are toward the suburban communities - Westchester, Rockland, Nassau, Suffolk. Westchester we've had problems already. One of the first hotspots in the nation was New Rochelle in Westchester. Now we're seeing numbers creep up in Rockland. Nassau and Suffolk, the numbers are creeping up so we're watching those areas next. We sent additional equipment last night.
The overall point is, look, you stay at home and you save a life. Period. Stay at home, you save a life. I know New Yorkers, I'm born and bred, the instinct is well this is good news, now I can relax because, by the way, I've been dying to relax and get out of the house and end this Groundhog Day reality. Yeah, you're not out of the woods. Now is not the time to misunderstand what's happening. We have done great things and we have saved lives because we have followed these policies. The moment you stop following the policies, you will go right back and see that number shoot through the roof. We are not prepared to handle the highest numbers in those projection models. Whatever we do, you can't take a 50,000 bed system and get it to 136,000 beds. It's an impossibility.
I'm a person who never says no and believes New York can do anything if we try. I'm telling you, we have to keep that curve flat. Today we can say we have lost many of our brothers and sisters, but we haven't lost anyone because they didn't get the right and best health care that they could. The way I sleep at night is I believe that we didn't lose anyone that we could have saved. And that is the only solace when I look at these numbers and look at this pain that has been created. That has to be true. That has to continue. That is a function of what each and every one of us does.
New York tough, Yes. We're tough, but tough means we're smart, we're disciplined, we're unified, and we're loving. If you don't want to stay home for yourself, stay home for someone you love. That's what the stay at home campaign is all about. You want to have reckless disregard for your life? It's not about your life. It's about the health care worker who will have to treat you in the emergency room. It's about the vulnerable person who you infect, who you could kill by your actions. Sometimes it's not about you, Right? It's not about me. It's about we. That's where we are.
April 09, 2020.
Statement From Communications Director Dani Lever on Updates to the Department of Labor's Online Unemployment Insurance Filing System. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/statement-communications-director-dani-lever-updates-department-labors-online-unemployment
"Earlier today, the Department of Labor announced that its online unemployment insurance application would shut down at 5:00 PM to allow for critical upgrades as part of their comprehensive 'Tech Surge.' Every evening, this online system closes from 7:00 PM to 7:30 AM to allow the DOL's database to process applications. As we are currently migrating to a new system today, applications will be accepted beginning at 7:30 AM tomorrow. When New Yorkers log in to the Department of Labor's system tomorrow, they will find a new, improved and more user-friendly application allowing them to better access the benefits they deserve."
April 10, 2020.
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on ABC's Good Morning America. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-abcs-good-morning-america-0
Governor Cuomo: "We know that there's inequality in the health care system. We know that the poorer communities often pay the highest price for these types of emergency situations because they're really just bringing to light that systemic racism and discrimination in the system. My question is, let's learn from this moment, right? And what do we learn that we can change and make this place better for having gone through this hell?"
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on ABC's Good Morning America.
AUDIO is available here.
A rush transcript of the governor's interview is available below:
Michael Strahan: Welcome back to GMA. We have much more on our top story, the coronavirus outbreak. New York State is the epicenter with around 160,000 confirmed cases. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo joins us now and, governor, thank you so much for joining us. We know you're very busy at this time. With those 160,000 confirmed cases New York Sate has more cases than any other country besides the U.S. but you reported yesterday the hospitalizations are down. They're flat. Intubations are down. So has New York reached its peak?
Governor Cuomo: That is the big question. Good to be with you, Michael. good to see you, thank you. Thank you for what you've been doing. Talk about mixed emotion, mixed information. The hospitalization rate is down. the number of new people coming into the hospitals is down. And that is good news. We think we're on what they call the plateau, as opposed to the apex. But we're on a plateau and the hospitalization rate is coming down. It's making it easier for the emergency rooms to deal with this because they're at overcapacity to begin with. The terrible news is the death toll is going up. And I understand the logic to that. These are people who came into the hospital a couple of weeks ago, they didn't recover, they were put on ventilators and once you're on a ventilator, the longer you're on a ventilator the worse it gets, Michael. So the death toll is going up and that's what's most painful. The good news, if you will, is this plateau, this peaking of the number of new cases.
Michael Strahan: And with the death toll going up, when do you expect these numbers to go down? Because we hear everyone being in quarantine that these things are working but when can we expect the numbers to go down?
Governor Cuomo: Well, we'll see the death toll going down hopefully over the next few days. Nobody really knows, Michael. We've been following these projections from some of the experts, global experts, but they're just projections because nobody's been here before. This is uncharted territory for everyone. The important point to me is the numbers aren't doing anything on their own. This is all a function of what people are doing, right? So it is directly related to our behavior. I keep pushing to stay at home, stay at home. Don't get complacent just because you see the situation is not getting worse doesn't mean it's going to get better on its own and you can relax. The numbers are a consequence of our daily actions. I'll tell you what the numbers are tomorrow if you tell me how we behave today, right? It's almost that cause and effect, so people have to understand if we did nothing or if people didn't comply with these close down messages and social distancing requirements, you would see those numbers go up on a straight rocket ship. It's what we're doing that's working and we have to keep doing it and we hope over the next few days you'll start to see the death toll come down also, if, if, if we keep doing what we're doing.
Michael Strahan: And you say these are uncharted waters for all of us, so how worried are you about a second wave here?
Governor Cuomo: Well, not to get ahead of ourselves but how do we start to get back to the economy, how do we start to look forward? Let's learn the lessons from the past, right? And this virus, we all saw the virus in China, et cetera, in Italy, et cetera, but, frankly, we still were in this country and nobody really anticipated what it could do here and we didn't really get prepared. So before we start to relax, there is some troubling information about a second wave of this virus moving and people getting reinfected in Italy and China. I think we have to watch that and understand it. We don't want the same thing to happen twice. So I think there's a big caution flag on all of this going back to the new economy. We're going to have to be able to test in a way we've never tested before. Testing is going to be the key, I think, Michael to getting people back to work but that means millions of tests quickly, so how do we do that? So, there's a lot of question marks in the future.
Michael Strahan: And then we talked about rapid testing is the key to opening up New York, which you just did right there but what is your best time frame for when that could happen?
