Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo: In New York, 'Love Wins and it Will Win Again Through This Virus'. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-new-york-love-wins-and-it-will-win-again
Governor Cuomo: "We're going to get through it because we are New York and because we've dealt with a lot of things, and because we are smart. You have to be smart to make it in New York. And we are resourceful, and we are showing how resourceful we are. And because we are united, and when you are united, there is nothing you can't do. And because we are New York tough. We are tough. You have to be tough. This place makes you tough, but it makes you tough in a good way."
Cuomo: "We're going to make it because I love New York, and I love New York because New York loves you. New York loves all of you. Black and white and brown and Asian and short and tall and gay and straight. New York loves everyone. That's why I love New York. It always has, it always will. And at the end of the day, my friends, even if it is a long day, and this is a long day, love wins. Always. And it will win again through this virus. Thank you."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo reminded New Yorkers that in New York love wins and that New Yorkers will get through the COVID-19 pandemic because we are united.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
"Eighty percent are going to self-resolve. Twenty percent are going to need hospitals. It's not about that. It's about a very small group of people in this population who are the most vulnerable. They are older, they have compromised immune systems, they are HIV positive, or they have emphysema, or they have an underlying heart condition, or they have bad asthma, or they're recovering from cancer. Those are the people who are going to be vulnerable to the mortality of this disease, and it is only 1% or 2% of the population. But then why all of this? Because it's 1% or 2% of the population. It's lives, it's grandmothers and grandfathers and sisters and brothers.
And you start to see the cases on TV. It's a 40-year-old woman who recovered from breast cancer but had a compromised immune system and four children at home. That's what this is about. It's about a vulnerable population. I called the executive order that I passed Matilda's law - my mother. It's about my mother. It's about my mother. It's about my mother. It's about your mother. It's about your loved one. And we will do anything we can to make sure that they are protected.
Again, keeping it in perspective, Johns Hopkins, 387,000 cases studied, 16,000 deaths on 387,000. 100,000 recoveries worldwide, 268,000 pending. Last point, it is about the vulnerable. It's not about 95% of us. It's about a few percent who are vulnerable. That's all this is about. Bring down that anxiety, bring down that fear, bring down that paranoia. It's not about 95% of us.
And we're going to get through it because we are New York and because we've dealt with a lot of things, and because we are smart. You have to be smart to make it in New York. And we are resourceful, and we are showing how resourceful we are. And because we are united, and when you are united, there is nothing you can't do. And because we are New York tough. We are tough. You have to be tough. This place makes you tough, but it makes you tough in a good way. We're going to make it because I love New York, and I love New York because New York loves you. New York loves all of you. Black and white and brown and Asian and short and tall and gay and straight. New York loves everyone. That's why I love New York. It always has, it always will. And at the end of the day, my friends, even if it is a long day, and this is a long day, love wins. Always. And it will win again through this virus. Thank you.
March 24, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo: In Time of COVID-19 Pandemic, Our Healthcare Workers Are Doing 'God's Work'. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-time-covid-19-pandemic-our-healthcare-workers
Governor Cuomo: "Our health care workers, who are doing God's work. They are doing God's work. Can you imagine the nurses who leave their homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on gowns, deal with people who have the coronavirus? They're thinking all day long, oh, my God, I hope I don't get this. Oh my God, I hope I don't get this and bring it home to my children. You want to talk about extraordinary individuals - extraordinary."
Cuomo: "Most of us are in our home hunkered down, worried. They're worried and they're going out there every day despite their fear - despite their fear. Overcoming their fear, and not for their family, they're doing it for your family. When you see them on the street, when you see them in a hospital, please, just say thank you and smile and say, I know what you're doing."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo reminded New Yorkers to thank the healthcare workers and other professionals who are doing 'God's work' during the COVID-19 pandemic.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
We've acquired everything on the market there is to acquire. We've had a full team purchasing from companies all across this globe, buying everything that can be purchased. And we're bringing that here to distribute to New York City, Long Island, Westchester because that is the greatest need. This number of supplies will take care of our immediate need. It does not take care of the need going forward three, four, five, six weeks. The burn rate on this equipment is very, very high. I can't find any more equipment. It's not a question of money. I don't care what you're willing to pay. You just can't find the equipment now, but this will take care of the immediate need.
I don't want our health care workers, who are doing God's work. They are doing God's work. Can you imagine the nurses who leave their homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on gowns, deal with people who have the coronavirus? They're thinking all day long, oh, my God, I hope I don't get this. Oh my God, I hope I don't get this and bring it home to my children. You want to talk about extraordinary individuals - extraordinary. And it's the nurses and the doctors and the health care workers, it's the police officers who show up every day and go out there and walk into a situation that they don't even know what they're walking into. And it's the firefighters and it's the transportation workers, and it's the people who are running the grocery stores and the pharmacies and providing all those essential services. Most of us are in our home hunkered down, worried. They're worried and they're going out there every day despite their fear - despite their fear. Overcoming their fear, and not for their family, they're doing it for your family. When you see them on the street, when you see them in a hospital, please, just say thank you and smile and say, I know what you're doing.
March 24, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Distribution of Health Care Supplies to New York City, Long Island and Westchester Hospitals. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-distribution-health-care-supplies-new
339,760 N-95 masks, 861,700 surgical masks, 353,300 gloves, 145,122 gowns and 197,085 face shields being deployed out of Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
Confirms 4,790 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 25,665; New Cases in 2 Counties
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the distribution of medical supplies and equipment to hospitals across New York City, Long Island and Westchester to help front line healthcare workers combat COVID-19.
339,760 N-95 masks, 861,700 surgical masks, 353,300 gloves, 145,122 gowns and 197,085 face shields are being deployed from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center to hospitals in those regions today.
New York City will receive 169,000 N-95 masks, 430,850 surgical masks, 176,750 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 39,364 face shields
Westchester County will receive 16,988 N-95 masks, 301,595 surgical masks, 17,675 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 3,926 face shields.
Long Island will receive 33,976 N-95 masks, 86,170 surgical masks, 35,350 gloves, 14,512 gowns and 7,853 face shields.
The rest of New York State will receive 118,916 N-95 masks, 301,595 surgical masks, 123,735 gloves, 50,793 gowns and 27,485 face shields.
This disbursement is on top of the 1 million N-95 masks that the State purchased and sent to New York City and the approximately 500,000 N-95 masks that the State purchased and sent to Long Island last week.
The supplies are being distributed in consultation with the Greater New York Hospital Association and the Healthcare Association of New York State, both of which are helping identify hospitals in greatest need.
I'm not asking the federal government to help New York just to help New York — I'm asking for everyone.
Governor Cuomo
"While the number of new cases continues to increase unabated, we are exercising all options as aggressively as we can including ramping up testing, isolating those who are infected, closing down nonessential businesses and building hospital surge capacity," Governor Cuomo said. "The State cannot do this alone, and the blunt truth is we need more ventilators and healthcare equipment fast, and we need the federal government to actually use the Defense Production Act to get private manufacturers to help build this critical equipment. I'm not asking the federal government to help New York just to help New York — I'm asking for everyone. New York is the first — if we learn how to blunt the impact here and bend the curve here, we can help other states who are next. Let's learn how to act as one nation."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 4,790 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 25,665 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 25,665 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
146
19
Allegany
2
0
Broome
9
2
Cayuga
2
0
Chemung
1
1
Chenango
3
0
Clinton
8
2
Columbia
11
1
Cortland
2
0
Delaware
3
0
Dutchess
124
24
Erie
107
20
Essex
3
0
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
1
0
Greene
4
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
4
0
Jefferson
2
0
Livingston
3
0
Madison
5
1
Monroe
96
20
Montgomery
3
0
Nassau
2869
427
Niagara
11
1
NYC
14904
2599
Oneida
8
1
Onondaga
60
8
Ontario
7
1
Orange
498
109
Orleans
2
2
Oswego
2
1
Otsego
1
0
Putnam
67
22
Rensselaer
30
1
Rockland
671
79
Saratoga
60
7
Schenectady
46
2
Schoharie
1
0
St. Lawrence
1
0
Steuben
5
1
Suffolk
1880
422
Sullivan
30
7
Tioga
1
0
Tompkins
16
1
Ulster
47
12
Warren
2
0
Washington
3
0
Wayne
6
0
Westchester
3891
997
Wyoming
4
0
March 24, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Distribution of Health Care Supplies to New York City, Long Island and Westchester Hospitals. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-1
339,760 N-95 masks, 861,700 surgical masks, 353,300 gloves, 145,122 gowns and 197,085 face shields being deployed out of Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
Confirms 4,790 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 25,665; New Cases in 2 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "We need the federal help, and we need the federal help now. Also, there is a smart way to do this. Deploy the ventilators around the country as they are needed. Different regions have different curbs of the infection. New York is the canary in the coal mine. New York is going first. We have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. What happens to New York is going to wind up happening to California, and Washington state, and Illinois, it's just a matter of time. We're just getting there first."
Cuomo: "I will take personal responsibility for transporting the 20,000 ventilators anywhere in this country that they want, once we are past our apex. But don't leave them sitting in a stockpile, and say well we're going to wait and see how we allocate them across the country. That's not how this works. They're not simultaneous apexes. They are a curve that is individual to that region. Deploy to that region, address that region, and then move on to the next. And I'm not only talking about ventilators. ... I'll send healthcare workers. I'll send out professionals who've dealt with it and who know, all around the country."
Cuomo: "Let's help each other. New York, because New York is first. And then after New York, and after the curve breaks in New York, let's all rush to whoever's second. And then let's all rush to whoever's third. And let's learn from each other and help each other."
Cuomo: "If you ask the American people to choose, between public health and the economy, then it's no contest. No American is going to say, accelerate the economy, at the cost of human life. Because no American is going to say how much a life is worth. Job one has to be save lives. That has to be the priority. And there's a smarter approach to this. We don't have to choose between the two. You can develop a more refined public health strategy that is also an economic strategy."
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the distribution of medical supplies and equipment to hospitals across New York City, Long Island and Westchester to help front line healthcare workers combat COVID-19.
339,760 N-95 masks, 861,700 surgical masks, 353,300 gloves, 145,122 gowns and 197,085 face shields are being deployed from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center to hospitals in those regions today.
New York City will receive 169,000 N-95 masks, 430,850 surgical masks, 176,750 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 39,364 face shields.
Westchester County will receive 16,988 N-95 masks, 301,595 surgical masks, 17,675 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 3,926 face shields.
Long Island will receive 33,976 N-95 masks, 86,170 surgical masks, 35,350 gloves, 14,512 gowns and 7,853 face shields.
The rest of New York State will receive 118,916 N-95 masks, 301,595 surgical masks, 123,735 gloves, 50,793 gowns and 27,485 face shields.
This disbursement is on top of the 1 million N-95 masks that the State purchased and sent to New York City and the approximately 500,000 N-95 masks that the State purchased and sent to Long Island last week.
The supplies are being distributed in consultation with the Greater New York Hospital Association and the Healthcare Association of New York State, both of which are helping identify hospitals in greatest need.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format 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 you all here in masks, related gear. Let me introduce to my right we have General Patrick Murphy, to my left we have General Raymond Shields. These are two gentlemen who I have been through many situations with. We've been through hell and back and if you have to have two professionals dealing with a situation like this, these are the two people that you want to be with. I thank both generals for being here today. I'm Private Cuomo, but I'll be your governor today. I want to begin by thanking all the Army Corps of Engineer people who are here today, who've done an outstanding job. They came in very quickly and they're setting up this emergency hospital, which is going to be badly needed. I want to thank Alan Steel, and all the people of the Javits Center. This is a great exhibition hall, but this is not what they normally do, and they have really stepped up and risen to the occasion, so I want to thank them.
Let me take you through some facts today, because we have some new facts, changes in certain stances that are not encouraging and I want to make sure people understand them and we react accordingly. The increase in the number of cases continues unabated. As a matter of fact, the rate of increase has gone up. We have the most sophisticated people you can get doing projections on this. They've been studying projections from China, South Korea, Italy, places all across this country. And what they're now seeing is that the rate of cases, the rate of new infections, is doubling about every three days. That is a dramatic increase in the rate of infection. And this whole discussion all along has been how fast does the rate of increase spread. And can we slow the rate of increase. We're not slowing it, and it is accelerating on its own. One of the forecasters said to me, we were looking at a freight train, coming across the country, we're now looking at a bullet train, because the numbers are going up that quickly.
And the most challenging point about the increasing numbers is where the numbers will apex. What is the high point of the numbers. And the apex is the point where we have to be able to manage the capacity. We had projected the apex at about 110,000 hospital beds, and that's the number I've been talking about. The new projection suggests that the number of hospital beds needed could be as high as 140,000 hospital beds. So, flatten the curve, flatten the curve. We haven't flattened the curve and the curve is actually increasing. That means the number of hospital beds, which is at 53,000 beds, 3,000 ICU beds. The anticipated need now for the height of the curve is 140,000 hospital beds, and approximately 40,000 intensive care unit beds.
Those are troubling and astronomical numbers, and as I mentioned, are higher numbers than have been previously projected. We are exercising all options as aggressively as we can. That rate of increase, that apex, they project at this time could be approximately 14 to 21 days away. So not only do we have a spike in the increase, when you spike the increase in cases, it accelerates the apex to a point where it could be as close at 14 to 21 days. We're exercising all options. We're doing everything we can on every level to quote unquote slow the spread, flatten the curve.
We've closed businesses, we've reduced street density. We had an issue in New York City, I spoke to Mayor de Blasio, I spoke to City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. We'll have a plan that I believe will be in place by noon today. And we have increased testing to the highest level in the United States, and the highest per capita level on the globe. No one is testing more than we are testing. So, in many ways we have exhausted every option available to us. We've closed all the businesses. We've reduced the street density. And we've increased testing to the highest level in the country.
We're also trying all the new drug therapies. The hydroxychloroquine, which the president speaks about and is optimistic about. We hope for optimistic results, also. We're actually starting that today. The president and the FDA accelerated that drug coming to New York so the hospitals will start using that drug today. The FDA also authorized an experimental procedure by the New York State Department of Health where the Department of Health actually takes plasma from people who are infected who have the antibodies and will try putting that plasma into a person who is still struggling with the disease hoping that the antibodies make a difference. We're also pursuing a new level of testing which will test people's blood to see if they have antibodies for coronavirus which means they may had been infected and resolved and never knew it, but if you had the coronavirus and resolved you now have an immunity to the coronavirus for some period of time most experts suggest it's a significant amount of time. That would be very important for us to know because then healthcare workers that could go back to work, there are workers that could return back to the private sector.
But the inescapable conclusion is that the rate of infection is going up. It is spiking. The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of facts. So, slow the spread. We'll still keep doing everything we can, but it is clear that we must dramatically increase the hospital capacity to meet that highest apex. And we have to do it very quickly. Again, the apex could be here in as little as 14-21 days and you're talking about a very significant logistical operational movement to increase that number of hospital beds and do everything that you need to do related to the increased hospital beds. There are three elements that are necessary to increase the hospital capacity. First are obviously the availability of the beds. A bed without staff is virtually useless and a bed and a staff without the right equipment is virtually useless. So, you have to complete all three at the same time.
As far as beds, we have told the hospitals, I'm going to speak to every hospital administrator today, hospitals must increase their capacity by 50 percent. The goal is to ask them to try to increase it by 100 percent. Remember we have 53,000 beds, we need 140,000 beds. Even if they did increase it by 100 percent, you'd only be at about 100,000 beds. You need 140,000 beds. Emergency hospitals like the 1,000-bed facility that's being built here will be helpful. The emergency hospitals that we're building in Westbury and Stony Brook and at the Westchester Convention Center will be helpful. But they're nowhere near the number of beds that we're going to need. I have no problem using the dormitories all across our state campuses, our CUNY campuses, our state university campuses. I'm speaking to hotel owners about taking over their hotels to put patients in. I will turn this state upside down to get the number of beds we need. But, we need the staff for those beds. We're calling and contacting all retirees in the healthcare field. We're calling all professionals in the healthcare field whether or not they work in a hospital. They could work at an insurance company, in a clinic, or whatever. But we want to enlist as many staff as we can and as many back-up staff because healthcare workers will get sick. This is going to go on for weeks and you can't ask a person to work 14 days consecutive or around the clock shifts, so we'll need a back-up reserve staff.
And equipment, equipment, equipment. Masks, PPEs, and ventilators. And of those three, the great critical need are ventilators. Now, ventilators, you say ventilators nobody really knows what you're talking about. The people who are going to come in, the people who will have acute needs, these are people who are under respiratory distress. They need a ventilator. The ventilators will make the difference between life and death literally for these people. This is piece of equipment that in a normal course of business you don't have a need for high levels of ventilators and our hospital system has about 3,000 or 4,000 that has always met the need. This is a dramatic increase in the number of ventilators that you need. We have been working around the clock scouring the globe.
We've procured about 7,000 ventilators. We need at a minimum an additional 30,000 ventilators. You cannot buy them. You cannot find them. Every state is trying to get them, other countries are trying to get them. The capacity is limited. They're technical pieces of equipment. They're not manufactured in two days or four days, seven days or ten days. So, this is a critical and desperate need for ventilators. We're going so far as to you trying experimental procedure where we split the ventilator. We use one ventilator for two patients. Its difficulty to perform. It's experimental, but at this point we have no alternatives. We're working on this experimental application taking two people in beds, one ventilator between the two of them, but with two sets of tubes two sets of pipes going to the two patients.
Again, it's experimental, but mother of necessity is the mother of invention and we are working on this as we speak. Because life is options and we don't have any other options. There is no other way for us to get these ventilators. We've tried everything else.
The only way we can obtain these ventilators is from the federal government, period. And there is two ways the federal government can do it. One is to use the Federal Defense Production Act. There is federal law where the federal government can say to manufacturers you must produce this product. I understand the federal governments point that many companies have come forward and said we want to help. General Motors and Ford, and people are willing to get into the ventilator business. It does us no good if they start to create a ventilator in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks. We're looking at an apex of 14 days. If we don't have the ventilators in 14 days it does us no good. The federal Defense Procurement Act can actually help companies, because the federal government can say look I need you to into this business. I will contract with you today for X number of ventilators. Here's the startup capital you need. Here's the startup capital you need to hire workers that do it around the clock, but I need the ventilators in 14 days. Only the federal government has that power. And not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me. Volunteerism is nice and it is a beautiful thing. And it's nice these companies are coming forward and saying they want to help. That is not going to get us there. And I do not for the life of me understand the reluctance to use the federal Defense Production Act.
Also, the federal government has 20,000 ventilators in the federal stockpile. Secretary Azar runs an agency called HHS - Health and Human Services. I asked the Secretary, "Look at the first word in the title of the agency you run. It is health. Your first priority is health. You have 20,000 ventilators in the stockpile. Release the ventilators to New York." How can we be in a situation where you can have New Yorkers possibly dying because they can't get a ventilator, but a federal agency is saying I'm going to leave the ventilators in the stockpile. I mean have we really come to that point. Also, we have to be smarter about the way this is being done. The federal government has to prioritize the resources. Look at where the problems are across this nation. California has 2,800 cases. Washington state, 2,200 cases. Florida, 1,200 cases. Massachusetts, about 800 cases. New York has 25,000 cases. New York has 25,000 cases. It has ten times the problem that California has. Ten times the problem that Washington state has. You prioritize resources, and your activity, and your actions to where they are needed. And New York, you are looking at a problem that is of a totally different magnitude and dimension.
The problem is the volume. Dealing with 2,000 cases is one thing. 2,000 cases, frankly, we could deal with in this building, with the capacity that we're providing. We have 25,000 cases. We need the federal help, and we need the federal help now. Also, there is a smart way to do this. Deploy the ventilators around the country as they are needed. Different regions have different curbs of the infection. New York is the canary in the coal mine. New York is going first. We have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. What happens to New York is going to wind up happening to California, and Washington state, and Illinois, it's just a matter of time. We're just getting there first.
Deal with the issue here. Deploy the resources. Deploy the ventilators here in New York for our apex. And then, after the apex passes here, once we're passed that critical point, deploy the ventilators to the other parts of the country where they are needed. I'm not asking for 20,000 ventilators and they stay in New York, and they live in New York and change their residence. As soon as we finish with the ventilators, then you move them to the next part of the country that has the critical problem. And then, after that region hits its apex, then you move to the next part of the country that has its critical problems. I will take personal responsibility for transporting the 20,000 ventilators anywhere in this country that they want, once we are past our apex. But don't leave them sitting in a stockpile, and say well we're going to wait and see how we allocate them across the country. That's not how this works. They're not simultaneous apexes. They are a curve that is individual to that region. Deploy to that region, address that region, and then move on to the next. And I'm not only talking about ventilators. We get past the apex, we get over that curve, that curve starts to come down, we get to a level where we can handle it. I'll send ventilators. I'll send healthcare workers. I'll send out professionals who've dealt with it and who know, all around the country.
And that's how this should be done. You know it's going to be on a different calendar, it's going to be a different sequence. Let's help each other. New York, because New York is first. And then after New York, and after the curve breaks in New York, let's all rush to whoever's second. And then let's all rush to whoever's third. And let's learn from each other and help each other.
I want to make a point on the president's point about the economy and public health. I understand what the president's saying, this is unsustainable, that we close down the economy and we continue to spend money. There is no doubt about that, no one is going to argue about that. But if you ask the American people to choose, between public health and the economy, then it's no contest. No American is going to say, accelerate the economy, at the cost of human life. Because no American is going to say how much a life is worth. Job one has to be save lives. That has to be the priority. And there's a smarter approach to this. We don't have to choose between the two. You can develop a more refined public health strategy that is also an economic strategy.
What do I mean by that? Our public health strategy was a blunt instrument. What we said at a moment of crisis is isolate everyone. Close the schools, close the colleges, send everyone home, isolate everybody in their home. In truth, that was not the most refined public strategy. Why? Because it wasn't even smart, frankly, to isolate younger people with older people. But, at that moment we didn't have the knowledge, we needed to act, that's what we did. You can now start to refine that public health strategy. You can start to say, look, the lower risk individuals do not need to be quarantined and they shouldn't be quarantined with an older who it may be transferring to. People who are recovered, you test them, you test the antibodies, you find out that they resolved themselves of the virus. I believe once we get that test you're going to find hundreds of thousands of people who have had the coronavirus and resolved. Once they're resolved, they can go back to work. Develop that test, it's in testing now, once they're resolved let them go back to work. Let the younger people go back to work. Let the recovered people go back to work. It's even better for the older, vulnerable people who you're trying to protect. And then ramp up the economy with those individuals.
So, you're refining your public health strategy and at the same time you're restarting your economy. Those two can be consistent if done intelligently. Restart the economy with our younger, recovered, tested workers. Don't make us choose between a smart health strategy and smart economic strategy. We can do both and we must do both. It's not the economy or public health, it's restarting the economy and protecting public health, it is both. But, I understand restarting the economy. The crisis today, focus on the crisis at hand, focus on the looming wave of cases that is about to break in 14 days. That has to be the priority. And that is hospital capacity and that is about providing hospital beds, providing staff, providing equipment, providing PPE, providing ventilators. Coming back to that number of 30,000 and needing federal action to address it now. If the federal government said today, I will deploy all 20,000 ventilators, it will take us two weeks to get those ventilators into hospitals and to create ICU beds and to locate the staff. So, there is no time to waste. The time to do this is now. FEMA is sending us 400 ventilators. It was on the news this morning. We are sending 400 ventilators to New York. 400 ventilators? I need 30,000 ventilators. You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators? What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators? You're missing the magnitude of the problem and the problem is defined by the magnitude.
These are the numbers from today. You can see our testing rate is now over 90,000 people who have been tested. That's the highest rate of testing in the country and per capita on the globe. We did 12,000 new tests since yesterday. Number of positive cases, state of New York - 25,675, 4,700 of those new cases tested. You see the entire state county by county. More and more counties are being covered. We have 3,000 people currently who are hospitalized. We have 756 people in ICU units. The ICU units are the ventilated units. That's 23 percent of the hospitalizations. That's the problem. As the number of cases go up, the number of people in hospital beds goes up, the number of people who need an ICU bed and a ventilator goes up, and we cannot address that increasing curve.
Again, you look at the number of cases in the country, you'll see that New York is an outlier of the number of cases. It's not even close. What's happening in New York is not a New York phenomenon. People in New York don't have a different immune system than other Americans. It's not higher in New York because we are New Yorkers. It's higher in New York because it started here first, because we have global travelers coming here first, because we have more density than most places, but you will see this in cities all across the country. And you will see this in suburban communities all across the country. We are just a test case. We are just a test case. And that's how the nation should look at it.
Look at us today. Where we are today, you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. We are your future, and what we do here will chart the course for what we do in your city and in your community. I'm not asking you to help New York to help New York, I'm asking you to help New York to help yourselves. Let's learn how to do it right, and let's learn how to do it right here. Let's learn how to act as one nation and let's learn how to act as one nation here. And we learn the lesson here, we will save lives in your community. I promise you that.
We're delivering supplies that we've been able to purchase today. New Yorkcity has had a critical problem. I spoke to Mayor de Blasio. He's right, he had a critical problem on PPEs, gowns, masks et cetera. The equipment we are bringing today will resolve that immediate need. There will be no hospital in the city of New York who will say today their nurses and doctors can't get equipment. And we're addressing that need not just for New York City but also Long Island and Westchester.
We've acquired everything on the market there is to acquire. We've had a full team purchasing from companies all across this globe, buying everything that can be purchased. And we're bringing that here to distribute to New York City, Long Island, Westchester because that is the greatest need. This number of supplies will take care of our immediate need. It does not take care of the need going forward three, four, five, six weeks. The burn rate on this equipment is very, very high. I can't find any more equipment. It's not a question of money. I don't care what you're willing to pay. You just can't find the equipment now, but this will take care of the immediate need.
I don't want our health care workers, who are doing God's work. They are doing God's work. Can you imagine the nurses who leave their homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on gowns, dealwith people who have the coronavirus? They're thinking all day long, oh, my God, I hope I don't get this. Oh my God, I hope I don't get this and bring it home to my children. You want to talk about extraordinary individuals - extraordinary. And it's the nurses and the doctors and the health care workers, it's the police officers who show up every day and go out there and walk into a situation that they don't even know what they're walking into. And it's thefirefighters and it's the transportation workers, and it's the people who are running the grocery stores and the pharmacies and providing all those essential services. Most of us are in our home hunkered down, worried. They're worried and they're going out there every day despite their fear - despite their fear. Overcoming their fear, and not for their family, they're doing it for your family. When you see them on the street, when you see them in a hospital, please, just say thank you and smile and say, I know what you're doing.
What happens? All these facts, all these numbers. Am I strong in my language vis-a-vis the federal government? Yes, I am. But what happens at the end of the day? What does it all mean? That's what people want to know. What does it all mean? What it all means is what we said it all means the first day this started. The first day I went before the people of New York State and I said, I'm going to tell you the truth, I'm going to tell you the facts the way I know it. Those facts have not changed. Those facts are not going to change. This is not a new situation. We've watched this through China. There are hundreds of thousands of cases. 80 percent will self-resolve. That's why experts say to me - tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands have had the virus, didn't know they had it and resolved. That's why we have to get that test that shows you had the virus because you have the antibodies and you did resolve. And once we do that, that's how you get the economy back to work. That's how you get the back-up healthcare workers.
But 80 percent are going to self-resolve. 20 percent are going to need hospitals. It's not about that. It's about a very small group of people in this population who are the most vulnerable. They are older, they have compromised immune systems, they are HIV positive, or they have emphysema, or they have an underlying heart condition, or they have bad asthma, or they're recovering from cancer. Those are the people who are going to be vulnerable to the mortality of this disease, and it is only 1 percent or 2 percent of the population. But then why all of this? Because it's 1 percent or 2 percent of the population. It's lives, it's grandmothers and grandfathers and sisters and brothers.
And you start to see the cases on TV. It's a 40-year-old woman who recovered from breast cancer but had a compromised immune system and four children at home. That's what this is about. It's about a vulnerable population. I called the executive order that I passed Matilda's law - my mother. It's about my mother. It's about my mother. It's about my mother. It's about your mother. It's about your loved one. And we will do anything we can to make sure that they are protected.
Again, keeping it in perspective, Johns Hopkins, 387,000 cases studied, 16,000 deaths on 387,000. 100,000 recoveries worldwide, 268,000 pending. Last point, it is about the vulnerable. It's not about 95 percent of us. It's about a few percent who are vulnerable. That's all this is about. Bring down that anxiety, bring down that fear, bring down that paranoia. It's not about 95 percent of us.
And we're going to get through it because we are New York and because we've dealt with a lot of things, and because we are smart. You have to be smart to make it in New York. And we are resourceful, and we are showing how resourceful we are. And because we are united, and when you are united, there is nothing you can't do. And because we are New York tough. We are tough. You have to be tough. This place makes you tough, but it makes you tough in a good way. We're going to make it because I love New York, and I love New York because New York loves you. New York loves all of you. Black and white and brown and Asian and short and tall and gay and straight. New York loves everyone. That's why I love New York. It always has, it always will. And at the end of the day, my friends, even if it is a long day, and this is a long day, love wins. Always. And it will win again through this virus. Thank you.
March 25, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Commends Mental Health Professionals Working as Volunteers to Address Mental Health Needs Related to Coronavirus. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-commends-mental-health-professionals-working
New Yorkers can call the COVID-19 Emotional Support Hotline at 1-844-863-9314 for mental health counseling
Governor Cuomo: "We asked for mental health professionals to voluntarily sign up to provide online mental health services. Six thousand mental health professionals agreed to volunteer to provide mental health services for people who need it. How beautiful is that?"
Cuomo: "God bless the 6,000 mental health professionals who are doing this 100 percent free, on top of whatever they have to do in their normal practice."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo commended the thousands of mental health professionals in New York State who stepped up as volunteers to address people's mental health needs related to coronavirus.
New Yorkers can call the COVID-19 Emotional Support Hotline at 1-844-863-9314 for mental health counseling.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
This is also very exciting. I don't know that anyone else has done this. We've talked about the emotional stress that this brings on people. And the mental health stress, and mental health challenges. No one's really talking about this. You know, we're all concerned about the immediate critical need. The life and death of the immediate situation, which is right. But don't underestimate the emotional trauma that people are feeling, and the emotional health issues.
We asked for mental health professionals to voluntarily sign up to provide online mental health services. Six thousand mental health professionals agreed to volunteer to provide mental health services for people who need it. How beautiful is that?
And the hotline, 1-844-863-9314, you can call that hotline, you can schedule an appointment with a mental health professional totally free, to talk to them about what you're feeling and what stress you're feeling. And again, God bless the 6,000 mental health professionals who are doing this 100 percent free, on top of whatever they have to do in their normal practice. And I'm sure in their normal practice, they're busy. So this is really an extraordinary, extraordinary step by them.
March 25, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo: Amid Covid-19 Pandemic: 'Our Closeness Makes Us Vulnerable. But It's True That Your Greatest Weakness Is Also Your Greatest Strength'. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-amid-covid-19-pandemic-our-closeness-makes-us
Governor Cuomo: "Our closeness is what makes us special. Our acceptance, our openness is what makes us special. It's what makes us feel so connected one to another. It's what makes us so accepting of one another. It is the closeness that makes us the human beings that we are. The closeness is that New York humanity that I think exists nowhere else. The closeness is what makes our sense of community."
Cuomo: "It is also that closeness and that connection and that humanity and that sharing that is our greatest strength, and that is what is going to overcome at the end of the day. I promise you that. I can see how New Yorkers are responding. I can see how New Yorkers are treating one another. I see the 6,000 mental health volunteers. I see the 40,000 health care workers stepping up. I see the vendors calling me, saying, I can help. That's New York. That's New York. And that, my friends, is undefeatable."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo laid out why New York's spatial closeness makes the region vulnerable to coronavirus and why New Yorkers' sense of community makes them uniquely able to overcome the crisis.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
And this is my personal opinion. I like to make sure that I separate facts from personal opinion. The facts I give you are the best facts I have. And again, the data changes day to day, but I give you exactly what I have on a day-to-day basis.
Personal opinion, why does New York have so many more cases than any other state? How can it be? You're 15 times the number of California. I mean, really is breathtaking when you think about it. State of Massachusetts, with 30 times the number of cases. So why is the question that people ask me.
Two answers. Answer one is because we welcome people from across the globe. We have people coming here, we have people who came here from china, who came here from Italy, who came here from countries all around the globe. We have international travelers who were in China and who were in Italy and who were in Korea and who came here. And I have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than we even know. And I have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than it was in any other state because those people come here first. That's the first answer.
The second answer is, because we are close. Because we are close. We talk about the virus and how it transfers in a dense area. It's literally because we are close, because we live close to one another, because we're close to one another on the street, because we live in close communities, because we're close to one another on the bus. We're close to one another in the restaurant. We're close to one another in the movie theater. And we have one of the most dense, close environments in the country. And that's why the virus communicated the way it did. Our closeness makes us vulnerable. Our closeness makes us vulnerable. That spatial closeness makes us vulnerable. But it's true that your greatest weakness is also your greatest strength. And our closeness is what makes us who we are. That is what New York is. Our closeness is what makes us special. Our acceptance, our openness is what makes us special. It's what makes us feel so connected one to another. It's what makes us so accepting of one another. It is the closeness that makes us the human beings that we are. The closeness is that New York humanity that I think exists nowhere else. The closeness is what makes our sense of community.
And there's a gentleman who I still look to for guidance and for leadership and for inspiration. He's not here anymore for you. He's still here for me. But he said things more from profound and more beautifully than most other people ever have. And one of the things he said that is so appropriate for today: "We believe in a single fundamental idea that describes better than most textbooks and any speech that I could write what a proper government should be: The idea of family, mutuality, the sharing of benefits and burdens for the good of all, feeling one another's pain, sharing one another's blessings -- reasonably, honestly, fairly, without respect to race or sex or geography or political affiliation." That is New York. It is that closeness, that concept of family, of community. That's what makes New York, "New York." And that's what made us vulnerable here. But it is also that closeness and that connection and that humanity and that sharing that is our greatest strength, and that is what is going to overcome at the end of the day. I promise you that. I can see how New Yorkers are responding. I can see how New Yorkers are treating one another. I see the 6,000 mental health volunteers. I see the 40,000 health care workers stepping up. I see the vendors calling me, saying, "I can help." That's New York. That's New York. And that, my friends, is undefeatable. And I am glad in some ways that we're first with this situation, because we will overcome and we will show the other communities across this country how to do it. We'll be there for them. We want them to be there for us. And we will be there for each other, as we always have been.
March 25, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces 40,000 Health Professionals Have Signed up to Volunteer as Part of the State's Surge Healthcare Force. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-40000-health-professionals-have-signed
More Than 6,000 Mental Health Professionals Have Signed Up to Provide Free Online Mental Health Services - New Yorkers Can Call 1-844-863-9314 to Schedule an Appointment
Urges Federal Government to Implement 'Rolling Deployment' of Equipment and Personnel
NYC Plan to Address Lack of Adherence to Social Distancing Protocols Includes Pilot to Close Streets to Cars and Open Them to Pedestrians
Four Seasons Hotel on 57th Street to Provide Free Rooms to Medical Personnel on Front Lines
PSC Orders Utilities to Suspend Rate Increases, Providing Relief to Nearly 2 Million Families and Businesses
Confirms 5,146 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 30,811; New Cases in 36 Counties
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that to date 40,000 healthcare workers, including retirees and students, have signed up to volunteer to work as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with more expected to sign up in the coming weeks. Additionally, more than 6,000 mental health professionals have signed up to provide free online mental health services. New Yorkers can call the state's hotline at 1-844-863-9314 to schedule a free appointment.
Governor Cuomo also announced New York City will pilot closing streets to vehicles and opening them to pedestrians as part of the city's plan to address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols. As part of the plan, the Governor is also enacting a voluntary playground social density protocol that prohibits close contact sports such as basketball.