Governor Cuomo: It's when can we make it happen. I don't think it just happens, right? There is a disconnect between what government wants, what society wants and what private companies can do quickly. We're going to have to work to make that rapid testing come online at the volume and scale we need. We have been working on testing for months, right? We still haven't gotten it to where we need it to be. This rapid testing is a different type of testing. The antibody testing is a different type of testing. We're experimenting with convalescent plasma as a treatment, people who were infected. How do we bring that up to scale quickly? these are all new challenges for us, Michael. We haven't done this before. We haven't done it well to date. So that is, again, going to be a consequence of how well government responds and how well we get this up and running.
Michael Strahan: And governor, it's been a big demand for beds and ventilators as well. are you confident that we can continue to meet the demand for beds and ventilators over the next few weeks?
Governor Cuomo: Well, the good news is, Michael, we were looking at numbers and projections that were really frightening. We have about 53,000 beds in New York State. Hospital beds in New York State. We were looking at projections that said we may need 110,000 beds, another model, 73,000 beds. That was just staggering. We went from 53,000 beds to about 90,000 beds in this system in about a month, which was incredible what the health care system did. But by our best projection, we couldn't make the numbers if we didn't control the infection rate and if we didn't get those numbers down, so, so far we have gotten those numbers down. We have increased the capacity of the health care system and we're managing it in a way we never have before. If the numbers don't go up, we should be okay. The whole system is overcapacity, but we built in some relief valves. We have a 2,500-bed capacity at the Javits Center that we did with the federal government and the military. We have the U.S. Navy ship Comfort, which has 500 beds available as an overflow, if you will. So we're managing the case intake as long as it doesn't go up. And, again, we're now seeing the death toll rise as people who are in those hospital beds longer are passing.
Michael Strahan: We know about the heavy impact this has had on minority communities and particularly African-Americans. You talked about doing more testing in those communities. If you did that testing, how would that help the spread there in those communities?
Governor Cuomo: Well, the testing helps because when you find someone positive the point is you then isolate the positive. That's why we have to get more testing and faster testing, because the testing is not just to say, just so you know, you're positive, you're negative. It's to find that positive quickly, isolate the positive so the positive doesn't continue to infect and that's how you get the infection rate down. But with the African-American community, Latino community, are we shocked that the rates are higher in the African-American, Latino community? We shouldn't be, Michael, if we're being honest. We know that there's inequality in the health care system. We know that the poorer communities often pay the highest price for these types of emergency situations because they're really just bringing to light that systemic racism and discrimination in the system. My question is, let's learn from this moment, right? And what do we learn that we can change and make this place better for having gone through this hell? That's what I'm looking at. So it's not just testing. It's testing and understanding why the minority community has a higher rate. Is it because they work in public sector jobs and they were essential workers and they didn't have the luxury, Michael, of staying home and they didn't have the luxury of going to stay at their second house or staying with a relative in their home in the suburbs. Is it the co-morbidities? Is it the lack of health treatment? Why and how do we fix that? You know, we paid a horrendous price here. I lived through 9/11 in New York and I thought 9/11 was the worst tragedy that we would see in my lifetime, and it changed New Yorkers. It changed America, 9/11. This is worse in terms of death than 9/11. Multiples of the people we lost in 9/11. Let's please learn from this. There has to be some lesson that we take from this so we're better for it because we paid a very high price. One of them is let's understand what happened with the African-American/Latino communities, and let's fix it and let's understand broadly how this lapped and what we missed so this doesn't happen again.
Michael Strahan: A lot of lessons to be learned through all of this, you know, the president, he's clashed with other governors over the federal response. How do you think the president has done so far?
Governor Cuomo: Look, I said to the president, there's been - there is no governor who has clashed with this president more than I have, okay, over the past few years. And there's no governor who has been attacked more by this president over the past few years, so it's been mutual, but in this situation, I said to the president, look, forget the politics, put that aside. Forget the past, put that aside. Forget personalities. These are all indulgences that we don't have right now. We have a common goal. We have to save lives. This is about saving lives. And I said to the president, I need the federal government to work here. A state can't do this without the federal government. I was in the federal government, as you know, for eight years, I was a cabinet secretary. I know what the federal government can do. I know what the state government can do. I know the state government can't do this without the federal government, so I said, open and honest relationship. You help New York, I'll support you. If you don't do the right thing by New York, right thing, quote-unquote, I'll let New Yorkers know. And that has worked well. The federal government has done a great job at Javits, they've done a great job bringing the Comfort, the Navy ship here. We have over a thousand military personnel helping us, so that has worked well, and I've told the president that. We have much more to do. I want to tackle this testing challenge with the federal government. I can't do that on my own. Private sector can't do that on their own. That's going to be a real federal-state challenge, so, you know, you call it as you see it. There's - I'm a New Yorker. There's a plain truth to this, Michael, without the filter of politics or protocol, all that other stuff, and this is plain truth time, and you deliver or you don't.
Michael Strahan: Governor Cuomo, thank you so much for your time. We just hope that you can stay healthy as well as your family. We appreciate you taking time out of your very, very busy day. Have a great day, sir.
April 10, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Launches Video as Part of Ongoing Awareness Campaign to Reach All New Yorkers. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-launches-video
Video Shows New Yorkers Following State's Guidance to Stay Home
Builds on Ongoing State Efforts to Reach All Communities in New York with the Life-Saving Stay Home Message, Video is Available Here
Governor Cuomo: "The statisticians when they did their curve did not know how New Yorkers would respond and didn't know whether or not New Yorkers would comply, and they didn't know how unified New Yorkers can be and how responsible they can be and how caring they are and how they rally for one another. That's what they did not know, and that's what they couldn't count in those models. They couldn't count the spirit of New Yorkers and the love of New Yorkers to step up and do the right thing."
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
Earlier today, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo launched a video as part of an ongoing awareness campaign to reach all New Yorkers and encourage them to follow the State's guidance to stay home. The video builds on ongoing state efforts to reach all communities in New York with life-saving stay home message.
A rush transcript of the remarks is available below:
Melissa DeRosa: For the last six weeks, we have done a number of social media campaigns to drive home the point that the personal decisions we make today have a direct impact on the lives of other New Yorkers. And as an extension of the Who I Stay Home For campaign that we launched a few days ago, we asked New Yorkers to share with us personal private photos of how they're spending their time at home and let us see into their lives, and they were incredible. They show New York tough at its defining moment. There is a one-minute, short video that cuts them altogether if you want to play that.
Governor Cuomo: That is beautiful. The statisticians when they did their curve did not know how New Yorkers would respond and didn't know whether or not New Yorkers would comply, and they didn't know how unified New Yorkers can be and how responsible they can be and how caring they are and how they rally for one another. That's what they did not know, and that's what they couldn't count in those models. They couldn't count the spirit of New Yorkers and the love of New Yorkers to step up and do the right thing. That's what they could not figure out on their computers.
April 10, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces New York State is Ramping up Antibody Testing, Critical to Reopening Economy. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-new-york-state-ramping-antibody-testing
Governor Offers Full Partnership with Federal Government as Part of State's Continued Efforts to Bring Mass Testing to Scale; New York Will Partner with Connecticut and New Jersey to Create a Regional Testing Partnership
Announces $200 Million in Emergency Food Assistance for More Than 700,000 Low-Income Households Enrolled in SNAP
Governor is Working with Congressional Delegation to Create a COVID-19 Heroes Compensation Fund
Announces New Partnerships with Private Sector to Provide Free Housing for Frontline Medical Workers
Releases 'New York Tough' Video Showing How New Yorkers are Spending Their Time at Home, Building on Ongoing State Efforts to Reach All Communities in New York with the Life-Saving Stay Home Message - Video is Available Here
Confirms 10,575 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 170,512; New Cases in 54 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced New York State is ramping up antibody testing, a key component of any plan to reopen the economy. The state is currently conducting 300 of these antibody tests, and is on track to conduct 1,000 per day by next Friday and 2,000 per day by the following week. As part of the state's continued efforts to bring mass testing to scale, the Governor offered a full partnership with the federal government to conduct this important work. In the interim, the Governor announced that New York, Connecticut and New Jersey will create a regional testing partnership to bring mass testing to scale for residents in these states.
Governor Cuomo also announced an additional $200 million in emergency food assistance will be available for more than 700,000 low-income households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Those enrolled in SNAP and not yet receiving the maximum benefit will receive an additional payment to bring them up to this amount in March and April. The supplemental benefits will be issued in April and delivered directly to recipients' existing Electronic Benefit Transfer accounts. Households eligible for the supplement that live in counties outside of New York City will begin receiving the supplemental emergency benefit starting on April 13, and all eligible households will have received it by April 24. In New York City, the emergency benefits will be issued starting on April 14, and the issuance completed on April 25.
Governor Cuomo is also working with New York's Congressional delegation to create a COVID-19 Heroes Compensation Fund to support health care and other frontline workers and their families who contracted COVID-19.
The Governor also announced new partnerships with the private sector to provide housing for frontline medical workers. Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky will contribute $2 million to help provide rooms in union hotels at no cost to frontline workers. As part of this effort, 1199SEIU is partnering with Airbnb to offer housing to its members -- comprised of hospital and other healthcare workers -- as they fight the COVID-19 crisis statewide. Additionally, the InterContinental Times Square, Yotel and the Hudson Hotel are providing an additional 800 free rooms for health care workers coming to New York City from out of state, collaborating with the Hotel Association of New York City, MetLife and the Related Companies.
The data has shown that what we do today will determine the infection rate two or three days from now, so we must continue to do what we are doing even though it is difficult --because it is working.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
As part of Governor Cuomo's social media awareness campaign, the state today released a video that features New Yorkers showing us their reality as they stay home under the state-wide Pause restrictions. Working in partnership with Resonant Pictures, the state put out a call for photographs of life in the city over the past three weeks. The video, set to the iconic song by The Fray, truly illustrates "How to Save a Life," during the pandemic.
"The data has shown that what we do today will determine the infection rate two or three days from now, so we must continue to do what we are doing even though it is difficult --because it is working," Governor Cuomo said. "The key to reopening is going to be testing. New York State has been very aggressive on testing, and our state lab is now developing an antibody test which is fast and non-invasive. The State Department of Health can currently do 300 tests a day and by next Friday, they will be able to do 1,000 tests and 2,000 tests the following week. That's great, sounds like a lot, but 2,000 tests are still a drop in the bucket, and I'm proud of how New York has advanced on testing."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 10,575 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 170,512 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 170,512 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
426
47
Allegany
26
4
Broome
112
7
Cattaraugus
18
1
Cayuga
27
11
Chautauqua
20
2
Chemung
59
0
Chenango
60
5
Clinton
43
3
Columbia
74
4
Cortland
17
1
Delaware
39
2
Dutchess
1,598
105
Erie
1,409
47
Essex
10
2
Franklin
11
0
Fulton
18
3
Genesee
65
9
Greene
34
6
Hamilton
3
0
Herkimer
36
4
Jefferson
43
1
Lewis
6
0
Livingston
29
3
Madison
99
8
Monroe
742
44
Montgomery
29
1
Nassau
21,512
1,372
Niagara
156
10
NYC
92,384
5,356
Oneida
172
14
Onondaga
369
11
Ontario
51
8
Orange
4,532
442
Orleans
24
2
Oswego
36
0
Otsego
41
2
Putnam
487
49
Rensselaer
91
12
Rockland
7,122
457
Saratoga
182
10
Schenectady
191
24
Schoharie
12
0
Schuyler
5
1
Seneca
15
0
St. Lawrence
78
2
Steuben
117
28
Suffolk
18,692
1,279
Sullivan
318
24
Tioga
18
1
Tompkins
105
0
Ulster
530
70
Warren
43
3
Washington
26
1
Wayne
41
2
Westchester
18,077
1,073
Wyoming
30
1
Yates
2
1
April 10, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces New York State is Ramping up Antibody Testing, Critical to Reopening Economy. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-ne-0
Governor Offers Full Partnership with Federal Government as Part of State's Continued Efforts to Bring Mass Testing to Scale; New York Will Partner with Connecticut and New Jersey to Create a Regional Testing Partnership
Announces $200 Million in Emergency Food Assistance for More Than 700,000 Low-Income Households Enrolled in SNAP
Governor is Working with Congressional Delegation to Create a COVID-19 Heroes Compensation Fund
Announces New Partnerships with Private Sector to Provide Free Housing for Frontline Medical Workers
Releases 'New York Tough' Video Showing How New Yorkers are Spending Their Time at Home, Building on Ongoing State Efforts to Reach All Communities in New York with the Life-Saving Stay Home Message - Video is Available Here
Confirms 10,575 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 170,512; New Cases in 54 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "Let's make sure we study the waters ahead and proceed with caution before we set off on the next journey. When we talk about reopening, let's study the data and let's look at what has happened around the world. Let's make sure the best health minds in the country are giving us their best advice. How do we go forward? We stay New York tough. New York tough means more than just tough, it means discipline. It means unified. It means loving. And it means smart. Now is a time to be smart. Now more than ever. That's what it means to be New York tough and we are."