The Governor also urged the federal government to implement a "rolling deployment" of equipment and personnel to address the critical needs of hotspot areas with high numbers of positive COVID-19 cases instead of providing limited quantities to the entire country at once. As part of the plan, the Governor has pledged to personally manage the deployment of supplies and equipment and technical assistance to the next hotspots around the country once New York State's number of hospitalizations begins to decrease.
The Governor also announced that the Four Seasons Hotel on 57th street in Manhattan is the first of several hotels that is providing their facility to serve as housing for nurses, doctors, and medical personnel during this crisis. The 350 room hotel will provide medical personnel currently working to respond to the coronavirus outbreak lodging free of charge.
Thousands of New Yorkers have selflessly volunteered to be part of our surge healthcare force and support the hospital surge capacity.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
"New York is the canary in the coal mine - we have the most positive cases in the nation and the most critical need for equipment and personnel," Governor Cuomo said. "We are doing everything we can to flatten the curve and slow the infection rate so the influx of hospitalizations doesn't overwhelm our healthcare system. Thousands of New Yorkers have selflessly volunteered to be part of our surge healthcare force and support the hospital surge capacity, but we need more ventilators and more hospital beds now, and we need the help of the federal government to get them. Different regions have different curves at different times, but New York is first, and once we get through this we can use our experience and supplies to help other states to get through this pandemic."
At Governor Cuomo's direction, the Public Service Commission today approved orders postponing rate increases for nearly 2 million customers of New York American Water and National Grid upstate that were scheduled to go into effect on April 1st. This will provide relief to families and businesses affected by COVID-19. NYAW's increase will now go into effect in September and National Grid upstate's will go into effect in July. These are the only major utilities in New York State that were due to increase their rates on April 1. The Department of Public Service is asking other utilities to consider postponing rate increases, depending on continued movement reductions due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 5,146 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 30,811 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 30,811 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
152
6
Allegany
2
0
Broome
11
2
Cayuga
2
0
Chautauqua
1
1
Chemung
1
0
Chenango
3
0
Clinton
10
2
Columbia
12
1
Cortland
2
0
Delaware
5
2
Dutchess
153
29
Erie
122
15
Essex
4
1
Franklin
1
1
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
2
1
Greene
4
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
5
1
Jefferson
2
0
Livingston
3
0
Madison
7
2
Monroe
118
22
Montgomery
4
1
Nassau
3285
416
Niagara
12
1
NYC
17856
2952
Oneida
9
1
Onondaga
65
5
Ontario
9
2
Orange
638
140
Orleans
2
0
Oswego
2
0
Otsego
2
1
Putnam
84
17
Rensselaer
31
1
Rockland
968
297
Saratoga
64
4
Schenectady
55
9
Schoharie
2
1
St. Lawrence
1
0
Steuben
8
3
Suffolk
2260
380
Sullivan
39
9
Tioga
1
0
Tompkins
16
0
Ulster
65
18
Warren
2
0
Washington
4
1
Wayne
7
1
Westchester
4691
800
Wyoming
March 25, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces 40,000 Health Professionals Have Signed Up to Volunteer as Part of The State's Surge Healthcare Force https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-2
More Than 6,000 Mental Health Professionals Have Signed Up to Provide Free Online Mental Health Services - New Yorkers Can Call 1-844-863-9314 to Schedule an Appointment
Urges Federal Government to Implement 'Rolling Deployment' of Equipment and Personnel
NYC Plan to Address Lack of Adherence to Social Distancing Protocols Includes Pilot to Close Streets to Cars and Open Them to Pedestrians
Four Seasons Hotel on 57th Street to Provide Free Rooms to Medical Personnel on Front Lines
PSC Orders Utilities to Suspend Rate Increases, Providing Relief to Nearly 2 Million Families and Businesses
Confirms 5,146 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 30,811; New Cases in 36 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "We asked for mental health professionals to voluntarily sign up to provide online mental health services. Six thousand mental health professionals agreed to volunteer to provide mental health services for people who need it. How beautiful is that?"
Cuomo: "The Senate is also considering a $2 trillion bill, which is 'relief' for businesses, individuals, and governments. It would really be terrible for the State of New York. The $2 trillion bill, what does it mean for New York State government? It means $3.8 billion. ... This response to this virus has probably already cost us $1 billion. It will probably cost us several billion dollars when we're done. New York City only gets $1.3 billion from this package. That is a drop in the bucket as to need. I spoke to our House delegation, Congressional delegation. This morning I said to them, 'This doesn't do it'."
Cuomo: "Our closeness is what makes us special. It is also that closeness and that connection and that humanity and that sharing that is our greatest strength, and that is what is going to overcome at the end of the day. I promise you that. I can see how New Yorkers are responding. I can see how New Yorkers are treating one another. ... And that, my friends, is undefeatable."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that to date 40,000 healthcare workers, including retirees and students, have signed up to volunteer to work as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with more expected to sign up in the coming weeks. Additionally, more than 6,000 mental health professionals have signed up to provide free online mental health services. New Yorkers can call the state's hotline at 1-844-863-9314 to schedule a free appointment.
Governor Cuomo also announced New York City will pilot closing streets to vehicles and opening them to pedestrians as part of the city's plan to address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols. As part of the plan, the Governor is also enacting a voluntary playground social density protocol that prohibits close contact sports such as basketball.
The Governor also urged the federal government to implement a "rolling deployment" of equipment and personnel to address the critical needs of hotspot areas with high numbers of positive COVID-19 cases instead of providing limited quantities to the entire country at once. As part of the plan, the Governor has pledged to personally manage the deployment of supplies and equipment and technical assistance to the next hotspots around the country once New York State's number of hospitalizations begins to decrease.
The Governor also announced that the Four Seasons Hotel on 57th street in Manhattan is the first of several hotels that is providing their facility to serve as housing for nurses, doctors, and medical personnel during this crisis. The 350 room hotel will provide medical personnel currently working to respond to the coronavirus outbreak lodging free of charge.
At Governor Cuomo's direction, the Public Service Commission today approved orders postponing rate increases for nearly 2 million customers of New York American Water and National Grid upstate that were scheduled to go into effect on April 1st. This will provide relief to families and businesses affected by COVID-19. NYAW's increase will now go into effect in September and National Grid upstate's will go into effect in July. These are the only major utilities in New York State that were due to increase their rates on April 1. The Department of Public Service is asking other utilities to consider postponing rate increases, depending on continued movement reductions due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 5,146 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 30,811 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 30,811 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
152
6
Allegany
2
0
Broome
11
2
Cayuga
2
0
Chautauqua
1
1
Chemung
1
0
Chenango
3
0
Clinton
10
2
Columbia
12
1
Cortland
2
0
Delaware
5
2
Dutchess
153
29
Erie
122
15
Essex
4
1
Franklin
1
1
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
2
1
Greene
4
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
5
1
Jefferson
2
0
Livingston
3
0
Madison
7
2
Monroe
118
22
Montgomery
4
1
Nassau
3285
416
Niagara
12
1
NYC
17856
2952
Oneida
9
1
Onondaga
65
5
Ontario
9
2
Orange
638
140
Orleans
2
0
Oswego
2
0
Otsego
2
1
Putnam
84
17
Rensselaer
31
1
Rockland
968
297
Saratoga
64
4
Schenectady
55
9
Schoharie
2
1
St. Lawrence
1
0
Steuben
8
3
Suffolk
2260
380
Sullivan
39
9
Tioga
1
0
Tompkins
16
0
Ulster
65
18
Warren
2
0
Washington
4
1
Wayne
7
1
Westchester
4691
800
Wyoming
4
0
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Thank you for being here today.
I think you know everyone who is here. Let me start to my far right: Gareth Rhodes who is the Deputy Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services - he's working with me for a long time from the Attorney General's Office and he's part of our swat team; we have James Malatras, President of Empire College; Dr. Howard Zucker, Health Commissioner; Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor; Robert Mujica, Budget Director.
We have a lot of interesting news today. Things are moving. Current status, we still have the trajectory going up. We have not turned the trajectory nor have we hit the apex. Remember what that line is going to do. It's going to go up, it's going to reach a high point, it's going to tip, it's going to go back down. We're still on the way up the mountain.
Number of infections that have been coming in, 80 percent still self-resolve but 15 percent of the people who test positive require hospitalization. And then there are degrees of hospitalization. But the total universe that requires hospitalization is 15 percent.
We use projection models. We have Cornell Weill which is a great medical institution that does projection models. We use McKinsey that does projection models. The Department of Health does projection models. The projection models are important because they are projecting the possible projector and projecting the possible need, so we're planning for need and the projection models do that. The projection models are just that. They are models of projections. They're not necessarily definitive but it's the only device that we have to plan. Follow the data, follow the data, follow the data. The actual hospitalizations have moved at a higher rate than the projected models, than all the projected models, so that was obviously concerning because that higher infection rate means faster, higher capacity than the hospitals and that's the critical point for us, is the number of people going to hospitals.
Right now what we're looking at is about 140,000 cases coming into the hospitals. The hospital capacity is 53,000 beds. That's a problem. We're looking at about 40,000 ICU cases coming into the hospitals. We have about 3,000 ICU beds. That's a challenge. What is an ICU bed for these purposes? It's basically a bed with ventilator. The ventilator is the most critical piece of equipment for an intensive-care unit bed because this is a respiratory illness and people need more ventilation than usual.
What do we want to do? Reduce the number of cases coming into the hospitals, slow the number of cases coming into the hospitals - that's what Dr. Fauci is talking about on TV every day. Flatten the curve, flatten the curve, flatten the curve. Slow the number of people coming into hospitals so we can deal with them in the hospitals and we are working on that.
At the same time, increase your hospital capacity. Try to slow the number of cases coming into the hospital, meanwhile raise your hospital capacity. We are working on both simultaneously. We have been from day one. Reduce the number of cases coming in, flatten the curve, slow the spread of the infection - we are doing everything we can on that. That's banning non-essential workers, that's social distancing, that's closing restaurants, closing gyms, just flatten the curve, slow the infection rate.
One issue we had was in New York City where we had a higher level of density than we wanted - especially in the New York City parks, especially with young people. I've been as direct as I can and as blunt as I can on young people and the misinformation that they have. You can catch the coronavirus. You may think you are a superhero. You're really not. You can catch it and you can transfer it which makes you dangerous to the people who you love. But the New York City parks have been a problem. I saw the problem. I saw firsthand, I spoke to Mayor de Blasio, I spoke to Speaker Johnson. We said come up with a plan in 24 hours that everybody agreed with. They came up with a plan. We're now implementing that plan. I signed off on that plan. The plan is going to pilot closing streets in New York City because we have much less traffic in New York City. We have many fewer vehicles in New York City. Open streets. People want to walk. They want to go out and get some air. They want a less dense area, so pilot closing streets to cars, opening streets to pedestrians.
We'll also enact mandatory playgrounds social density - that's probably a new concept - no close contact sports in a playground. No basketball, for example. You cannot do it. We are asking people to do that on a voluntary basis. If there is non-compliance with that, we will then make it mandatory and we will actually close the playgrounds. We don't want to do that because playgrounds are a place to get open air, but you have to exercise social density even in a playground. Again, it's voluntary. The Mayor is going to make it clear that this is important to the people of the city. If it doesn't happen we will actually close down the playgrounds. I don't want to do that, but we do need to reduce the spread of the infection and that is what is most important.
This is very interesting, because the evidence suggests that the density control measures may be working and again, we're doing this from projections. But look at this because it's interesting: This past Sunday, the projection was that hospitalizations were doubling every two days. On Monday, the numbers suggested that the hospitalizations were doubling were doubling every 3.4 days. On Tuesday, the projections suggested that the hospitalizations were doubling every 4.7 days. Now, that is almost too good to be true, but the theory is given the density that we're dealing with, it spreads very quickly but if you reduce the density you can reduce the spread very quickly.
So these projections - I've watched them bounce all over the place and I don't place a great deal of stock in any one projection - all due respect to all the great academics and statisticians who are doing it. But this is a very good sign and a positive sign. Again, I'm not 100 percent sure it holds or is accurate, but the arrows are headed in the right direction and that is always better than the arrows headed in the wrong direction. So to the extent people say boy these are burdensome requirements, social distancing, no restaurants, no non-essential workers - yes, they are burdensome. By the way, they are effective and they're necessary and the evidence suggests, at this point, that they have slowed the hospitalizations. This is everything. Slowing the hospitalization rates coming in to hospitals are everything so the hospitals can deal with the rate of people coming in.
At the same time, increase hospital capacity. What is the high point? You see that line in the beginning. What we're studying is what is the high point of that line. What is the apex of that line? That is the point of the greatest number of people coming into the hospital system. So that's our greatest load is the apex and when is that going to happen. Again, that is a projection. Again, that moves around. But the current projection is that could be in 21 days. So, ramp up the hospital capacity to be able to handle that apex volume. How do you ramp up hospital capacity? You ramp up beds, you ramp up staffing and you ramp up the equipment and the ventilators are the problem in equipment as we discussed many times.
Where are we on that? Beds, we may need 140,000. We have 53,000 - that's the existing capacity of hospitals. We've told all hospitals they have to increase their capacity by 50 percent. I told them that myself on a conference call yesterday. This is a burden for the hospitals to now say you have to increase capacity 50 percent. But I have to tell you, they were very generous about it and they understood what we were dealing with and they were eager to step up to the plate. If you increase hospital capacity by 50 percent that gets you 27,000 beds on top of the existing, that takes you to 80,000. Some hospitals, I asked as a goal, try to increase by 100 percent your capacity. Fifty percent was the minimum. The goal was 100. I believe some hospitals will actually try to do that and I encourage them to try to do that as impossible as it sounds. But now is the time to be aggressive and do things you've never done before. If some of them do that, and I believe some of them will, that would be an additional 5,000 beds. We would get to 85,000 beds.
FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers, what we're doing in Javits Center, what we're doing in the Westchester Convention Center; Westbury campus, Stony Brook campus - that's another 4,000, takes us to 89,000. The US Navy ship Comfort, the President dispatched, that would be 1,000 beds to backfill from hotels that takes you to 90,000. If we take all the state dormitories in downstate New York, that could take us to an additional 29,000 beds. We'd be at 119,000 beds. You're still not at the 140,000 that you need but then we're looking at hotels, we're looking at former nursing homes, converting other facilities to make up the differential. So, a lot, creative, aggressive, but in life you do what you have to do.
And that's what we're doing on the bed capacity. Protective equipment, we have been shopping around the world, we have a whole team that's doing it. Right now, we have enough protective equipment, gloves, masks, gowns, for all the hospitals statewide that are dealing with it. I put down a shipment into New York City yesterday. Today, no hospital, no nurse, no doctor can say, legitimately, I don't have protective equipment. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, we have a supply. We do not yet have secured a supply for three weeks from now, four weeks from now, five weeks from now. But we are still shopping and taking care of this immediate need was also good news, and a good job by the team.
And again, we are still shopping for more equipment. Ventilators, ventilators, ventilators. We need 30,000. We have, in the existing hospital system, 4,000 ventilators. This is just in the normal operation of hospitals, et cetera. We have purchased. 7,000 and we are still shopping. Federal government has sent 4,000. We're exploring splitting, where one ventilator could do two patients. Italy has had to do this because they were forced to do it. I want to see if we can study it and do it a little smarter, and have a little more time experimenting with it, but we're looking at splitting the ventilators. We're still working with the federal government to try to find more ventilators, but that is our single greatest challenge, are the ventilators. Again, the ICU beds, that really means a ventilated bed. Because again, this is the number one piece of equipment that we need.
You have beds, you have equipment, you need staff and you need staff understanding that some staff it going to get sick. And they're going to be out, so we have been working on putting together a surge healthcare force. Go back to the retirees, go back to nurses and doctors who may not be in the hospital direct medical care occupation, and ask them to sign up for possible reserve duty. God bless them, 40,000 people have signed up as a surge healthcare force. 2,000 physicians, anesthesiologists, emergency room technicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse anesthetists, respiratory, RNs, LPNs. 40,000 people have signed up. That's a big, big deal because you can create beds, you find the equipment, you have to have the staff. And you have to have the staff for those additional beds, which is not now in the hospital system. And you have to have staff when the existing staff gets ill. Or, by the way, just can't work the hours that we're going to need people to be working. So that's very good.
This is also very exciting. I don't know that anyone else has done this. We've talked about the emotional stress that this brings on people. And the mental health stress, and mental health challenges. No one's really talking about this. You know, we're all concerned about the immediate critical need. The life and death of the immediate situation, which is right. But don't underestimate the emotional trauma that people are feeling, and the emotional health issues.
We asked for mental health professionals to voluntarily sign up to provide online mental health services. Six thousand mental health professionals agreed to volunteer to provide mental health services for people who need it. How beautiful is that?
And the hotline, 1-844-863-9314, you can call that hotline, you can schedule an appointment with a mental health professional totally free, to talk to them about what you're feeling and what stress you're feeling. And again, God bless the 6,000 mental health professionals who are doing this 100 percent free, on top of whatever they have to do in their normal practice. And I'm sure in their normal practice, they're busy. So this is really an extraordinary, extraordinary step by them.
Federal government, I spoke with president Trump several times. I spoke with him last night. I spoke with him this morning. I've spoken to people in the white house who are handling these operations. I've spoken with the vice president. I've spoken with Jared Kushner, who is a New Yorker, he knows New York, and he's working in the White House, and he's been extraordinarily helpful on all of these situations. What we're working on is a common challenge. No one has these ventilators, and no one ever anticipated a situation where you would need this number of ventilators to deal with a public health emergency. So we have purchased everything that can be purchased. We're now in a situation that we're trying to accelerate production of these ventilators, and a ventilator is a complicated piece of equipment. The president and his team I think are using the DPA well because it's basically a leverage tool when you're dealing with private companies, right? We need your help, we can demand your help, or you could agree to help, and we need you to step up and increase production. Even with that, there's a ramp up time for a company to put together the supply chain, put together the workforce, and get these things up and running. So, for you here's going to help. General Motors is going to help. The problem is our timeline is so short, we're looking at an apex 21 days in that range. To get ventilators and these business consortiums put together, supply chain, design team, ramped up and delivered 30,000 ventilators is an extraordinarily difficult task. It's something that our team is working on with the White House team and I want to thank the president for his cooperation. And his team for their cooperation. We're getting very creative, we're talking to countries around the world as well as new companies that could do production.