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced New York State is ramping up antibody testing, a key component of any plan to reopen the economy. The state is currently conducting 300 of these antibody tests, and is on track to conduct 1,000 per day by next Friday and 2,000 per day by the following week. As part of the state's continued efforts to bring mass testing to scale, the Governor offered a full partnership with the federal government to conduct this important work. In the interim, the Governor announced that New York, Connecticut and New Jersey will create a regional testing partnership to bring mass testing to scale for residents in these states.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTube here and in TV quality format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Everybody knows the people with us today. Dr. Jim Malatras, from my right Dr. Howard Zucker, Health Commissioner. To my life, Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor, to her left Robert Mujica. To our friends celebrating Good Friday today, I wish them a good, good Friday. To our friends celebrating Passover, I wish them the best.
Let's give you an update on where we are. To use and overused term, we are cautiously optimistic that we are slowing the infection rate. That's what the numbers say, that's what the data suggest to us. Change in total hospitalizations is down, not relative to yesterday, but when it's averaged over the 3-day average on the hospitalizations, you see a dramatic decline in those numbers and that's obviously very good news. Change in ICU admissions is actually a negative number for the first time since we started this intense journey. That means there are fewer people in the intensive units statewide than there were. Again, that's the first time we've seen a negative number so far. So that's good. The three-day average of that is down.
Change in intubations is little tick higher than it's been the past few days, but it's still overall down. The three-day average is also down. The bad news is we continue to lose a tremendous number of lives and endure great pain as a state. Seven hundred and seventy-seven lives lost. I understand intellectually why it's happening. It doesn't make it any easier to accept. What's happening is the number of people who came in two weeks ago when we had those very high hospitalization rates. Either you get treated and get better and get discharged or you stay in the hospital and probably wind up on a ventilator. The longer you're on a ventilator the less likely you will come off the ventilator and that's what's happening now.
These lives lost are people who came in at that height hospitalization period and we're losing them. The numbers are lower than yesterday for those who can take solace in that fact. As someone who searches for solace in all this grief, the leveling off of the number of lives lost is a somewhat hopeful sign. The number of total lives lost, 7,844. For people, just to put this in perspective. I lived through 9/11 as many New Yorkers did who are of somewhat advanced age. I believe 9/11 was the worst situation I was going to deal with in my lifetime. To put in perspective, 2,753 people lost their lives on 9/11. We're at 7,844. In terms of lives lost, that this situation should exceed 9/11 is still beyond my capacity to fully appreciate to tell you the truth.
We've been watching a spread to the suburban communities around New York City: Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland. That seems to have stabilized. We have a couple of hotspots in Suffolk County that we're watching, but overall we've been very aggressive in these suburban communities in jumping on those hot spots and the percentage of growth in upstate New York and the suburban areas around New York City is basically been stabilized and flat so that's good news too.
So overall, New York is flattening the curve and we have to flatten the curve because when they showed us the projection models of what the statisticians projected the curve would do we had no capacity to meet those projections. In other words, Columbia University who was projecting the highest case load said we needed 136,000 hospital beds in New York City when we started. It was just several weeks ago. One hundred and thirty-six thousand hospital beds in New York City. We only have about 33,000 to 36,000 hospital beds in New York City. So, that was obviously distressing to say the least.
McKinsey had projected we would need 110,000 hospital beds. They had a second scenario which they considered their moderate scenario, which was 55,000 hospital beds statewide. And again, we didn't have that capacity even on the moderate scenario. The Gates-funded IHME suggested we needed 73,000 beds. We didn't have that either. So none of these projections were, in any way, comforting to us. The actual curve is much, much lower than any of them projected. And, well what's the variance?
How do you come up with an actual curve that is so much different than what those experts predicted? First, in fairness to the experts, nobody has been here before. Nobody. So, everyone is trying to figure it out the best they can. There is no model to track against. Second, the big variable was what policies do you put in place, and the bigger variable was does anybody listen to the policies you put in place? I'm governor of the State of New York. You can announce a policy. That doesn't mean anyone is going to follow it. You can announce a policy, we're going to close down all businesses, everybody must stay home. And if people don't follow it, or they don't take it seriously, or they believe you're being premature or you're being political, they wouldn't follow it. And then what do we do? What do we, arrest 19 million people? Or ticket 19 million people?
So the big variable was, what policies do you put in place. And the bigger variable, does anybody care, and does anyone follow it? And all the social distancing stay at home, nobody has ever done this before. So the statisticians had to come up with a premise on how many would comply, and we've actually exceeded that. But, we have to keep doing it, you know. People tend to think, well this is a natural trajectory of the disease. There is no natural trajectory. The trajectory is the trajectory that we create by out actions. The natural trajectory would see that line continue to go up. It would continue to go up and up and up until you develop herd immunity, where you would see many, many more infections. So, we did that. We are doing that. And that's why we have to stay the course. I said to someone this morning, you tell me how we behaved today, and I will tell you the infection rate two days from today or three days from today. What we do today will determine the infection rate two or three days from now. So, what we're doing is working, stay with it. Even though it is a grind and even though it is difficult. We have to stay with it.