We're also talking to the White House about another concept. New York has the greatest need in terms of numbers. New York also has the most critical need in terms of timing, right? We talk about our apex, we talk about that curve. Different localities, different regions around the country, are going to have different curves. We are, in some ways, first. Our case numbers went up first. Our trajectory is first. By a long shot. Different regions will have their curve at different times. What I said to the president and his team was, look, rather than saying we have to provide equipment for the entire country at one time, let's talk about addressing the critical need in that hotspot once that hotspot turns - because you have an apex and then you have a curve, and the curve is relatively short - once you address that hotspot with that intensity, intense equipment, intense personnel, then shift to the next hotspot. Have more of a rolling deployment across the country than a static deployment, right? I was in the federal government at HUD. I worked on dozens of disasters. You deal with the disaster in front of you at that time and then you move on to the next disaster. And I think that rolling deployment could work here and on behalf of New York, I said we will be 100% helpful. We need help from the entire country right now. We need resources from the entire country right now. And because our apex is first and our numbers are highest, but the apex high point will be sequential across the country. So, I said to the White House, send us the equipment that we need, send us the personnel, as soon as we get past our critical moment, we will redeploy that equipment and personnel to the next hotspot. And I will personally guarantee it and personally manage it. So if you send us 15,000 ventilators and then after our curve, Los Angeles needs 15,000 ventilators, we can take the equipment from here, we can take the personnel from here, we can take the lessons from here. You know, we go first, we're going to learn things that nobody else has learned because we're going to be the first one through the shoe. And I personally guarantee that we will bring that equipment, we will bring that personnel, we'll bring that technical assistance. I said to the president, I'll be part of going to the next hotspot with out team. We're asking the country to help us, we will return the favor. And we are all in this together and we're asking for their help and their consideration and we will repay it with dividends.
The Senate is also considering a $2 trillion bill, which is 'relief' for businesses, individuals, and governments. It would really be terrible for the State of New York. The $2 trillion bill, what does it mean for New York State government? It means $3.8 billion. $3.8 billion dollars sounds like a lot of money. Rob Mujica, the Budget Director, can talk you through the numbers, but we're looking at a shortfall, a revenue shortfall, of 9, 10, $15 billion dollars. This response to this virus has probably already cost us $1 billion. It will probably cost us several billion dollars when we're done. New York City only gets $1.3 billion from this package. That is a drop in the bucket as to need. I spoke to our House delegation, Congressional delegation. This morning I said to them, 'This doesn't do it'. You know, I understand the Senate theory and the Republican theory, but we need the House to make adjustments. In the House bill that went over New York State got $17 billion. In the Senate bill we get $3.8 billion.
Well you're just big spending. We're not a big spending state. I cut taxes every year. The lowest growth rate of the state budget in modern political history. Okay. So, we are frugal and we are efficient. I am telling you these numbers don't work and I told the House members that we really need their help.
In terms of numbers, total tested we're up 103,000 people. New tests we're up to 12,000. As of yesterday about 28 percent of all testing nationwide has been performed by State of New York. The State of New York is doing more testing than any state in the United States America and I'm very proud of the team on how we're mobilized and got this testing up and running. People ask, "How does the testing work?" Any hospital in the state can perform testing. You can walk into a hospital in Buffalo, New York. If you show the symptoms and meet the protocol you can be tested. Strategically, we deploy testing in the most dense areas. Where we set up the drive-throughs, etcetera, why? Because we're hunting positives. We're hunting positives so we can isolate them and reduce the spread. You're more likely to get positives in a high positive areas. Right? Setup a drive-through in the Bronx versus set up a drive-thru in Chautauqua county. You're going to get more positives in the Bronx. And that's what we want, but anyone anywhere in the state, you have symptoms, you're concerned, you can walk into any hospital and that hospital can get a test performed.
Number of positive cases, we're up to 30,000. Number of new cases 5,000. Again, you see the numbers, 17,000 New York City, 4,000 in Westchester, 3,000 in Nassau County.
Relatively in Westchester we have dramatically slowed what was an exponential increase. So again, the good news side, can you slow the rate of infection? Yes. How do you know? Look at what we did in Westchester. That was the hottest cluster in the United States of America. We closed the schools. We closed gatherings. We brought in testing and we have dramatically slowed the increase.
Nassau County is 3,000. They're relatively right behind Westchester. They were at like zero when Westchester had started. We can slow it and have slowed it.
Again you see it spreading across the state. Current numbers, 30,000 tested positive. 12 percent of those who test positive are hospitalized. Three percent of the positives are in ICU. Okay. This is deep breath time again. I am anxious, I'm nervous, what does it mean. 30,000 tested positive. 12 percent are in the hospital. Three percent are in ICU. If you look at those three percent. They're going to be predominantly senior citizens, people with underlying illnesses, people with emphysema, people with a compromised immune system. That's what this effort is all about. All the noise, all the energy, its about that three percent.
Take a deep breath. Now, that three percent. That's my mother, that's your mother, that's your sister. These are people we love. These are our grandparents. And we're going to do everything we can to protect every one of them. And I give the people of the state of New York my word that we're doing it. But we talking about three percent of the people who tested positive and tested positive who we're worrying about.
Most impacted states, we're 30,000. Next closest state is New Jersey at three, California two. This a really dramatic differential. This is what I argue to anyone who will listen. We have ten times the problem that the next state has, which is New Jersey. You compare us to California, which is larger in terms of population. We have 15 times the problem. Now you have to ask yourself, why. Why does New York have such a high number? And again in the totality, we understand what it means. But why does New York have such a high number? This is my personal opinion. I like to make sure that I separate facts from personal opinion. The facts I give you are the best facts I have. And again, the data changes day to day, but I give you exactly what I have on a day-to-day basis. Personal opinion, why does New York have so many more cases than any other state? How can it be? You're 15 times the number of California. I mean, really is breathtaking when you think about it. State of Massachusetts, with 30 times the number of cases. So why is the question that people ask me.
Two answers. Answer one is because we welcome people from across the globe. We have people coming here, we have people who came here from china, who came here from Italy, who came here from countries all around the globe. We have international travelers who were in China and who were in Italy and who were in Korea and who came here. And I have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than we even know. And I have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than it was in any other state. Because those people come here first. That's the first answer.
The second answer is, because we are close. Because we are close. We talk about the virus and how it transfers in a dense area. It's literally because we are close, because we live close to one another, because we're close to one another on the street, because we live in close communities, because we're close to one another on the bus. We're close to one another in the restaurant. We're close to one another in the movie theater. And we have one of the most dense, close environments in the country. And that's why the virus communicated the way it did. Our closeness makes us vulnerable. Our closeness makes us vulnerable. That spatial closeness makes us vulnerable. But it's true that your greatest weakness is also your greatest strength. And our closeness is what makes us who we are. That is what New York is. Our closeness is what makes us special. Our acceptance, our openness is what makes us special. It's what makes us feel so connected one to another. It's what makes us so accepting of one another. It is the closeness that makes us the human beings that we are. The closeness is that New York humanity that I think exists nowhere else. The closeness is what makes our sense of community.
And there's a gentleman who I still look to for guidance and for leadership and for inspiration. He's not here anymore for you. He's still here for me. But he said things more from profound and more beautifully than most other people ever have. And one of the things he said that is so appropriate for today: "We believe in a single fundamental idea that describes better than most textbooks and any speech that I could write what a proper government should be: The idea of family, mutuality, the sharing of benefits and burdens for the good of all, feeling one another's pain, sharing one another's blessings -- reasonably, honestly, fairly, without respect to race or sex or geography or political affiliation." That is New York. It is that closeness, that concept of family, of community. That's what makes New York, "New York." And that's what made us vulnerable here. But it is also that closeness and that connection and that humanity and that sharing that is our greatest strength, and that is what is going to overcome at the end of the day. I promise you that. I can see how New Yorkers are responding. I can see how New Yorkers are treating one another. I see the 6,000 mental health volunteers. I see the 40,000 health care workers stepping up. I see the vendors calling me, saying, "I can help." That's New York. That's New York. And that, my friends, is undefeatable. And I am glad in some ways that we're first with this situation, because we will overcome and we will show the other communities across this country how to do it. We'll be there for them. We want them to be there for us. And we will be there for each other, as we always have been.
March 25, 2020.
Statement from Communications Director Dani Lever on Senate Stimulus Bill. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/statement-communications-director-dani-lever-senate-stimulus-bill
"The Governor suggested today that the Senate bill is "terrible" for New York State. Here are the facts that justify that assertion.
"Based on initial reports, New York State government gets approximately $3.1 billion. As a percent of our total state budget -- 1.9% -- it is the second lowest amount in the nation. Literally 48 states get a higher percentage in funding than New York State. For example, South Dakota gets 17.9%.
"This is despite the fact that New York State is incurring the greatest costs as we have the highest number of cases in the country. New York State has 30 times the number of cases as Texas's 1,031. The gross political manipulation is obvious. For example, Wyoming, which only has 40 confirmed COVID-19 cases, is getting 17.1 percent of their budget as a payment from the federal government.
"Compounding this inequity is the fact that New York State contributes more to the federal government than any other state in the nation. It is just another case of politics over sound policy."
March 26, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo, amid Coronavirus Pandemic: 'During This Difficult Time Let's Listen to the Voices of Our Better Angels'. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-during-difficult
Governor Cuomo: "We're going to get through this. The only question is how we get through it and when we get through it. But let's make sure at the end of the day that we can say we are the better for it and our children are the better for it - and I believe they will be."
Cuomo: "This is going to be transformative and formative for society. You think about our children. I have my daughters here with me. This is the first time they faced a real national adversity. You have a whole new generation who have never lived through anything like this. They never went to war. They were never drafted. They never went through a national crisis and this is going to shape them ... at the end of the day they're going to be better people for it and they're going be better citizens for it. I believe that because they're rising to the occasion."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo called on New Yorkers to adhere to their better angels as their fight against coronavirus is projected to continue for several weeks, noting it's these difficult times that call on us to rise to the occasion and forge character.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
This is a life moment. It's a moment in the life of this country. It's a moment in the life of the world. It's a moment in our family lives. It's a moment for each of us. Each of us is dealing with it in our own way, and my observation has been that when the pressure is on, is when you really see what people are made of, in a personal relationship in a business relationship.
You know, people can be great when everything is great. The question is what does a person do when things aren't great and what does a person do when the pressure is on them? And that's when you can see a little crack in the foundation of a person. But when the pressure is on that little crack, that little crack can explode and that foundation can crumble. Or, you can see the exact opposite. You can see them get stronger. But you get to see what they're really made of and you get to see the best. You get to see the worst. You get to see the beauty in people. And you get to see the opposite.
The outpouring of support for the people of New York has been so inspiring. Not just from New Yorkers. I'm telling you from across the country, from across the world. You would be amazed at how many phone calls we get. How many offers of support. How many creative ideas from everyone.
We've asked medical staff to volunteer. Retired medical staff who are no longer practicing. 40,000 had volunteered. We now have 12,000 people in one day volunteering to helping on the medical staff. We asked mental health professionals to come forward to volunteer. To offer free mental health services for people who are dealing with the stress and trauma of this situation. We had 6,000 people. We now have 8,600 people. We're getting mental health professionals from other states calling up and saying they'll provide mental health services electronically, through Skype or over the telephone.
It gives me such strength and such inspiration. But I don't want to sugarcoat the situation. The situation is not easy, but easy times don't forge character. It's the tough times that forge character, and that's what we're looking at right now. People say to me, people are getting tired of this situation. They've been home, its going on a couple of weeks. They're getting tired. Well, the truth is this is not a sprint. This is a marathon. We always said, this is not going to be over quickly. I understand people are tired, but I also understand that people in this situation are really stepping up to the plate and are doing phenomenal work.
So the next time you feel tired and believe me I feel tired, but when I feel tired I think of the first responders who are out there every day showing up. I think of the police officers, of the fire fighters who are up there every day, the grocery store workers who are working double shifts just to keep food on the shelves because people are buying so much food because they're nervous; the pharmacists who have lines going out the door and they're showing up every day, day after day; the transportation workers who don't have the luxury of feeling tired because they have to get up and they have to drive the bus so the nurses in the health care professionals can get to work; and those health care professionals who are dealing with a virus that they didn't even understand - they still don't understand. They're there working, many of them seven days a week.
So yes we're tired but look at what others among us have to do in the challenge they're under and how they are stepping up. And who am I to complain about being tired when so many people are doing such heroic efforts?
I also think this is going to be transformative and formative for society. You think about our children. I have my daughters here with me. This is the first time they faced a real national adversity. You have a whole new generation who have never lived through anything like this. They never went to war. They were never drafted. They never went through a national crisis and this is going to shape them and I can tell you just from having my daughters with me. Yeah, they're hurt, they're scared, but they are also learning through this and at the end of the day they're going to be better people for it and they're going be better citizens for it. I believe that because they're rising to the occasion. As we go through this let's make sure that we're teaching them the right lessons and the right response and those lesson and that response are the lessons that we get from our better angels.
During this difficult time let's listen to the voices of our better angels as individuals, as families, as a community, and as a society. We're going to get through this. The only question is how we get through it and when we get through it. But let's make sure at the end of the day that we can say we are the better for it and our children are the better for it - and I believe they will be.
March 26, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces State Is Scouting New Sites for Temporary Hospitals Downstate. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-state-scouting-new-sites-temporary
Goal of Having a 1,000-Plus Patient Overflow Facility in Each NYC Borough and Downstate Counties
An Additional 12,000 Health Professionals Have Signed up to Volunteer as Part of the State's Surge Healthcare Force Since Yesterday - Bringing Total Number of Volunteers to More than 52,000
More Than 8,600 Mental Health Professionals Have Now Signed Up to Provide Free Online Mental Health Services
Confirms 6,448 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 37,258; New Cases in 39 Counties
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the state is scouting additional new sites for temporary hospitals, with a goal of having a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in each NYC borough as well as Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties. These new additions, together with the temporary hospitals that are being built at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and locations at SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Old Westbury and the Westchester Convention Center, are aimed at building thousands of new beds to bolster existing hospital capacity, with the goal of being open to patients in early- to mid-April. The state is also preparing college dormitories and hotels for emergency beds.
The Governor also announced that an additional 12,000 healthcare workers, including retirees and students, have signed up to volunteer to work as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of volunteers to more than 52,000. Additionally, more than 8,600 mental health professionals, including individuals from other states, have now signed up to provide free online mental health services. New Yorkers can call the state's hotline at 1-844-863-9314 to schedule a free appointment.
This situation is not easy, but easy times don't forge character - hard times do - and we will get through this together and be better and stronger people for it.
Governor Cuomo
"We know at this point that any scenario will overwhelm the capacity of our healthcare system and we are continuing to work aggressively to increase our state's hospital capacity and flatten the curve," Governor Cuomo said. "Our top priority is finding more beds for patients and getting the ventilators we need to ensure our most vulnerable patients are being treated properly, and we are actively scouting new locations for temporary hospital sites. This situation is not easy, but easy times don't forge character -- hard times do - and we will get through this together and be better and stronger people for it."
The additional hospital sites being scouted include CUNY College of Staten Island, Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, Aqueduct Race Track, and the New York Expo Center.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 6,448 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 37,258 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 37,258 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
171
19
Allegany
2
0
Broome
16
5
Cayuga
2
0
Chautauqua
1
0
Chemung
7
6
Chenango
3
0
Clinton
11
1
Columbia
13
1
Cortland
2
0
Delaware
7
2
Dutchess
190
37
Erie
134
12
Essex
4
0
Franklin
1
0
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
4
2
Greene
5
1
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
7
2
Jefferson
3
1
Livingston
3
0
Madison
9
2
Monroe
139
21
Montgomery
5
1
Nassau
3914
629
Niagara
14
2
NYC
21393
3537
Oneida
13
4
Onondaga
83
18
Ontario
11
2
Orange
751
113
Orleans
2
0
Oswego
4
2
Otsego
3
1
Putnam
94
11
Rensselaer
32
1
Rockland
1197
229
Saratoga
73
9
Schenectady
62
7
Schoharie
2
0
St. Lawrence
2
1
Steuben
11
3
Suffolk
2735
475
Sullivan
53
14
Tioga
2
1
Tompkins
22
6
Ulster
78
13
Warren
2
0
Washington
4
0
Wayne
8
1
Westchester
5944
1253
Wyoming
7
3
March 26, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces State is Scouting New Sites for Temporary Hospitals Downstate. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-3
Goal of Having a 1,000-Plus Patient Overflow Facility in Each NYC Borough and Downstate Counties
An Additional 12,000 Health Professionals Have Signed up to Volunteer as Part of the State's Surge Healthcare Force Since Yesterday - Bringing Total Number of Volunteers to More than 52,000
More Than 8,600 Mental Health Professionals Have Now Signed Up to Provide Free Online Mental Health Services
Confirms 6,448 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 37,258; New Cases in 39 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "Our goal is to have a 1,000-plus overflow facility in each of the boroughs downstate in the counties, Queens, Brooklyn, the New York City boroughs, Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester and Rockland, so every county has a 1000-plus-bed overflow facility and that's what we're working on at the same time, as well as increasing the capacity of the existing hospital system."
Cuomo: "During this difficult time let's listen to the voices of our better angels as individuals, as families, as a community, and as a society. We're going to get through this. The only question is how we get through it and when we get through it. But let's make sure at the end of the day that we can say we are the better for it and our children are the better for it - and I believe they will be."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the state is scouting additional new sites for temporary hospitals, with a goal of having a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in each NYC borough as well as Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties. These new additions, together with the temporary hospitals that are being built at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and locations at SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Old Westbury and the Westchester Convention Center, are aimed at building thousands of new beds to bolster existing hospital capacity, with the goal of being open to patients in early- to mid-April. The state is also preparing college dormitories and hotels for emergency beds.