We have to stay with it operationally, on our hospital system, where we're coordinating statewide in what we call the surge and flex system. We have 50 percent additional capacity on our hospital system. We're sharing equipment all across the system. We have to continue helping people who are struggling every day. Food assistance is a real issue for people. We're going to add $200 million to provide more than 700,000 low-income households more funding for food, basic food. Continue to help our medical workers, who are the front-line soldiers in this battle, and have done a phenomenal job. I know I say it all the time, but every day, they're out there doing truly the Lord's work.
We're going to provide additional housing. I want to thank all the companies that have come forward to be part of this effort. Airbnb is contributing funding to provide housing for our healthcare workers. 1199 SEIU is working with Airbnb and they're providing their members with additional benefits. We have hotels that are coming forward and offering free hotel rooms, so we thank them all very much. Last night, as a signal of our thanks to the workers who are out there every day. We lit up landmarks in the New York City area and in Niagara Falls blue in their honor and that's a nice symbolic tribute. What's even better is to take action that shows our gratitude. Saying it is nice, doing it is even better.
After 9/11 Congress created a victim's compensation fund. I've been working with our Congressional delegation. We think the federal government should set up a heroes' compensation fund to compensate our health care and other frontline workers for what they did here. Saying thanks is nice. Actually providing assistance is even better.
The big question is going to turn to when do we reopen, especially in places like New York where we're going to see the numbers now starting to change. The natural trajectory, the human movement is going to be okay now let's reopen. I need to get out of my house, had been cooped up, cabin fever, I need funds, I have to work, and that's going to be the next question, next issue that we have to deal with.
What I say on that question, again, none of us have been here before so let's learn from what has happened so far and let's learn from what we have been seeing over these past few months so it informs what we're doing going forward.
First of all, the key to reopening is going to be testing. I've said that from day one. It's not going to be a light switch where you flip this economy like you flip a light switch. It's not going to be everybody goes back next Thursday. It's not going to happen that way. It's going to be a gradual phased process and it's going to be reliant on testing, testing of antibodies, testing for diagnostic results and testing on the scale that we have not done before.
New York State has been very aggressive on testing and our state lab has been very aggressive on testing. Our state lab is now developing an antibody test which is a fast and not invasive test. The State Department of Health can do 300 tests a day. By next Friday, they will be able to do 1,000 tests and 2,000 tests the following week. That's great, sounds like a lot but 2,000 tests are still a drop in the bucket, and I'm proud of how New Yorkers advanced on testing. You look at how quickly New York State has moved on testing and how many tests we have done - we've done a higher percentage of tests in New York State than other countries have done and New York State far exceeds what this nation as a whole is doing on testing. Even with our high capacity and high performance on testing it's still not enough. It's not enough if you want to reopen on a meaningful scale and reopen quickly so the testing front is going to be a challenge for us.
Why can't New York just develop more tests and do more testing? How do we get New York State Department of Health to scale? That's an issue that we've been working on it's harder than it sounds. You need certain reagents so you can do the testing. You need certain materials so you can do the testing. It's very hard to get these reagents right. You're in a situation where countries all across the globe are trying to do the same thing.
Federal government has something called the Defense Production Act, DPA they call it, which I've been saying from day one is a very powerful tool for the federal government to use when they need to secure a product in the defense of this nation. This is in the defense of this nation. The federal government has used it effectively. They've used that in this situation more as a point of leverage than anything else, basically saying to a company, you know, we need you to do this, we do have the Defense Production Act that we could use. But we need an unprecedented mobilization where government can produce these tests in the millions.
New York State Department of Health is doing is doing several thousand. We have 9 million people we want to get back to work. You need more than several thousand tests per week if this is going to happen any time soon. Private sector companies on their own, I don't believe will be able to come to scale. We're working with the private sector companies. They have the tests but they don't have the capacity to come to scale. You're going to need government intervention to make that happen and the federal government is in the best position to do that.
New York State offers to be a full partner with the federal government. We do have the largest number of cases in New York. New York is an economic engine. I can't do it as a state. If I had a Defense Production Act in the state, I would use it. I would use it. I don't have that tool, the federal government does. Any way we can partner with the federal government to get these tests up to scale as quickly as possible, we are all in. I like to operate as a coalition with New Jersey and Connecticut because we are the tri-state area. I have spoken to Governor Murphy and Governor Lamont of Connecticut. They will join in a testing coalition. So, I ask the federal government if you are willing to step in and use the federal powers, New York State and New Jersey and Connecticut would partner with the federal government. And let's get the testing up to scale quickly so we can start to build that bridge to reopening the economy.
Second on reopening, you need a federal stimulus bill. You need a federal stimulus bill - they passed a couple already. But you need a fair federal stimulus bill that is not a political pork barrel bill. You know where the cases are. You know where the need is. I understand the political dynamics of the U.S. Senate but this is not a time to be passing bills that really are to make sure your home state gets enough funding. That's not what this is about. This is about helping the country coming back and focusing on the need. When I says the bills were unfair to New York, the past bills, it is not just that I am advocating to New York. Look at the need. Look at where the cases are. Look at where the damage has been done. The federal government is trying to address that damage. You know where it has been done. Look at the chart on where the cases exist. Look at the number of deaths, the number of cases, the number of hospitalizations and help those places come back and come back quickly. That's what the stimulus bill is supposed to be doing.
Also, let's make sure we are learning from what we just went through and are going through. Because there are lessons I think we should all be aware of over the past few months. And before you take a step forward, let's make sure we know what we are stepping into. A question I had from day one, when you look back at this, where were the horns that should have been triggered back in December and January. Where were the warning signs? Who was supposed to blow the whistle? The President has asked this question and if think he's right. The President's answer is the World Health Organization should have been blowing the whistle. I don't know enough to know if that's right or wrong, but I know the question is right and sometimes the question is more important than the answer.