The Governor also announced that an additional 12,000 healthcare workers, including retirees and students, have signed up to volunteer to work as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of volunteers to more than 52,000. Additionally, more than 8,600 mental health professionals, including individuals from other states, have now signed up to provide free online mental health services. New Yorkers can call the state's hotline at 1-844-863-9314 to schedule a free appointment.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 6,448 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 37,258 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 37,258 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
171
19
Allegany
2
0
Broome
16
5
Cayuga
2
0
Chautauqua
1
0
Chemung
7
6
Chenango
3
0
Clinton
11
1
Columbia
13
1
Cortland
2
0
Delaware
7
2
Dutchess
190
37
Erie
134
12
Essex
4
0
Franklin
1
0
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
4
2
Greene
5
1
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
7
2
Jefferson
3
1
Livingston
3
0
Madison
9
2
Monroe
139
21
Montgomery
5
1
Nassau
3914
629
Niagara
14
2
NYC
21393
3537
Oneida
13
4
Onondaga
83
18
Ontario
11
2
Orange
751
113
Orleans
2
0
Oswego
4
2
Otsego
3
1
Putnam
94
11
Rensselaer
32
1
Rockland
1197
229
Saratoga
73
9
Schenectady
62
7
Schoharie
2
0
St. Lawrence
2
1
Steuben
11
3
Suffolk
2735
475
Sullivan
53
14
Tioga
2
1
Tompkins
22
6
Ulster
78
13
Warren
2
0
Washington
4
0
Wayne
8
1
Westchester
5944
1253
Wyoming
7
3
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Top of the morning to you. The people with us today, to my right is James Malatras, President of the SUNY Empire College, to my left Melissa DeRosa, to her left, Robert Mujica, Budget Director, back of the room, my daughter Cara who is doing a great job.
Let's talk about what's going on today. First, what I try to communicate in these briefings are the facts of the situation. Facts can be uplifting, they can be depressing at times, they can be confusing at times, but I think facts are empowering. You know, in a situation like this, not knowing the facts is worse because that's when feel out of control or when you feel that you're getting selective facts, or you're being deceived by the information you're getting. That is actually the worst situation. So what I say to my people in every situation, just give me the facts first and then let me understand what the situation and the reality is and then we'll go from there, so that's what I try to do.
The facts on this situation are increasingly important on two levels: public health but also the economic facts. We've been focusing on the public health facts and the response of the public health system to the virus. More and more we now have to deal on two fronts. We have to deal with the public health situation but we also have to deal with the economic situation and I'll get to that in a moment.
Public health, we've had a two-prong agenda which we've been pursuing aggressively. We still are flatten the curve so you reduce the flow into the hospital system. At the same time increase the hospital capacity. What we're looking for is not a reduction in the number of cases. We're looking for a reduction in the rate of the increase in the number of cases. That's what comes first when you're starting to make progress. The rate of increase should reduce, as opposed to the number of absolute cases. So that's what we're looking for.
The optimum is when they talk about the apex of the curve is not to have an apex and that's what the flattening is, not to have that spike because the spike is where you would overwhelm the hospital systems that try to get down that rate of increase so you can actually handle it in the hospital system and that's what they talk about by the flattening of the curve.
Just as an aside, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been so kind and helpful to me. I speak to healthcare professionals all across the globe literally but Dr. Fauci I think is just brilliant at this and he has been so personally kind. I called him late at night. I called him in the middle of the night. I called him in the morning and he's been really a friend to me personally and the State of New York.
So this is all about getting that curve down and not overwhelming the hospital system. Almost any scenario that is realistic will overwhelm the capacity of the current health care system so little reality - keep the curve down as low as you can but you cannot get fit curve down low enough so that you don't overwhelm the hospital capacity. So any of these scenarios we have to increase the hospital capacity and that's why we're literally adding to the hospital capacity everywhere we can. That's what the Javits hospital is about, that's what the Stony Brook hospital is about, that's what Westchester Convention Center, that's what the Old Westbury additional site is.
We're also scouting new sites now all across, primarily the downstate area of this state, for possible sites. Our goal is to have a 1,000-plus overflow facility in each of the boroughs downstate in the counties, Queens, Brooklyn, the New York City boroughs, Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester and Rockland, so every county has a 1000-plus-bed overflow facility and that's what we're working on at the same time, as well as increasing the capacity of the existing hospital system.
As we've said the hospitals have a 53,000-bed capacity. We're trying get to 140,000-bed capacity between the hospitals and the overflow facilities. We've mandated that the hospitals increased their capacity by 50 percent. We've asked them to try to increase it 100 percent but they have to increase it 50 percent. We're also scouting dorms, scouting hotels for emergency beds and that's going well.
Equipment and PPE is an ongoing issue. Right now we do have enough PPE for the immediate future. The New York City hospital system confirm that so we have enough in stock now for the immediate need. Ventilators, ventilators, ventilators. I didn't know what they were a few weeks ago besides the cursory knowledge. I know too much about ventilators now. We're still shopping for ventilators all across the country. We need more. We have approved the technology that allows one ventilator to serve two patients - what they call splitting. Which is when you add a second set of tubes to a ventilator to do two patients. It's not ideal, but we believe it's workable. We're also converting anesthesia machines to ventilators. We have a couple of thousand anesthesia machines in our hospitals and we're converting them to work as ventilators.
Why is there such a demand on ventilators? And where did this come from? It's a respiratory illness for a large number of people. So, they all need ventilators. Also, non-COVID patients are normally on ventilators for 3 to 4 days. COVID patients are on ventilators for 11 to 21 days. Think about that. So you don't have the same turnaround in the number of ventilators. If somebody is on ventilators for 3 or 4 days that's one level of ventilators you need. If somebody is on for 11 to 21 days, that's a totally different equation and that's what we're dealing with. The high number of COVID patients and the long period of time that they actually need a ventilator.
We're also working on equalizing and distributing the load of patients. Right now, the number of cases is highest in downstate New York. So we're working on a collaboration where we distribute the load between downstate hospitals and upstate hospitals. And we're also working on increasing the capacity for upstate hospitals.
Shifting now to a totally different field: the economic consequences of what's going on which have just really gelled after what the federal government has done and we were waiting for the federal action to determine where we were from a point of revenues and economics. What's happening to a state government - any state. It's happening to a city government, is a double whammy. You have increased expenses because of the COVID virus and you have a tremendous loss of revenue because all those businesses are closed and all those people are out of work. People are out of work, they're not earning income, they're not paying income tax. Businesses are closed, they're not making money, they're not paying business revenue.
So we're spending more to take care of the COVID virus and we're receiving less. In the middle of all this, we have to balance a budget. So how do you do a budget when you have expenses going out and a loss of revenue. We estimate the loss of revenue somewhere between $10-15 billion. Which all these number are hard to give a context. That is a ton of money for the State of New York's budget. We were waiting to see what the federal government did before we determined what we had to do because water flows downstream. If the federal government had taken an action that helped state government, city government, et cetera that would have put us in one situation. We now know what they've done. They passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill. They say maybe they'll come back and there will be another bill, but maybe maybe maybe. But we know what they did do with the stimulus bill.
The stimulus bill helped unemployment insurance and that is a good thing. It helped small businesses and that is a good thing. It did not help local governments or state governments and it did not address the governmental loss. And the federal officials, the ones who are being honest, will admit that. New York State receives $5 billion from the stimulus, New York State government. And it's earmarked only for COVID virus expenses. Which means it does absolutely nothing for us in terms of lost revenue to the state. The only thing it's doing is helping us on the COVID virus expenses, which is nice, but the bigger problem is on the lost revenues.
The congressional action, in my opinion, simply failed to address the governmental need. I spoke to all the officials involved. I spoke to our House delegation. I spoke to our Senators. And I believe what they did failed to meet the governmental need. I'm disappointed. I said I was disappointed. I find it irresponsible. I find it reckless. Emotion is a luxury and we don't have the luxury at this time of being emotional about what they did.
When this is over, I promise you, I'm going to give them a piece of my mind, but I would say to them today, this is an extraordinary time in this nation and it's an extraordinary time for government. This was the time to put politics aside in partisanship aside. This is the time for governmental leaders to stop making excuses and just do your job. Do your job. We are one nation. You know the places in this nation that have the most intense problems. Address the places that need the help, and this is not a time to fingers. This is not a time to make excuses. This is not a time to blame everyone else. We've lived with that in Washington for years. Now is the time to actually step up, do the right thing and do your job and they haven't as far as I'm concerned especially when it comes to the governmental need.
In any event, we have to do a budget and the budget is due April 1, so the only responsible course for us is number 1 we have to address this revenue loss. We know the revenues are down. We don't know how much we don't know when the economy comes back. We don't know the rate at which the economy comes back. And we don't know what Washington may do to address the situation in the future, if anything. So, you don't know, you don't know, you don't know and you don't know. But you have to do a budget with all those unknowns. Address them realistically. And how do you address them realistically? First, we're going to adjust down our revenue projections for the initial budget and then what we're going to do, which is something we've never done before, is we're going to adjust the budget through the years to reflect the actual revenue, meaning will say on day one, "Okay we intended to give you $100 we don't have $100 so we're going to give you $95. But I can only give you $95 if I get $95 and I let you know quarterly, whatever the period of time is how much money I'm getting and how much I can give you of the 95 and therefore you can plan accordingly." And that's frankly the only way that you can do this budget. When you have so many unknowns. So adjust the initial number down and then have periods through the course of the year where you say to school districts local governments et cetera, "This is how much we actually received. This is what the federal government did. This is what the federal government didn't do. The economy is coming back faster. The economy's coming back slower. But these are the actual numbers so you can adjust your budget accordingly."
On the public health numbers are testing numbers up again. We did 18,650 tests. This was just a massive mobilization, operational undertaking. We've never done it before you now have to set up all these drive-throughs, you have to set up all of these testing facilities and we're testing more than any state in the country. We're testing more per capita than South Korea. More per capita than China. It really is amazing what we're doing. And the testing is important. The testing is still helping you identify the positives and isolate the positives. The testing is not telling you how many people have the virus and. I think a lot of people conflate the two and that's a mistake. It's not even telling you the increase in the rate of infection. All it's telling you is your increasing the number of tests, and more test you do the more positives you will find and we're working very hard to increase the number of tests because we want to find the positives.
This is the really bad news. The number of deaths is increasing. It's bad news because people are dying. And that's the worst news you can have. It is not bad news in terms of it being unexpected. What's happening is people who were infected. Who came into the health care system have been on ventilators. The longer you are on a ventilator, the more probability of a bad outcome. We now have people who have been on a ventilator for 20 days, 30 days. The longer you are on a ventilator. The more likely you're not going to come off the ventilator and that is what is happening, because we do have people who have been on for quite a period of time. And those are the people who we are losing. That has always been the way the longer stays without recovery lead to a higher death rate, right? And that's not just COVID. That's any medical situation that you've dealt with. That is the natural consequence. When you have older sicker patients, who are staying on ventilators longer. They usually have a worse outcome, right? And I think people get that from their usual experience. What we're seeing now is that is happening. We've had people on a very long time, and they haven't gotten better, and they are passing away. So the number of deaths is at 385, it's up from 285, and since we still have a large number of people on ventilators for a long period of time, the experts expect that number to continue to increase, right, and we've said this from day one. You get the infection, 80 percent self-resolve, they don't go into the hospital. Some percentage going to the hospital, get treated, and go home. Some percentage go into the hospital, need a ventilator, they're on the ventilator, and they never come off the ventilator. And that is a situation where people just deteriorate over time. And that's what we're seeing. That is that vulnerable population, that very small percentage, two or three percent of the population who we've always worried about. But that's what we're seeing. And again, we expect it to increase because as time goes on, by definition we have more and more people on ventilators for a longer period of time.
Total number of people tested, 18,000. That's the break down. Number of positive cases, total 37,000, new cases, 6,400. The curve continues to go up. The spread across the state continues, which is also what we expected, just the way it spread all across the country. We now just have several counties that don't have a single case. The overall number, 37,000 tested positive, 5,000 people current hospital, 5,000. So this is the point, right. 37,000 tested positive. 5,000 currently hospitalized.
1,200 ICU patients, which is what we watch most carefully because those people need ventilators. 1,500 patients who were discharged after being hospitalized, okay. So not to be redundant but, people get sick. 80 percent of the people don't go into the hospital. They stay home. Some don't even stay home, they just self-resolve. Some people get sick and stay home. Some people check into the hospital. Now you're talking about 15 to 20 percent. Of that, a percentage get treated and leave. Of that, the smallest percentage get put on a ventilator. That's the 1,290 ICU patients. Some of those people on a ventilator get better and come off the ventilator. Some people don't get better, stay on the ventilator and when you're on the ventilator for a prolonged period of time the outcome is not positive. But, the percentage of people who wind up in that situation, it starts with the 1,290 ICU patients. Those are the people who are basically put on a ventilator. And that's of the 37,000 that tested positive, right. So we're talking about a very small population, they're put on a ventilator. Some recover, and some don't.
The most impacted states, New York is still number one. Louisiana is a quote unquote hot spot. It has a cluster that is growing and the people in Louisiana and in New Orleans are in our thoughts and prayers. We know what they're going through and we feel for them, and we pray for them, and we know the difficulty they're under, because of with dealing with the same type of situation. So our best to them. Any way we can help them, we stand ready. Again, total perspective is the Johns Hopkins count that has gone from day one. 487,000, 21,000 deaths worldwide.
My personal opinion, not facts, we give you the facts. My gratuitous two cents, which is probably worth a penny and a half.
This is a life moment. It's a moment in the life of this country. It's a moment in the life of the world. It's a moment in our family lives. It's a moment for each of us. Each of us is dealing with it in our own way, and my observation has been that when the pressure is on, is when you really see what people are made of, in a personal relationship in a business relationship.
You know, people can be great when everything is great. The question is what does a person do when things aren't great and what does a person do when the pressure is on them? And that's when you can see a little crack in the foundation of a person. But when the pressure is on that little crack, that little crack can explode and that foundation can crumble. Or, you can see the exact opposite. You can see them get stronger. But you get to see what they're really made of and you get to see the best. You get to see the worst. You get to see the beauty in people. And you get to see the opposite.
The outpouring of support for the people of New York has been so inspiring. Not just from New Yorkers. I'm telling you from across the country, from across the world. You would be amazed at how many phone calls we get. How many offers of support. How many creative ideas from everyone.
We've asked medical staff to volunteer. Retired medical staff who are no longer practicing. 40,000 had volunteered. We now have 12,000 people in one day volunteering to helping on the medical staff. We asked mental health professionals to come forward to volunteer. To offer free mental health services for people who are dealing with the stress and trauma of this situation. We had 6,000 people. We now have 8,600 people. We're getting mental health professionals from other states calling up and saying they'll provide mental health services electronically, through Skype or over the telephone.
It gives me such strength and such inspiration. But I don't want to sugarcoat the situation. The situation is not easy, but easy times don't forge character. It's the tough times that forge character, and that's what we're looking at right now. People say to me, people are getting tired of this situation. They've been home, its going on a couple of weeks. They're getting tired. Well, the truth is this is not a sprint. This is a marathon. We always said, this is not going to be over quickly. I understand people are tired, but I also understand that people in this situation are really stepping up to the plate and are doing phenomenal work.
So the next time you feel tired and believe me I feel tired, but when I feel tired I think of the first responders who are out there every day showing up. I think of the police officers, of the fire fighters who are up there every day, the grocery store workers who are working double shifts just to keep food on the shelves because people are buying so much food because they're nervous; the pharmacists who have lines going out the door and they're showing up every day, day after day; the transportation workers who don't have the luxury of feeling tired because they have to get up and they have to drive the bus so the nurses in the health care professionals can get to work; and those health care professionals who are dealing with a virus that they didn't even understand - they still don't understand. They're there working, many of them seven days a week.
So yes we're tired but look at what others among us have to do in the challenge they're under and how they are stepping up. And who am I to complain about being tired when so many people are doing such heroic efforts?
I also think this is going to be transformative and formative for society. You think about our children. I have my daughters here with me. This is the first time they faced a real national adversity. You have a whole new generation who have never lived through anything like this. They never went to war. They were never drafted. They never went through a national crisis and this is going to shape them and I can tell you just from having my daughters with me. Yeah, they're hurt, they're scared, but they are also learning through this and at the end of the day they're going to be better people for it and they're going be better citizens for it. I believe that because they're rising to the occasion. As we go through this let's make sure that we're teaching them the right lessons and the right response and those lesson and that response are the lessons that we get from our better angels.
During this difficult time let's listen to the voices of our better angels as individuals, as families, as a community, and as a society. We're going to get through this. The only question is how we get through it and when we get through it. But let's make sure at the end of the day that we can say we are the better for it and our children are the better for it - and I believe they will be.
March 26, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces State is Scouting New Sites for Temporary Hospitals Downstate. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-3
Goal of Having a 1,000-Plus Patient Overflow Facility in Each NYC Borough and Downstate Counties
An Additional 12,000 Health Professionals Have Signed up to Volunteer as Part of the State's Surge Healthcare Force Since Yesterday - Bringing Total Number of Volunteers to More than 52,000
More Than 8,600 Mental Health Professionals Have Now Signed Up to Provide Free Online Mental Health Services
Confirms 6,448 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 37,258; New Cases in 39 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "Our goal is to have a 1,000-plus overflow facility in each of the boroughs downstate in the counties, Queens, Brooklyn, the New York City boroughs, Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester and Rockland, so every county has a 1000-plus-bed overflow facility and that's what we're working on at the same time, as well as increasing the capacity of the existing hospital system."
Cuomo: "During this difficult time let's listen to the voices of our better angels as individuals, as families, as a community, and as a society. We're going to get through this. The only question is how we get through it and when we get through it. But let's make sure at the end of the day that we can say we are the better for it and our children are the better for it - and I believe they will be."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the state is scouting additional new sites for temporary hospitals, with a goal of having a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in each NYC borough as well as Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties. These new additions, together with the temporary hospitals that are being built at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and locations at SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Old Westbury and the Westchester Convention Center, are aimed at building thousands of new beds to bolster existing hospital capacity, with the goal of being open to patients in early- to mid-April. The state is also preparing college dormitories and hotels for emergency beds.