How did this happen? I still want to know how this happened. Because the warning signs were there. And if you don't know the answer, then how do you know it is not going to happen again, right? Fool me once - January, you go back and look at the headlines in January and you see questions and you see warnings. Now, they were all over the map, but we saw what was happening in Asia. We saw what was happening in Europe. Where were the international experts saying, "Well, if this is happening there, this is what we should expect to happen in the United States? Or prepare to happen in the United States?" January, February, you still had sources in this country saying basically there's nothing to worry about. You know, how did that happen? Did we really need to be in this situation where the United States winds up with a higher number of cases than the places that went before? We sat here and we watched China. China winds up have 84,000 cases, we wind up having 474,000 cases. I mean, how does that happen? We saw South Korea. They wind up with 10,000 cases. Italy, where we saw a collapse of the whole health system, winds up with 143,000 cases.
I raise the question because the answer, again, is less important than the question, but before we move forward let's make sure we're not repeating the same mistake that we made, right? George Santayana. "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I don't want to repeat what we just repeated, what we just went through over this past month.
So, what are the relevant questions? Is there going to be a second wave? Let's look at the countries that have gone through this reopening process and what can we learn from them? Right? Well, we have to start to reopen. Let's look at what the other countries who have gone before us, what they did, what worked and what didn't work. When you take just a cursory review you see caution signs. Hong Kong appeared to have the virus under control, they let its guard down, the virus came back. Hong Kong recorded the biggest rise in cases and a new wave of infections. Is that true? Could it happen here? Article yesterday, Italy has seen a bump in the number of cases. You know, before we take a step make sure we are more informed and more aware than we were in the past. They're talking about a second wave in Singapore.
You got back and you look at the 1918 flu epidemic. That was over 10 months. There was a first wave, there was a second wave. The second wave was worse than the first wave because the virus mutated. Third peak and the whole experience was 10 months. Is there any extrapolation to where we are today? I don't know the answers. This is not what I do. It's not what a state does.
But, we know the questions and we should have the questions answered before we take a step forward. Yes, no one has been here before. These are totally uncharted waters. But we do know that none of this is predetermined and it is all a function of our actions. We are in total control of our destiny here. What we do will effect literally live and death for hundreds of people.
So, where do we go from here? First, keep doing what we're doing. Stay home because that works. We are flattening the curve, we must continue to flatten the curve. We have to get testing to scale. That is an entirely new exercise. It's something we still haven't done well in this country. We need both diagnostic testing and antibody testing. We need millions and millions of them. We need them in a matter of weeks, not months.
We have to be more prepared as a nation. We should never go through this scramble that we went through with states competing against other states to buy masks from China. I mean, we should just never have been here in the first place, but certainly we should never be here again. And then let's make sure we study the waters ahead and proceed with caution before we set off on the next journey. When we talk about reopening, let's study the data and let's look at what has happened around the world. Let's make sure the best health minds in the country are giving us their best advice.
How do we go forward? We stay New York tough. New York tough means more than just tough, it means discipline. It means unified. It means loving. And it means smart. Now is a time to be smart. Now more than ever. That's what it means to be New York tough and we are.
April 11, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Partnership With NYS Court System to Provide Pro Bono Legal Assistance to New Yorkers https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-partnership-nys-court-system-provide
Governor Sends Letter Calling on the U.S. Treasury to Ensure New Yorkers Do Not Have Their Stimulus Payments Frozen by Banks or Seized by Creditors as Soon as They Arrive
Confirms 9,946 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 180,458; New Cases in 49 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a new partnership with the New York State Court System to create a pro bono network of volunteer lawyers to provide New Yorkers with free legal assistance. Volunteers will begin to receive training and start offering assistance next week. Lawyers interested in volunteering can sign up at www.nysba.org/covidvolunteer.
Governor Cuomo also issued a letter calling on the U.S. Treasury to ensure New Yorkers do not have their stimulus payments frozen by banks or seized by creditors as soon as they arrive.
I understand the need to bring back the economy as quickly as possible and that people need to work, but more importantly we need to save lives.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
"I understand the need to bring back the economy as quickly as possible and that people need to work, but more importantly we need to save lives," Governor Cuomo said. "I want to make sure any decision we make to open the economy is based on what we've learned from our own experience and from other places around the globe. In the meantime, we have to make sure we're helping the many people and businesses who are struggling and we're partnering with the New York State Court System to organize lawyers statewide to provide pro bono legal assistance to help people with issues that they may have."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 9,946 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 180,458 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 180,458 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
446
20
Allegany
26
0
Broome
117
5
Cattaraugus
19
1
Cayuga
28
1
Chautauqua
21
1
Chemung
60
1
Chenango
61
1
Clinton
43
0
Columbia
77
3
Cortland
17
0
Delaware
39
0
Dutchess
1,744
146
Erie
1,472
63
Essex
12
2
Franklin
11
0
Fulton
21
3
Genesee
67
2
Greene
37
3
Hamilton
3
0
Herkimer
37
1
Jefferson
44
1
Lewis
6
0
Livingston
30
1
Madison
99
0
Monroe
767
25
Montgomery
29
0
Nassau
22,584
1,072
Niagara
167
11
NYC
98,308
5,924
Oneida
181
9
Onondaga
380
11
Ontario
56
5
Orange
4,847
315
Orleans
24
0
Oswego
37
1
Otsego
43
2
Putnam
494
7
Rensselaer
96
5
Rockland
7,477
355
Saratoga
187
5
Schenectady
194
3
Schoharie
12
0
Schuyler
5
0
Seneca
16
1
St. Lawrence
80
2
Steuben
119
2
Suffolk
19,883
1,191
Sullivan
340
22
Tioga
19
1
Tompkins
108
3
Ulster
589
59
Warren
44
1
Washington
31
5
Wayne
42
1
Westchester
18,729
652
Wyoming
31
1
Yates
2
0
April 11, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Partnership With NYS Court System to Provide Pro Bono Legal Assistance to New Yorkers. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-10
Governor Sends Letter Calling on the U.S. Treasury to Ensure New Yorkers Do Not Have Their Stimulus Payments Frozen by Banks or Seized by Creditors as Soon as They Arrive
Confirms 9,946 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 180,458; New Cases in 49 Counties
Cuomo: "Reopening is both a public health question and an economic question and I'm unwilling to divorce the two. There is no economic answer that that does not attend to public health. ... you can't ask the people of this state or this country to choose between lives lost and dollars gained. ... I understand the need to bring back the economy as quickly as possible. I understand people need to work. I also know we need to save lives and we have. One cannot be at the expense of the other."