The Governor also announced that an additional 12,000 healthcare workers, including retirees and students, have signed up to volunteer to work as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of volunteers to more than 52,000. Additionally, more than 8,600 mental health professionals, including individuals from other states, have now signed up to provide free online mental health services. New Yorkers can call the state's hotline at 1-844-863-9314 to schedule a free appointment.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 6,448 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 37,258 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 37,258 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
171
19
Allegany
2
0
Broome
16
5
Cayuga
2
0
Chautauqua
1
0
Chemung
7
6
Chenango
3
0
Clinton
11
1
Columbia
13
1
Cortland
2
0
Delaware
7
2
Dutchess
190
37
Erie
134
12
Essex
4
0
Franklin
1
0
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
4
2
Greene
5
1
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
7
2
Jefferson
3
1
Livingston
3
0
Madison
9
2
Monroe
139
21
Montgomery
5
1
Nassau
3914
629
Niagara
14
2
NYC
21393
3537
Oneida
13
4
Onondaga
83
18
Ontario
11
2
Orange
751
113
Orleans
2
0
Oswego
4
2
Otsego
3
1
Putnam
94
11
Rensselaer
32
1
Rockland
1197
229
Saratoga
73
9
Schenectady
62
7
Schoharie
2
0
St. Lawrence
2
1
Steuben
11
3
Suffolk
2735
475
Sullivan
53
14
Tioga
2
1
Tompkins
22
6
Ulster
78
13
Warren
2
0
Washington
4
0
Wayne
8
1
Westchester
5944
1253
Wyoming
7
3
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. Top of the morning to you. The people with us today, to my right is James Malatras, President of the SUNY Empire College, to my left Melissa DeRosa, to her left, Robert Mujica, Budget Director, back of the room, my daughter Cara who is doing a great job.
Let's talk about what's going on today. First, what I try to communicate in these briefings are the facts of the situation. Facts can be uplifting, they can be depressing at times, they can be confusing at times, but I think facts are empowering. You know, in a situation like this, not knowing the facts is worse because that's when feel out of control or when you feel that you're getting selective facts, or you're being deceived by the information you're getting. That is actually the worst situation. So what I say to my people in every situation, just give me the facts first and then let me understand what the situation and the reality is and then we'll go from there, so that's what I try to do.
The facts on this situation are increasingly important on two levels: public health but also the economic facts. We've been focusing on the public health facts and the response of the public health system to the virus. More and more we now have to deal on two fronts. We have to deal with the public health situation but we also have to deal with the economic situation and I'll get to that in a moment.
Public health, we've had a two-prong agenda which we've been pursuing aggressively. We still are flatten the curve so you reduce the flow into the hospital system. At the same time increase the hospital capacity. What we're looking for is not a reduction in the number of cases. We're looking for a reduction in the rate of the increase in the number of cases. That's what comes first when you're starting to make progress. The rate of increase should reduce, as opposed to the number of absolute cases. So that's what we're looking for.
The optimum is when they talk about the apex of the curve is not to have an apex and that's what the flattening is, not to have that spike because the spike is where you would overwhelm the hospital systems that try to get down that rate of increase so you can actually handle it in the hospital system and that's what they talk about by the flattening of the curve.
Just as an aside, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been so kind and helpful to me. I speak to healthcare professionals all across the globe literally but Dr. Fauci I think is just brilliant at this and he has been so personally kind. I called him late at night. I called him in the middle of the night. I called him in the morning and he's been really a friend to me personally and the State of New York.
So this is all about getting that curve down and not overwhelming the hospital system. Almost any scenario that is realistic will overwhelm the capacity of the current health care system so little reality - keep the curve down as low as you can but you cannot get fit curve down low enough so that you don't overwhelm the hospital capacity. So any of these scenarios we have to increase the hospital capacity and that's why we're literally adding to the hospital capacity everywhere we can. That's what the Javits hospital is about, that's what the Stony Brook hospital is about, that's what Westchester Convention Center, that's what the Old Westbury additional site is.
We're also scouting new sites now all across, primarily the downstate area of this state, for possible sites. Our goal is to have a 1,000-plus overflow facility in each of the boroughs downstate in the counties, Queens, Brooklyn, the New York City boroughs, Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester and Rockland, so every county has a 1000-plus-bed overflow facility and that's what we're working on at the same time, as well as increasing the capacity of the existing hospital system.
As we've said the hospitals have a 53,000-bed capacity. We're trying get to 140,000-bed capacity between the hospitals and the overflow facilities. We've mandated that the hospitals increased their capacity by 50 percent. We've asked them to try to increase it 100 percent but they have to increase it 50 percent. We're also scouting dorms, scouting hotels for emergency beds and that's going well.
Equipment and PPE is an ongoing issue. Right now we do have enough PPE for the immediate future. The New York City hospital system confirm that so we have enough in stock now for the immediate need. Ventilators, ventilators, ventilators. I didn't know what they were a few weeks ago besides the cursory knowledge. I know too much about ventilators now. We're still shopping for ventilators all across the country. We need more. We have approved the technology that allows one ventilator to serve two patients - what they call splitting. Which is when you add a second set of tubes to a ventilator to do two patients. It's not ideal, but we believe it's workable. We're also converting anesthesia machines to ventilators. We have a couple of thousand anesthesia machines in our hospitals and we're converting them to work as ventilators.
Why is there such a demand on ventilators? And where did this come from? It's a respiratory illness for a large number of people. So, they all need ventilators. Also, non-COVID patients are normally on ventilators for 3 to 4 days. COVID patients are on ventilators for 11 to 21 days. Think about that. So you don't have the same turnaround in the number of ventilators. If somebody is on ventilators for 3 or 4 days that's one level of ventilators you need. If somebody is on for 11 to 21 days, that's a totally different equation and that's what we're dealing with. The high number of COVID patients and the long period of time that they actually need a ventilator.
We're also working on equalizing and distributing the load of patients. Right now, the number of cases is highest in downstate New York. So we're working on a collaboration where we distribute the load between downstate hospitals and upstate hospitals. And we're also working on increasing the capacity for upstate hospitals.
Shifting now to a totally different field: the economic consequences of what's going on which have just really gelled after what the federal government has done and we were waiting for the federal action to determine where we were from a point of revenues and economics. What's happening to a state government - any state. It's happening to a city government, is a double whammy. You have increased expenses because of the COVID virus and you have a tremendous loss of revenue because all those businesses are closed and all those people are out of work. People are out of work, they're not earning income, they're not paying income tax. Businesses are closed, they're not making money, they're not paying business revenue.
So we're spending more to take care of the COVID virus and we're receiving less. In the middle of all this, we have to balance a budget. So how do you do a budget when you have expenses going out and a loss of revenue. We estimate the loss of revenue somewhere between $10-15 billion. Which all these number are hard to give a context. That is a ton of money for the State of New York's budget. We were waiting to see what the federal government did before we determined what we had to do because water flows downstream. If the federal government had taken an action that helped state government, city government, et cetera that would have put us in one situation. We now know what they've done. They passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill. They say maybe they'll come back and there will be another bill, but maybe maybe maybe. But we know what they did do with the stimulus bill.
The stimulus bill helped unemployment insurance and that is a good thing. It helped small businesses and that is a good thing. It did not help local governments or state governments and it did not address the governmental loss. And the federal officials, the ones who are being honest, will admit that. New York State receives $5 billion from the stimulus, New York State government. And it's earmarked only for COVID virus expenses. Which means it does absolutely nothing for us in terms of lost revenue to the state. The only thing it's doing is helping us on the COVID virus expenses, which is nice, but the bigger problem is on the lost revenues.
The congressional action, in my opinion, simply failed to address the governmental need. I spoke to all the officials involved. I spoke to our House delegation. I spoke to our Senators. And I believe what they did failed to meet the governmental need. I'm disappointed. I said I was disappointed. I find it irresponsible. I find it reckless. Emotion is a luxury and we don't have the luxury at this time of being emotional about what they did.
When this is over, I promise you, I'm going to give them a piece of my mind, but I would say to them today, this is an extraordinary time in this nation and it's an extraordinary time for government. This was the time to put politics aside in partisanship aside. This is the time for governmental leaders to stop making excuses and just do your job. Do your job. We are one nation. You know the places in this nation that have the most intense problems. Address the places that need the help, and this is not a time to fingers. This is not a time to make excuses. This is not a time to blame everyone else. We've lived with that in Washington for years. Now is the time to actually step up, do the right thing and do your job and they haven't as far as I'm concerned especially when it comes to the governmental need.
In any event, we have to do a budget and the budget is due April 1, so the only responsible course for us is number 1 we have to address this revenue loss. We know the revenues are down. We don't know how much we don't know when the economy comes back. We don't know the rate at which the economy comes back. And we don't know what Washington may do to address the situation in the future, if anything. So, you don't know, you don't know, you don't know and you don't know. But you have to do a budget with all those unknowns. Address them realistically. And how do you address them realistically? First, we're going to adjust down our revenue projections for the initial budget and then what we're going to do, which is something we've never done before, is we're going to adjust the budget through the years to reflect the actual revenue, meaning will say on day one, "Okay we intended to give you $100 we don't have $100 so we're going to give you $95. But I can only give you $95 if I get $95 and I let you know quarterly, whatever the period of time is how much money I'm getting and how much I can give you of the 95 and therefore you can plan accordingly." And that's frankly the only way that you can do this budget. When you have so many unknowns. So adjust the initial number down and then have periods through the course of the year where you say to school districts local governments et cetera, "This is how much we actually received. This is what the federal government did. This is what the federal government didn't do. The economy is coming back faster. The economy's coming back slower. But these are the actual numbers so you can adjust your budget accordingly."
On the public health numbers are testing numbers up again. We did 18,650 tests. This was just a massive mobilization, operational undertaking. We've never done it before you now have to set up all these drive-throughs, you have to set up all of these testing facilities and we're testing more than any state in the country. We're testing more per capita than South Korea. More per capita than China. It really is amazing what we're doing. And the testing is important. The testing is still helping you identify the positives and isolate the positives. The testing is not telling you how many people have the virus and. I think a lot of people conflate the two and that's a mistake. It's not even telling you the increase in the rate of infection. All it's telling you is your increasing the number of tests, and more test you do the more positives you will find and we're working very hard to increase the number of tests because we want to find the positives.
This is the really bad news. The number of deaths is increasing. It's bad news because people are dying. And that's the worst news you can have. It is not bad news in terms of it being unexpected. What's happening is people who were infected. Who came into the health care system have been on ventilators. The longer you are on a ventilator, the more probability of a bad outcome. We now have people who have been on a ventilator for 20 days, 30 days. The longer you are on a ventilator. The more likely you're not going to come off the ventilator and that is what is happening, because we do have people who have been on for quite a period of time. And those are the people who we are losing. That has always been the way the longer stays without recovery lead to a higher death rate, right? And that's not just COVID. That's any medical situation that you've dealt with. That is the natural consequence. When you have older sicker patients, who are staying on ventilators longer. They usually have a worse outcome, right? And I think people get that from their usual experience. What we're seeing now is that is happening. We've had people on a very long time, and they haven't gotten better, and they are passing away. So the number of deaths is at 385, it's up from 285, and since we still have a large number of people on ventilators for a long period of time, the experts expect that number to continue to increase, right, and we've said this from day one. You get the infection, 80 percent self-resolve, they don't go into the hospital. Some percentage going to the hospital, get treated, and go home. Some percentage go into the hospital, need a ventilator, they're on the ventilator, and they never come off the ventilator. And that is a situation where people just deteriorate over time. And that's what we're seeing. That is that vulnerable population, that very small percentage, two or three percent of the population who we've always worried about. But that's what we're seeing. And again, we expect it to increase because as time goes on, by definition we have more and more people on ventilators for a longer period of time.
Total number of people tested, 18,000. That's the break down. Number of positive cases, total 37,000, new cases, 6,400. The curve continues to go up. The spread across the state continues, which is also what we expected, just the way it spread all across the country. We now just have several counties that don't have a single case. The overall number, 37,000 tested positive, 5,000 people current hospital, 5,000. So this is the point, right. 37,000 tested positive. 5,000 currently hospitalized.
1,200 ICU patients, which is what we watch most carefully because those people need ventilators. 1,500 patients who were discharged after being hospitalized, okay. So not to be redundant but, people get sick. 80 percent of the people don't go into the hospital. They stay home. Some don't even stay home, they just self-resolve. Some people get sick and stay home. Some people check into the hospital. Now you're talking about 15 to 20 percent. Of that, a percentage get treated and leave. Of that, the smallest percentage get put on a ventilator. That's the 1,290 ICU patients. Some of those people on a ventilator get better and come off the ventilator. Some people don't get better, stay on the ventilator and when you're on the ventilator for a prolonged period of time the outcome is not positive. But, the percentage of people who wind up in that situation, it starts with the 1,290 ICU patients. Those are the people who are basically put on a ventilator. And that's of the 37,000 that tested positive, right. So we're talking about a very small population, they're put on a ventilator. Some recover, and some don't.
The most impacted states, New York is still number one. Louisiana is a quote unquote hot spot. It has a cluster that is growing and the people in Louisiana and in New Orleans are in our thoughts and prayers. We know what they're going through and we feel for them, and we pray for them, and we know the difficulty they're under, because of with dealing with the same type of situation. So our best to them. Any way we can help them, we stand ready. Again, total perspective is the Johns Hopkins count that has gone from day one. 487,000, 21,000 deaths worldwide.
My personal opinion, not facts, we give you the facts. My gratuitous two cents, which is probably worth a penny and a half.
This is a life moment. It's a moment in the life of this country. It's a moment in the life of the world. It's a moment in our family lives. It's a moment for each of us. Each of us is dealing with it in our own way, and my observation has been that when the pressure is on, is when you really see what people are made of, in a personal relationship in a business relationship.
You know, people can be great when everything is great. The question is what does a person do when things aren't great and what does a person do when the pressure is on them? And that's when you can see a little crack in the foundation of a person. But when the pressure is on that little crack, that little crack can explode and that foundation can crumble. Or, you can see the exact opposite. You can see them get stronger. But you get to see what they're really made of and you get to see the best. You get to see the worst. You get to see the beauty in people. And you get to see the opposite.
The outpouring of support for the people of New York has been so inspiring. Not just from New Yorkers. I'm telling you from across the country, from across the world. You would be amazed at how many phone calls we get. How many offers of support. How many creative ideas from everyone.
We've asked medical staff to volunteer. Retired medical staff who are no longer practicing. 40,000 had volunteered. We now have 12,000 people in one day volunteering to helping on the medical staff. We asked mental health professionals to come forward to volunteer. To offer free mental health services for people who are dealing with the stress and trauma of this situation. We had 6,000 people. We now have 8,600 people. We're getting mental health professionals from other states calling up and saying they'll provide mental health services electronically, through Skype or over the telephone.
It gives me such strength and such inspiration. But I don't want to sugarcoat the situation. The situation is not easy, but easy times don't forge character. It's the tough times that forge character, and that's what we're looking at right now. People say to me, people are getting tired of this situation. They've been home, its going on a couple of weeks. They're getting tired. Well, the truth is this is not a sprint. This is a marathon. We always said, this is not going to be over quickly. I understand people are tired, but I also understand that people in this situation are really stepping up to the plate and are doing phenomenal work.
So the next time you feel tired and believe me I feel tired, but when I feel tired I think of the first responders who are out there every day showing up. I think of the police officers, of the fire fighters who are up there every day, the grocery store workers who are working double shifts just to keep food on the shelves because people are buying so much food because they're nervous; the pharmacists who have lines going out the door and they're showing up every day, day after day; the transportation workers who don't have the luxury of feeling tired because they have to get up and they have to drive the bus so the nurses in the health care professionals can get to work; and those health care professionals who are dealing with a virus that they didn't even understand - they still don't understand. They're there working, many of them seven days a week.
So yes we're tired but look at what others among us have to do in the challenge they're under and how they are stepping up. And who am I to complain about being tired when so many people are doing such heroic efforts?
I also think this is going to be transformative and formative for society. You think about our children. I have my daughters here with me. This is the first time they faced a real national adversity. You have a whole new generation who have never lived through anything like this. They never went to war. They were never drafted. They never went through a national crisis and this is going to shape them and I can tell you just from having my daughters with me. Yeah, they're hurt, they're scared, but they are also learning through this and at the end of the day they're going to be better people for it and they're going be better citizens for it. I believe that because they're rising to the occasion. As we go through this let's make sure that we're teaching them the right lessons and the right response and those lesson and that response are the lessons that we get from our better angels.
During this difficult time let's listen to the voices of our better angels as individuals, as families, as a community, and as a society. We're going to get through this. The only question is how we get through it and when we get through it. But let's make sure at the end of the day that we can say we are the better for it and our children are the better for it - and I believe they will be.
March 26, 2020.
Governor Cuomo Announces Significant Donations to Help Increase The State's Supply Capacity Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-significant-donations-help-increase-states-supply-capacity-amid
Donations From Major Corporations, Philanthropic Organizations and Celebrities
Donations Include Personal Protective Equipment, Hand Sanitizer, Equipment for Field Hospitals and Free Flights for Incoming Medical Volunteers
More Companies and Individuals are Still Reaching out to the State About Making Donations
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the state has received significant donations from a number of major corporations, philanthropic organizations and celebrities to help increase the state's supply capacity amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The donations include personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer, equipment for field hospitals, free flights for incoming medical volunteers and other medical supplies and support items. Additionally, other companies and individuals have reached out about making donations and the state is engaged with them to secure those donations.
"New York is fighting a war against this virus and we need all the help we can get," Governor Cuomo said. "The generosity of these companies, organizations and individuals — and many others coming forward every day to offer support — will play a critical role in our mission to bolster our hospital surge capacity, support frontline workers and get people the help they need. On behalf of the family of New York, I am deeply grateful for their generosity. We will get through this difficult time together, with the kindness, strength and tenacity that New York is known for."
A breakdown of initial donations is available below:
Goldman Sachs: 195,000 masks
Boll and Branch: 1,000 hospital mattresses
Restore Global: 150,000 coveralls
Facebook: 2,500 gallons of hand sanitizer
Rihanna Foundation: Various PPE supplies
Dominion Energy: Masks
L'Oréal: Hand sanitizer
SoftBank: 1.4 million N-95 masks
Suburban Propane: Propane services for generators and heaters
Wayfair: Mattresses, linens, sheets and pillows for field hospitals
Jet Blue: Free flights for incoming medical volunteers
Walmart: Use of parking lots and store facilities infrastructure
Niagara Bottling: 560,000 bottles of water
Keurig/Dr. Pepper: Coffee and beverages for volunteers working in the field
Four Seasons Hotel on 57th Street in Manhattan: Providing their facility to serve as free housing for nurses, doctors and medical personnel currently working to respond to the coronavirus outbreak
St Regis Hotel: Providing their facility for non-critical care patients or medical personnel
The Plaza Hotel: Providing their facility for non-critical care patients or medical personnel
Yotel: Providing their facility for non-critical care patients for a month
Room Mate Grace Hotel: Providing their facility to serve as free housing for nurses, doctors and medical personnel currently working to respond to the coronavirus outbreak
Wythe Hotel: Offering free hotel rooms through April for nurses, doctors and medical personnel currently working to respond to the coronavirus outbreak
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos: $1 million
JUDY: 25,000 N-95 masks
Amneal: 20,000 bottles of Hydroxychloroquine
The Estée Lauder Companies: 10,000 hand sanitizer bottles (8 ounces each) per week for 4-5 weeks
Long Island Ambulatory Surgery Center: Ventilator
Uniqlo: 1.05 million masks
The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in New York: 12 ventilators and thousands of pieces of PPE
Corning Life Sciences: 60,000 15ml centrifuge tubes and 40,000 4ml cryovials
NBCUniversal: Medical supplies and PPE
Huawei: 10,000 N-95 masks; 20,000 isolation gowns; 50,000 medical goggles; and 10,000 gloves
Office of Attorney General Letitia James: 1,700 protective masks and 33,000 pairs of gloves
"First responders have once again demonstrated leadership and bravery in trying times, continuing to put their own wellbeing on the line for the sake of others," said Attorney General James. "We cannot allow our doctors and nurses to become patients themselves. That's why we must move heaven and earth to protect them and keep them safe, so that they return home safe to their loved ones. We also thank Governor Cuomo for his leadership during these trying times and for fighting every day for the best interests of New Yorkers. May God be with them all, always."
March 26, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo to National Guard, amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic: 'This Is a Rescue Mission That You're on - the Mission Is to save Lives. That's What You're Doing'. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-national-guard-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic
Governor Cuomo: "You are living a moment in history. This is going to be one of those moment they're going to write and they're going to talk about for generations. This is a moment that is going to change this nation. This is a moment that forges character, forges people, changes people — make them stronger, make them weaker — but this is a moment that will change character. Ten years from now, you'll be talking about today to your children or your grandchildren and you will shed a tear because you will remember the lives lost. You'll remember the faces and you'll remember the names and you'll remember how hard we worked and that we still lost loved ones. And you'll shed a tear and you should because it will be sad. But, you will also be proud."
Cuomo: "At the end of the day, nobody can ask anything more from you. That is your duty, to do what you can when you can. You will have shown skill and courage and talent. You'll be there with your mind, you'll be there with your heart and you'll serve with honor. That will give you pride and you should be proud. I know that I am proud of you. And every time the National Guard has been called out, they have made every New Yorker proud."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo commended the National Guard for their commitment to helping New York State communities combat the coronavirus pandemic and always showing up when duty calls on them to save lives.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
I want to make two points to you and I want to make two promises to you. This is a different beast that we're dealing with. This is an invisible beast. It is an insidious beast. This is not going to be a short deployment. This is not going to be that you go out there for a few days. We work hard and we go home. This is going to be weeks and weeks and weeks. This is going to be a long day and it's going to be a hard day, and it's going to be an ugly day, and it's going to be a sad day. This is a rescue mission that you're on - the mission is to save lives. That's what you're doing. The rescue mission is to save lives and as hard as we work, we're not going to be able to save everyone. And what's even more cruel is this enemy doesn't attack the strongest of us. It attacks the weakest of us. It attacks our most vulnerable which makes it even worse in many ways. Because these are the people that every instinct tells us we're supposed to protect. These are our parents and our grandparents. These are our aunts, our uncles. These are a relative who was sick and every instinct says protect them. Help them, because they need us. And those are the exact people that this enemy attacks. Every time I've called out the National Guard I have said the same thing to you: I promise you I will not ask you to do anything that I will not do myself. And the same is true here. We're going to do this and we're going to do this together.
My second point is, you are living a moment in history. This is going to be one of those moment they're going to write and they're going to talk about for generations. This is a moment that is going to change this nation. This is a moment that forges character, forges people, changes people — make them stronger, make them weaker — but this is a moment that will change character. Ten years from now, you'll be talking about today to your children or your grandchildren and you will shed a tear because you will remember the lives lost. You'll remember the faces and you'll remember the names and you'll remember how hard we worked and that we still lost loved ones. And you'll shed a tear and you should because it will be sad. But, you will also be proud. You'll be proud of what you did. You'll be proud that you showed up. You showed up when other people played it safe. You had the courage to show up. You had the skill and the professionalism to make a difference and save lives. That's what you will have done.
At the end of the day, nobody can ask anything more from you. That is your duty, to do what you can when you can. You will have shown skill and courage and talent. You'll be there with your mind, you'll be there with your heart and you'll serve with honor. That will give you pride and you should be proud. I know that I am proud of you. And every time the National Guard has been called out, they have made every New Yorker proud. I am proud to be with you yet again. I'm proud to fight this fight with you. And I bring you thanks from all New Yorkers who are just so appreciative of the sacrifice that you are making, the skill that you're bringing, the talent that you're bringing. You give many New Yorkers confidence.
So I say, my friends, that we go out there today and we kick coronavirus' ass, that's what I say. And we're going to save lives and New York is going to thank you. God bless each and every one of you.
March 27, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Completion of First 1,000-Bed Temporary Hospital at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-completion-first-1000-bed-temporary
Governor Announces Selection of Additional Sites for Temporary Hospitals, on Top of Four Other Sites UnderConstruction; Asks President Trump to Approve Sites Immediately so Construction Can Begin
Extends School Closures Statewide for Additional Two Weeks Until April 15th
Consumers Experiencing Financial Hardship Due to COVID-19 May Defer Paying Life Insurance Premiums for 90 Days
Consumers and Small Businesses May Defer Paying Premiums for Property and Casualty Insurance for 60 Days
New Yorkers Without Health Insurance Should Apply Now Through NY State of Health; 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 or Child Health Plus
10,000 More Health Professionals Have Signed up to Volunteer as Part of the State's Surge Healthcare Force Since Yesterday - Bringing Total Number of Volunteers to More than 62,000
Number of Mental Health Volunteers Has Increased Another 1,400 for a Total of More Than 10,000 Volunteers
Confirms 7,377 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 44,635; New Cases in 39 Counties
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the first 1,000-bed temporary hospital is now complete at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This temporary hospital site is part of the Governor's goal of having a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in each NYC borough as well as Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Governor Cuomo also announced the state and Army Corp of Engineers have toured and identified four new sites for temporary hospitals for construction by the Army Corps of Engineers - the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the Aqueduct Racetrack facility in Queens, CUNY Staten Island and the New York Expo Center in the Bronx - adding an additional 4,000 beds to the state's capacity. The Governor is asking President Trump to approve these sites immediately so construction can begin.
These new temporary hospital sites — together with the site at the JavitsCenter and the temporary hospitals that are being built at locations at SUNYStony Brook, SUNY Old Westbury and the Westchester Convention Center — are part of the Governor's plan to create thousands of new beds to bolster existing hospital capacity, with the goal of being open to patients in early- to mid-April. The state is also preparing college dormitories and hotels across the downstate region, and identifying nursing homes and other facilities to serve as a place for emergency beds.
The Governor also announced that all schools in New York State must remain closed for an additional two weeks until April 15th to ensure consistency and uniformity across the state in instructional time for this extraordinary school year. Schools will be required to continue child care, meal and distance learning programs, and the state will extend the 180-day waiver to April 15th.
The Governor also announced that for a 90 day period, consumers experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 may defer paying life insurance premiums. No late fees will be assessed and no negative data will be reported to credit bureaus during this time, and late payments will be payable over a one-year period. LICONY, or the Life Insurance Council of New York, which represents over 80 percent of the life insurance industry, has agreed to these measures.
I am proud to be on this mission with all the brave men and women of the National Guard, healthcare workers and first responders who are truly doing God's work.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
For a 60 day period, consumers and small businesses experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 may defer paying premiums for property and casualty insurance, including auto, homeowners, renters, workers comp, medical malpractice, livery and taxi. No late fees will be assessed and no negative data will be reported to credit bureaus during this time, and late payments will be payable over a one-year period.
New Yorkers who are without health insurance should apply now through NY State of Health. 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 or Child Health Plus.
The Governor also announced that since yesterday, an additional 10,000 healthcare workers, including retirees and students, have signed up to volunteer to work as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of volunteers to more than 62,000. Additionally, more than 10,000 mental health professionals, including individuals from other states, have now signed up to provide free online mental health services, with 1,400 volunteers signing up in the last day. New Yorkers can call the state's hotline at 1-844-863-9314 to schedule a free appointment.
"Our strategy from the beginning has been to flatten the curve and increase hospital capacity," Governor Cuomo said. "We are doing things we have never done before to find more hospital beds and obtain supplies from all around the globe to ensure our healthcare system is not overwhelmed when the apex hits. We have a plan in place to get all of these new facilities and beds online in the next three to four weeks, which is the same timeline the apex is expected to hit our state, so when it does eventually hit our hospital capacity will be as high as it can possibly be. We are on a rescue mission to save lives, and I am proud to be on this mission with all the brave men and women of the National Guard, healthcare workers and first responders who are truly doing God's work."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 7,377 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 44,635 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 44,635 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
187
16
Allegany
2
0
Broome
18
2
Cayuga
2
0
Chautauqua
1
0
Chemung
11
4
Chenango
4
1
Clinton
11
0
Columbia
20
7
Cortland
4
2
Delaware
8
1
Dutchess
225
35
Erie
219
85
Essex
4
0
Franklin
2
1
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
6
2
Greene
6
1
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
9
2
Jefferson
3
0
Livingston
3
0
Madison
17
8
Monroe
160
21
Montgomery
5
0
Nassau
4,657
743
Niagara
23
9
NYC
25,398
4,005
Oneida
13
0
Onondaga
115
32
Ontario
14
3
Orange
910
159
Orleans
3
1
Oswego
4
0
Otsego
5
2
Putnam
111
17
Rensselaer
35
3
Rockland
1,457
260
Saratoga
82
9
Schenectady
66
4
Schoharie
3
1
St. Lawrence
3
1
Steuben
12
1
Suffolk
3,385
650
Sullivan
64
11
Tioga
2
0
Tompkins
26
4
Ulster
98
20
Warren
8
6
Washington
6
2
Wayne
11
3
Westchester
7,187
1,243
Wyoming
7
0
March 27, 2020.
Video, B-Roll, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Completion of First 1,000-Bed Temporary Hospital at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-b-roll-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo
Governor Announces Selection of Additional Sites for Temporary Hospitals, on Top of Four Other Sites Under Construction; Asks President Trump to Approve Sites Immediately so Construction Can Begin
Extends School Closures Statewide for Additional Two Weeks Until April 15th
Consumers Experiencing Financial Hardship Due to COVID-19 May Defer Paying Life Insurance Premiums for 90 Days
Consumers and Small Businesses May Defer Paying Premiums for Property and Casualty Insurance for 60 Days
New Yorkers Without Health Insurance Should Apply Now Through NY State of Health; 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 or Child Health Plus
10,000 More Health Professionals Have Signed up to Volunteer as Part of the State's Surge Healthcare Force Since Yesterday - Bringing Total Number of Volunteers to More than 62,000
Number of Mental Health Volunteers Has Increased Another 1,400 for a Total of More Than 10,000 Volunteers
Confirms 7,377 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 44,635; New Cases in 39 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "FEMA and the Army Corps and the National Guard have been working to put up these emergency hospitals. So far we have planned for four: the one we're in today at the Javits Center, one in Westchester County Center, one at Stony Brook, and one at Old Westbury. That would be 4,000 additional units. Again, with all of these beds we still have a shortfall, so we're going to go to Plan B. What's Plan B? We're going to seek to build another four temporary emergency hospitals ... We have settled on a few sites working with the Army Corps of Engineers, and I'm going to ask the President today if he will authorize another four temporary hospitals for us."
Cuomo: "I want to have one in every borough. I want to have one for the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn. One for Nassau, one for Suffolk, one for Westchester, so everybody knows downstate, which is where the essence of the density is right now, that everyone equally is being helped and is being protected."
Cuomo on National Guard: "At the end of the day, nobody can ask anything more from you. That is your duty, to do what you can when you can. You will have shown skill and courage and talent. You'll be there with your mind, you'll be there with your heart and you'll serve with honor. That will give you pride and you should be proud. I know that I am proud of you. And every time the National Guard has been called out, they have made every New Yorker proud."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the first 1,000-bed temporary hospital is now complete at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This temporary hospital site is part of the Governor's goal of having a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in each NYC borough as well as Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Governor Cuomo also announced the state and Army Corp of Engineers have toured and identified four new sites for temporary hospitals for construction by the Army Corps of Engineers - the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the Aqueduct Racetrack facility in Queens, CUNY Staten Island and the New York Expo Center in the Bronx - adding an additional 4,000 beds to the state's capacity. The Governor is asking President Trump to approve these sites immediately so construction can begin.
These new temporary hospital sites — together with the site at the JavitsCenter and the temporary hospitals that are being built at locations at SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Old Westbury and the Westchester Convention Center — are part of the Governor's plan to create thousands of new beds to bolster existing hospital capacity, with the goal of being open to patients in early- to mid-April. The state is also preparing college dormitories and hotels across the downstate region, and identifying nursing homes and other facilities to serve as a place for emergency beds.
The Governor also announced that all schools in New York State must remain closed for an additional two weeks until April 15th to ensure consistency and uniformity across the state in instructional time for this extraordinary school year. Schools will be required to continue child care, meal and distance learning programs, and the state will extend the 180-day waiver to April 15th.
The Governor also announced that for a 90 day period, consumers experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 may defer paying life insurance premiums. No late fees will be assessed and no negative data will be reported to credit bureaus during this time, and late payments will be payable over a one-year period. LICONY, or the Life Insurance Council of New York, which represents over 80 percent of the life insurance industry, has agreed to these measures.
For a 60 day period, consumers and small businesses experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 may defer paying premiums for property and casualty insurance, including auto, homeowners, renters, workers comp, medical malpractice, livery and taxi. No late fees will be assessed and no negative data will be reported to credit bureaus during this time, and late payments will be payable over a one-year period.
New Yorkers who are without health insurance should apply now through NY State of Health. 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 or Child Health Plus.
The Governor also announced that since yesterday, an additional 10,000 healthcare workers, including retirees and students, have signed up to volunteer to work as part of the state's surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of volunteers to more than 62,000. Additionally, more than 10,000 mental health professionals, including individuals from other states, have now signed up to provide free online mental health services, with 1,400 volunteers signing up in the last day. New Yorkers can call the state's hotline at 1-844-863-9314 to schedule a free appointment.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 7,377 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 44,635 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 44,635 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
187
16
Allegany
2
0
Broome
18
2
Cayuga
2
0
Chautauqua
1
0
Chemung
11
4
Chenango
4
1
Clinton
11
0
Columbia
20
7
Cortland
4
2
Delaware
8
1
Dutchess
225
35
Erie
219
85
Essex
4
0
Franklin
2
1
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
6
2
Greene
6
1
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
9
2
Jefferson
3
0
Livingston
3
0
Madison
17
8
Monroe
160
21
Montgomery
5
0
Nassau
4,657
743
Niagara
23
9
NYC
25,398
4,005
Oneida
13
0
Onondaga
115
32
Ontario
14
3
Orange
910
159
Orleans
3
1
Oswego
4
0
Otsego
5
2
Putnam
111
17
Rensselaer
35
3
Rockland
1,457
260
Saratoga
82
9
Schenectady
66
4
Schoharie
3
1
St. Lawrence
3
1
Steuben
12
1
Suffolk
3,385
650
Sullivan
64
11
Tioga
2
0
Tompkins
26
4
Ulster
98
20
Warren
8
6
Washington
6
2
Wayne
11
3
Westchester
7,187
1,243
Wyoming
7
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.
B-ROLL of the Governor touring the hospital construction area at the JavitsCenter is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format 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. Let me introduce who we have with us today. From my far right we have Jim Malatras who is President of Empire College who I worked with for many years and has been very helpful here on this mission; our Commissioner of Health Dr. Howard Zucker; to my left is General Patrick Murphy who I have more to say about in a moment; and to his left is General Raymond Shields.
Thank you for being here today. This is an amazing accomplishment. It's transformative in just one week. The Javits Center looks entirely different and this is a place that's literally going to save lives. Let me go through some facts if I can on a daily update of where we are and then I want to make some comments to all the women and men who are assembled and did such a great job on this facility.
The increase in the number of cases continues. We still see that trajectory going up. Those are the dates from March 3 to March 25. Strategy, plan of action, all along - step one, flatten the curve, step two, increase hospital capacity. Flatten the curve, meaning if you do it as well as you can do it hopefully there is no high point of the curve. There is no apex. It's a flatter, lower curve. Why? So the hospital capacity can keep up with it. That's what this is all about - not overwhelming hospital capacity and at the same time increasing the hospital capacity that we have so if it does exceed those numbers, which it will in most probability, that we have the additional capacity to deal with it.
Flattening the curve - these are all measures that we put in place, barring non-essential workers, social distancing, closing bars, closing restaurants, all the things I did that made people very happy with me. But the way you make a decision is the
benefit and the burden. Right? The risk and the reward. We are battling a deadly virus. Is there an intrusion on daily life? Yes. Is there an intrusion on movement? Yes. Is there an intrusion on the economy? Yes. But what's on the other side of the scale is literally saving lives and that's not rhetorical. That's not drama. That's fact.