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo earlier today announced a new partnership with the New York State Court System to create a pro bono network of volunteer lawyers to provide New Yorkers with free legal assistance. Volunteers will begin to receive training and start offering assistance next week. Lawyers interested in volunteering can sign up at www.nysba.org/covidvolunteer.
Governor Cuomo also issued a letter calling on the U.S. Treasury to ensure New Yorkers do not have their stimulus payments frozen by banks or seized by creditors as soon as they arrive.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here, with ASL interpretation available on YouTube here and in TV quality format here.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Happy Saturday. Good enjoying Holy Week. Happy Passover. Holy Saturday. Easter is tomorrow. Big day.
Let's go through where we are right now. The good news is the curve of the increase is continuing to flatten. The number of hospitalizations appears to have hit an apex and the apex appears to be a plateau which is what many of the models predicted, that it wasn't going to be straight up and straight down. It was going to be straight up, you time the top number and then you plateau for a period of time and that looks like what we are doing.
The hospitalization rate is down and that's important. We have more people getting infected still. We have more people going to the hospitals but we have a lower number. That is all this is saying. Fewer people are going into the hospitals, still net positive. The three-day average which is what we look at, because day-to-day can be somewhat deceiving, especially when you get towards the weekend, because the weekend reporting gets a little different, but all of the numbers are on the downward slope. Still, people getting infected, still people going to the hospital, but a lower rate of increase.
The number of ICU admissions is down. The three-day average on ICU admissions is down. This is a little deceptive because at one time hospitals had discrete ICU wards for ICU beds. Effectively now in a hospital, all of the beds are ICU beds. It is like the entire hospital has turned into an ICU facility. This distinction is actually, I don't know how enlightening this is. This, however, is still a discrete category. The increase in the number of intubations. As we discussed, the intubations are a bad sign from a health diagnostic perspective. When we talk about the number of deaths, those tend to be people who have been intubated for the longest period of time. While ICU beds may not mean anything anymore in the hospital system, intubations are still intubations. This is a very good sign that intubations are down.
We were worried about the spread from New York City to Long Island and upstate. If you look at the bar chart you can see almost a wave where it did start to move. We have been working very hard in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, which are the surrounding suburbs to New York City and so far we've had hotspots but we've attacked them aggressively and we believe that we have stabilized the situation upstate and in the suburbs which is what you see in that chart.
Terrible news is the number of lives lost - 783 yesterday. That is not an all-time high and you can see that the number is somewhat stabilizing. But it is stabilizing at a horrific rate. 783 people, 777, 779, these are just incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and pain, especially this week especially this week, all 783 individuals and their families are in our thoughts and in our prayers. The total number of lives lost, 8,627, that's up from 7,844.
People ask, well, when is it over, when is it over, when is it over? My children ask that every day. I'm sure everyone's living with the same question. Every time you wake up, you say, when does this nightmare end? And everybody wants to hear that it ends in two weeks or three weeks or four weeks, or, here's the date that I can tell you that it's over, just give me some certainty, some closure, some control of my life back. But I also said from day one, and when I raise my hand to take the oath originally, I would never tell you anything but the truth, even if the truth is inconvenient or painful. Winston Churchill is a hero of mine. His granddaughter, Edwina Sandys, sent me a portrait, a tribute to Winston Churchill, and I thank her for that. But, Winston Churchill said now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. It's just a great Churchill quote, you know, it's precise in how he uses language. I think that's a fair statement of where we are now. This is the beginning that we are in. This was a beginning phase. We're all trying to figure it out. We're all trying to adjust. But it's the end of that beginning phase.
What we do now? We stay the course. What we're experiencing as a product of our actions, period. We do something different, we will see a different reaction in those numbers. Everyone wants to turn to the question of, when do we reopen? I get it. I think the first caution for me is as we enter this new phase of reopen, when do we do it, how do we do it, this person's opinion is here, this person's opinion is here, the best thing we have done to date is we have kept politics out of the discussion. Even though this is a hyper-partisan time, even though we're in the middle of a presidential election, even though it's one of the ugliest political periods I can recall, we've kept politics out of this crisis. I've worked very hard to do that, I've worked very hard to keep myself out of the politics. I have no personal politics, not running for anything. I'm governor of New York, thank you, and that's where I'm going to stay.
I've worked very hard with the president of the United States. We've have had our political differences in the past, no doubt. But there's also no doubt that I've worked hand in glove with the president here, and he has been responsive to New York and responsive to New York's needs, and he's done it quickly and he's done it efficiently. I've literally had conversations with him in the morning where he turned around a decision by that afternoon. I've been in the federal government, I know what it's like to make a decision. And he has really responded to New York's needs.
So, keep politics out of it. Focus on government and focus on policy and keep politics out of it. It's very hard, especially at this time. And you start to hear there's dialogue on reopening and you start to hear people with political theories on whether we should reopen faster, whether we should reopen sooner, why are people against reopening, why are people in favor of reopening? That is corrosive and destructive and if we don't stop it, it will feed on itself. There are no political conspiracies here.
All of the projection models have basically said the same thing. Everyone has basically said the same thing. Everyone has basically said the same thing, which is, first of all, no one has been here before. Second of all, everyone, all of the experts, I didn't have an opinion, because I'm not an expert, all of the experts had higher projection numbers than we actually experienced, and they all said, caveat, government action could flatten the curve, but we don't know what governments will do and we don't know if people will even listen to what governments will do.
But, almost all the experts, when you go back and look at it, had the same basic, heightened, fears. From the New York State projection point of view, Columbia University, highly credible organization, 136,000 New York City only. McKinsey, great organization, 110,000 statewide, 55,000 on a moderate level. Gates, 73,000. Gates-funded IHME, 73,000 statewide. The Gates-funded model I think is the one that the White House most relies on now, currently. All of those models were projections. they all said, depending on what people do. Not even government. What people wind up doing. But it wasn't just these academic, private organizations.
The White House task force was talking about 1.5 to 2.2 million deaths, without mitigation. With mitigation, they were projecting 100 to 240,000 deaths as the best-case scenario. This is the White House task force. The actual estimate has now been adjusted down, but they're still at 60,000 deaths, that they're projecting. The Peter Navarro White House memo was talking about loss-of-life, one to two million souls. One to two million souls, infecting as many as 100 million Americans. CDC was talking about 160 million to 214 million people infected. The whole population is only 328 million. So the CDC was projecting that more than half the population would be infected. They were talking about 2.4 million to 21 million people being hospitalized. We only have 925,000 beds in the United States of America. How would you hospitalize 2.4 million to 21 million people? And that was the CDC.
So, there was no political conspiracy theory. There is no political conspiracy theory. It's uncharted waters for all of us. So let's focus on the facts, let's focus on the data, and let's make decisions that way. And also, if someone says, "Well, CDC was wrong and the White House task force is wrong and Peter Navarro is wrong and the Columbia is wrong and Cornell is wrong and McKinsey is wrong and the Gates funded IHME..." They were all wrong. If I'm representing them, I say it's too soon to tell. It's too soon for Monday quarterbacking because the game isn't even over yet. What do you think we're in? Sixth inning for baseball. You think we're at halftime if it's a football game. You don't know yet what the actual issue is going to be. And you don't know yet how this turns out because many decisions have to be made. You have to reopen, you have to decide how to reopen. You have to decide when to reopen. That is going to be impactful. We don't know if there's going to be a second wave or not. All of these things are yet to come so anyone who wants to say, "Well, here's the score at halftime and I'm going to now claim and try to collect my bet because it's halftime," it doesn't work that way. The game has to be over and this game isn't over.
What do we do now? Well, we need to do more testing and more advanced testing and we have to do it faster. That's both the diagnostic testing, that's the anti-body testing. We have to get better at both and we have to be able to create a higher volume faster. We have to be more prepared. We should never go through what we went through on this preparation drill. The federal stimulus bill is going to be key.
That legislation, in my opinion, has to be better than the past legislation. It has to be less political, less pork barrel and more targeted to the actual purpose. You want to help the places that were impacted, I'll tell you what the federal legislation should do. It should repeal SALT. You want to help New York, which is the most heavily impacted? By the way, you think you're going to reopen the economy without the engine of the New York metropolitan area? You're kidding yourself. You want to help New York, you want to help the places that are effected? Then repeal the SALT provision which was a gratuitous, offensive, illegal - in my opinion - action to begin with, but which literally targeted New York and some of these places, Michigan, Detroit, California. Repeal that if you really want to help places that are affected. To my delegation, they know this issue very well, as does the California delegation, as does the Michigan delegation. That's what you can do if you want to stop with the politics and help people.
In the meantime, here you're going to have many people who are struggling, businesses who are struggling. We have government programs, but trying to access a government program is like trying to break into a bank sometimes. It's not that easy. The New York State court system and our chief judge is going to organize some lawyers statewide to do pro bono legal assistance to help people with issues that they may have: housing issues, access to government program issues, et cetera. Many legal issues are going to stem from this in many places where people need help. Lawyers who have time on their hands who are not working, they're looking for volunteers.
Most of all, we have to think before we act. These are all big decisions. Reopening. Reopening is both a public health question and an economic question and I'm unwilling to divorce the two. There is no economic answer that that does not attend to public health. In my opinion, you can't ask the people of this state or this country to choose between lives lost and dollars gained. No one is going to make that quid pro quo. I understand the need to bring back the economy as quickly as possible. I understand people need to work. I also know we need to save lives and we have. One cannot be at the expense of the other.
As we look forward, I'm still troubled by what we just went through. If no one sounded the alarm in January and February, how do we know that it's safe to proceed now? There are stories and there is information that says some of these places that reopened too quickly are now seeing a growth in the number of cases. They're seeing a growth in the infection rate again or they're seeing a second wave. So there's troubling signs on the horizon. I want to make sure that we know this time that we've learned from the other experiences. We're going to be putting together, in New York, a team of the best minds that look at what happened in Wuhan, look at what happened in Italy on the reopening and make sure that what we're doing is based on all the science available internationally. What is the probability, what is the possibility of a second wave happening? What is the possibility of people re-experiencing the virus? There's some reports from South Korea. Let's understand because fool me once, it's one thing to make a mistake once, but this nation should not go through it again. Before we make these decisions, let them be informed by the experiences we're seeing all across the globe.
There's no doubt that what we're doing now is as impactful and as important as anything that has been done. This is a time where our actions will literally determine life and death. I've been in government most of my adult life on many levels through many circumstances. This is no doubt the most important period for government in my lifetime. There is no doubt about that. The decisions that we make now. Also the potential for the decisions that we make now. These are big questions and we should think about them both in the short term and the long term. How do we reopen? What do we rebuild when we open? How do we do it? Did we learn the lessons from the past? Did we learn the lessons from what we just went through and are we the better for it? Do we take this moment and make it a moment of positive growth? It's transformational, yes, but are we fully experiencing the reality of what we went through, learning from it, and actually going to be the better for it? Are we doing that as a society and are we doing that as individuals? I know the pain, I know the pressure, I know everybody wants to get out of the house. They want to get out of the house tomorrow. They want me to say, we are going to be reopening the economy in two weeks and we beat the beast. The worst thing that can happen is, we make a misstep and we let our emotions get ahead of our logic and fact, and we go through this again in any manner, shape, or form. So, that is what we have to do.
To all of my friends, enjoy this holy week. I know it is different. I am a former altar boy. This was the hectic, busy week when you were an altar boy. Good Friday, Holy Saturday, tomorrow is Easter. For Christians, Catholics it is a very high time of the holy year. Passover week to our Jewish brothers and sisters. To say different, everything has been different. Not going to church, not celebrating - Palm Sunday was last Sunday, not celebrating Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday is different and hard. But, it is the same message, right? Whether you do it from home, whether you do it over a television, or through a computer screen. It's the same message. If anything, that message is more profound during this situation than it normally is. New York Pause. We paused. We slowed down. The activity level slowed down. You reflect more, you think more. I think that is important during this holy week. In the meantime, we stay New York tough, which is smart, which is united, which is disciplined, which is loving. And we are going to get through this.
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