Public education is very important. It's important to all of us on the other side of the balance beam is public health. I decided to close the public schools because I believed it was safer to close the schools and reduce the spread. We did that on March 18. Ee said we would do it for two weeks and then we would reassess the situation at the end of two weeks. Two weeks ends on April 1.
We also said that we would waive what's called the 180-day requirement. That every school has to teach for 180 days. We would waive that but that we would close the schools until April 1 and then we would reassess.
Also we said that every school district before it closes had to come up with plans to continue functions that they were doing, because school districts do more than just educate. They provide child care for essential workers. They provide meals in the schools so everything that they were doing they had to come up with a plan to mitigate the consequence of their closing including distance learning for their students.
I have to reassess because April 1 is just in a couple of days and I believe the schools should remain closed. I don't do this joyfully but I think when you look at where we are and you look at the number of cases still increasing it only makes sense to keep the schools closed. They have to continue the programs they're doing. They have to continue the childcare, continue the meals, continue the distance learning programs. I'll continue the waiver on what's called 180-day mandate that they have to be in operation, but we're going to close the schools for another two weeks and then will reassess at that point and that is statewide.
At the same time we're working to increase hospital capacity. What is a possible apex of the curve? It changes a little bit depending on the data day to day but now we're looking at about 21 days for a possible apex. So we want to do everything we can to be ready for that increased capacity that could hit us in 21 days and ramp up the hospital capacity. We are doing everything we can. We're doing things that have never been done before. We're doing things that when we put them on the table people thought they were impossible, but we are now doing the impossible, as you know well here with what you did over the past week.
All hospitals have to increase their capacity by 50 percent. We're asking hospitals to try to increase their capacity 100 percent because we need that many beds. We're also looking at converting dorms, we're looking at converting hotels. We've been gathering equipment from everywhere we can: PPE equipment. The most important piece of equipment for us are ventilators and we're shopping literally around the globe to put it all in place. We're creating a stockpile of this equipment so that when and if the apex hits we can deploy equipment from the stockpile to whatever region of the State or whatever hospital needs it. So, we collect it, we hold it as a hospital needs it, a region needs it, then we deploy it; the N95 masks, surgical masks, examination gloves, protective gowns, coveralls, and most importantly the ventilators.
Why ventilators? Because this is a respiratory illness. People need ventilators who come in for acute care, and the people are on ventilators much longer than most patients are on ventilators. Most people are on a ventilator for two, three, four days. These COVID patients can come in and need a ventilator for up to 20 days. So, you see why that need for ventilators is so important. And again, all of this is to make sure we're ready for that apex when the entire system is stressed and under pressure, and that's what we're working on. For the hospital capacity at the "apex," we need 140,000 beds. We have 53,000 beds, that's why we're scrambling and that's why we're asking you to do as much work as you're doing. We need 40,000 ICU beds; the ICU bed are the Intensive Care Unit beds. They have ventilators. We have, when we started, 3,000 ICU beds with 3,000 ventilators. So you see how monumental the task, how monumental the mountain that we have to climb.
Of the 140,000, how do we get to the 140,000? As I said, all hospitals increase by 50 percent. Some hospitals will increase 100 percent -- they're going to get the gold star hospital award. I don't know exactly what that means, but we'll figure it out later.
FEMA and the Army Corps, and the National Guard have been working to put up these emergency hospitals. So far we have planned for four: the one we're in today at the Javits Center, one in Westchester County Center, one at Stony Brook, and one at Old Westbury. That would be 4,000 additional units. They are all underway as we speak, not as far along as your good work at Javits, but they are on their way. Again, with all of these beds we still have a shortfall, so we're going to go to Plan B. What's Plan B? We're going to seek to build another four temporary emergency hospitals, which would get us another 4,000 beds and we just have been scouting sites for a few days. We have settled on a few sites working with the Army Corps of Engineers, and I'm going to ask the President today if he will authorize another four temporary hospitals for us.
I want to have one in every borough. I want to have one for the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn. One for Nassau, one for Suffolk, one for Westchester, so everybody knows downstate, which is where the essence of the density is right now, that everyone equally is being helped and is being protected. We looked at a site in the Bronx at the New York Expo Center - it's a 90,000 square foot site. Seeing what we did here we think it would work very well, and again the Army Corps of Engineers has worked with us and looked at all these sites, and thinks that these sites work. One in Queens at the Aqueduct Racetrack site - 100,000 square feet there. One in Brooklyn in what's called the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal; it's owned by the Port Authority, but it's a wide open space. We can convert it very easily - 182,000 square feet. And in Staten Island, the College of Staten Island, which is a CUNY facility - 77,000 square feet. Again, inside can be converted; it has power, it has climate control, et cetera.
We would do the same thing that we've done here successfully, so we know it works. We know it's feasible building the interior pace. We have exterior space that we could put up a temporary tent for supplies, equipment, et cetera. That would give us coverage all across the downstate area with proximate facilities to every location downstate, and frankly is the best plan. that we can put together and execute in this timeline. We also have, beyond, the next phase of temporary hospitals. If the White House grants that request.
We have the navy ship Comfort coming up. That is going to be on its way soon. It's going to be right here in New York harbor. It is a massive facility in and of itself. 1,000 beds, 12,00 medical personnel, 12 operating rooms, it has a pharmacy, it has a laboratory. And it should be here on Monday. So that will also help us in this quest.
And then we're looking at dormitories and converting dormitories downstate. We're looking at City College dormitories, Queens College. We have the dormitories because the colleges are closed and the students have left so we actually have dormitories that we can convert. We're also looking at hotels and nursing homes. We're looking at the Marriott Brooklyn Bridge Hotel and a nursing home called Brooklyn Center. So as you can see, we're looking far and wide, very creative, aggressive, and finding all the space that we can possibly find, and converting it to be ready in case we have that overflow capacity.
We also have it planned out so that this will be coming online before we think the apex hits, and at the same time we're trying to flatten the curve to delay and soften that apex, right? Those are the two strategies. Slow the spread, flatten the curve. In the meantime increase the hospital capacity so whatever that surge is that you have you actually have the capacity to deal with it. And right now we have a plan where over the next three or four weeks, which is the same timeline as the apex possibly coming, we're going to have the capacity as high as we can possibly get that, get the capacity. In terms of where we are today, because we're tracking the numbers, we want to see what's happening. And are we getting closer to the apex? Are we succeeding in flattening the curve?
We've been testing. We test more in this state than any state in the United States. We test more per capita than China or South Korea. So we ramped up very quickly on the testing. New tests, 16,000, total tested, 138,000. Number of positive cases, total cases 44,000, new cases 7,377. It continues to spread all across the state as it continues to spread all across the country.
The number of deaths, we're up to 519 in New York. That's up from 385. That is going to continue to go up, and that is the worst news that I could possibly tell the people of the State of New York. The reason why the number is going up is because some people came into the hospital 20 days, 25 days ago, and have been on a ventilator for that long a period of time. The longer you are on a ventilator, the less likely you're going to your going to come off that ventilator. And that's not just true with this virus. That's true with every illness. When somebody's on that ventilator for a prolonged period of time the outcome is usually not good. So we're seeing a significant increase in deaths because the length of time people are on the ventilator is increasing and the more it increases the higher the level of deaths will increase. And again we expect that to continue to increase. It's bad news. It's tragic news. It's the worst news. But it is not unexpected news, either. You could talk to any health care professional, they'll tell you about if you're talking about a loved one if they're not off that ventilator in a relatively short period of time, it's not a good sign.
Overall 44,000 people have tested positive, 6,000 currently hospitalized, 1,500 in intensive care units. That's up 290. Those are the people who need the ventilators. 2,000 patients have been discharged. That's up 528. So, you have people coming into the hospital, getting treatment, and leaving the hospital. Most people who get the virus will never even go into the hospital in the first place, right, so we have to keep this in focus. 80 percent of the people who get the virus will what they call self-resolve. You feel ill, maybe you won't feel that ill. You think you have the flu and you self-resolve. 80 percent of the people. 20 percent will go to a hospital. Some of them will get short term treatment, and then they go home. A very small percent and they tend to be older people more vulnerable people, people with an underlying illness, this respiratory illness compounds the problem they have. They had a compromised immune system. They were fighting emphysema. They were battling cancer and on top of that, they now get pneumonia which is what this corona virus is. That's the population that is most vulnerable. They then go on to a ventilator. Some percentage get off quickly. Some percentage don't get off. The longer they're on, the higher the mortality rate. New York is still by far the most affected state, both in terms of number of cases, and in terms of number of deaths. Why? Because we welcome people here from all over the globe. So travelers came here, people from China came here, people from Korea came here, people who are traveling around the country and stop in China and stopped in South Korea and stop in Italy, came here. And because we are a very dense environment. You know social distancing, stay 6 feet away, that's hard in New York City, right? Walk down on a sidewalk and tell me that you can stay 6 feet away from someone. We're so dense, we're so together, which is what makes us special gives us that New York energy gives us that New York mojo. It also - that density becomes the enemy in a situation like this.
This is the total number of people who have been hospitalized. And we've been watching these numbers every day. We are now compiling the numbers. I think in what's a smarter way before we were getting individual patient data. Every hospital had to tell us about each individual patient, what they're address was, where they came from what the underlying illness was and then put all that information together, which was very labor intensive. So it was erratic, the way the information would come in. Sometimes the hospital was just too busy to put all that information together, so they didn't send it in until the next day or the day after. This is a more uniform set of data. This is all the number of people in that hospital who have the coved virus without getting into all the specifics of individual names and individual circumstances so it's easier for them to get us this data. And you see again the steady incline in the number. But, and this is good news, early on you see that the number was doubling every two-and-a-half days. Then it was doubling every three days. Now it's doubling about every four days. It's still doubling and that's still bad news because it still means you're moving up towards an apex right that number still goes up but there is good news in that. The rate of the increase is slowing. So they're two separate facts: the rate of the increase is slowing, but the number of cases are still going up, all right? And those two points are consistent and that's what we're seeing. We want to see the rate slowing. And then we want to see the number of actual cases coming down or flattening. That's the flattening of the curve. But this is where we are today.
Again to keep it all in perspective people don't know what to make of the coronavirus. "What's going to happen? What's going to happen?" Johns Hopkins is studied every coronavirus since China. 542,000 cases they've studied. Of all those cases there have been 24,000 deaths. That's a lot of deaths, yes. But compared to 542,000 cases, it gives you a sense of the lethality of this disease. And if you look at the 24,000 they're going to be overwhelmingly older people, vulnerable people, people with underlying illnesses et cetera.
The amount of support that we have gotten from New Yorkers in the midst of this crisis is just extraordinary. I am a born and bred New Yorker, if you can't tell my queens accent. I can tell you a Bronx accent, your Brooklyn accent, your Manhattan accent and your Staten Island accent. But New Yorkers never cease to amaze me how big their heart is. You know they talk about how New Yorkers are tough. Yeah you know it's tough to live in a place like this. You have to be tough. But as tough as we are is as loving as we and is as big as our heart is. And when someone needs something there's no place, I'd rather be than New York and the number of people who are volunteering who are coming forward. We put out a call for additional medical personnel because we have to staff all these additional beds. We put out a call, 62,000 volunteers. The number went up 10,000 in one day. How beautiful is that? These are people who are retired. Who did their duty, who could just sit at, home but they are coming forward.
Same thing we ask from Mental Health professionals who could provide mental health services electronically over the telephone through skype, etcetera. Many people are dealing with mental health issues. This is a stressful taxing situation on everyone, on everyone and isolation at home. You are home, you're home alone, day after day, after day. That is a stressful situation. You don't know what's going on, you're afraid, you're afraid to go out. You're isolated with your family. That's a stressful situation. Not that we don't love to be with our family. We all do, but that can create stress. And there's no place to go. There's no one to talk to about that. So, this mental health service over the telephone is very, very important.
I want to speak to the most important people in the room for a moment. Who are the people who are responsible for this great construction behind me. First, I'd like to introduce General Patrick Murphy who's to my left. General Murphy is tested, smart, and he is tested tough. I've been with the general for nine years. I've seen him in hurricanes, and Superstorm Sandy, and floods, and everything mother nature could throw could throw at us. So, I've seen him in attempted terrorist attacks. There is no one better. He leads from the front. He knows what he's doing and you could not have a better commander at this time than General Patrick Murphy and I want you to know that. I want to congratulate the Army Corps of Engineers for what they did here. I used to be in the federal government I worked with the Army Corps of Engineers all across the country. I worked with them on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation building housing and one of the officers of the Army Corps of Engineers is still in service and reminded me of that. They are top shelf and what they did here is top shelf.
I want to thank the Javits staff which has really stepped up and I want to thank our National Guard, because you are the best of us. You are the best of us. And whenever we call on you, you are there and what you did in this facility in one week creating a hospital is just incredible. I don't know how you did it. Now, you did such a good job that I'm asking for four more from the President. That's the downside of being is as good as you are at what you did. But what you did is really incredible
I want to make two points to you and I want to make two promises to you. This is a different beast that we're dealing with. This is an invisible beast. It is an insidious beast. This is not going to be a short deployment. This is not going to be that you go out there for a few days. We work hard and we go home. This is going to be weeks and weeks and weeks. This is going to be a long day and it's going to be a hard day, and it's going to be an ugly day, and it's going to be a sad day. This is a rescue mission that you're on - the mission is to save lives. That's what you're doing. The rescue mission is to save lives and as hard as we work. We're not going to be able to save everyone. And what's even more cruel is this enemy doesn't attack the strongest of us. It attacks the weakest of us. It attacks are most vulnerable which makes it even worse in many ways. Because these are the people that every instinct tells us were supposed to protect. These are our parents and our grandparents. These are our aunts, our uncles. These are a relative who was sick and every instinct says protect them. Help them, because they need us. And those are the exact people that this enemy attacks. Every time I've called out the National Guard I have said the same thing to you. I promise you. I will not ask you to do anything that I will not do myself. And the same is true here. We're going to do this and we're going to do this together.
My second point is, you are living a moment in history. This is going to be one of those moment they're going to write and they're going to talk about for generations. This is a moment that is going to change this nation. This is a moment that forges character, forges people, changes people. Make them stronger, make them weaker, but this is a moment that will change character. Ten years from now, you'll be talking about today to your children or your grandchildren and you will shed a tear because you will remember the lives lost. You'll remember the faces and you'll remember the names and you'll remember how hard we worked and that we still lost loved ones. And you'll shed a tear and you should because it will be sad. But, you will also be proud. You'll be proud of what you did. You'll be proud that you showed up. You showed up when other people played it safe, you had the courage to show up. You had the skill and the professionalism to make a difference and save lives. That's what you will have done.
At the end of the day, nobody can ask anything more from you. That is your duty, to do what you can when you can. You will have shown skill and courage and talent. You'll be there with your mind, you'll be there with your heart and you'll serve with honor. That will give you pride and you should be proud. I know that I am proud of you. And every time the National Guard has been called out, they have made every New Yorker proud. I am proud to be with you yet again. I'm proud to fight this fight with you. And I bring you thanks from all New Yorkers who are just so appreciative of the sacrifice that you are making, the skill that you're bringing, the talent that you're bringing. You give many New Yorkers confidence.
So I say, my friends, that we go out there today and we kick coronavirus' ass, that's what I say. And we're going to save lives and New York is going to thank you. God bless each and every one of you.
March 27, 2020.
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on WAMC Northeast Public Radio With Alan Chartock. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-wamc-northeast-public-radio-alan-chartock-0
Governor Cuomo: "Every day, it weighs on me that police officers are going out there, nurses are going out there, first responders. I was with the National Guard today. I called up these people, I brought them out of their home, I brought them into harm's way, I did that, it was in the best interest of the state but I did that and I said to them what I've said to the National Guard by the way in every circumstance. I will never ask you to do anything that I won't do myself and I'll never ask you to go anywhere that I won't go myself."
Governor Cuomo: "It's public service. It's public duty. It's community spirit. It's we have to keep the place running. The lights have to be on. The food has to be in the grocery store. We need hand sanitizer and people sacrifice themselves and take risks."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on WAMC Northeast Public Radio with Alan Chartock.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Governor Cuomo: Good afternoon.
Alan Chartock: And thank you so much, Jim Margolis, for turning over this time to us. So we have a standing invitation out to the governor to come on anytime he thinks there's something to be said, so governor, thanks for being with us, we're very flattered.
Governor Cuomo: Thanks for having me, Alan.
Alan Chartock: Let me start by asking you about the news of the day. President Trump has tweeted recently that just before noon today, he said, thousands of federal government delivered ventilators found in New York storage. New York must distribute now! What's the president talking about?
Governor Cuomo: I don't know. There was a report on Fox last night to that effect. Thousands of ventilators sent and not deployed, they're in a stockpile in New York City. And if I had to guess, I would say that that's where the president got it from. It was a really ignorant point. We are putting together a stockpile, stockpile. Stockpile by definition is you're putting together equipment for when you need to deploy it. We have about, healthcare capacity now of about 50,000 beds. Not all 50,000 beds are filled. We're threatened with going to 140,000 beds at the apex of the coronavirus. We have to be prepared for the 140,000. We're fine where we are right now with equipment in terms of ventilators for the 50,000 beds. The problem is if we go to 140,000. And that's why we're putting together the stockpile and that's why we need the 30,000 ventilators. You don't deploy from a stockpile unless and until you need it. That's the definition of a stockpile. So, it's a sort of sensational but ignorant point, and you know, the president's tweet, if he got it from Fox, you know the old expression, garbage in, garbage out. That's what I would say about that, Alan.
Alan Chartock: You used the ignorant word, the I word. Is he truly ignorant, or is this malicious?
Governor Cuomo: Well, I said the piece on Fox was ignorant. Ignorant as in devoid of fact, it's just not informed, it's not factual, it's not intelligent. It's ignorant of the fact. It's ignoring the fact. We're putting together a stockpile. Look at the word. We're putting together a stockpile. We don't need any of this equipment today. We don't need the ventilators today. We don't need any of the equipment today. Right now, the capacity is going up. I'm sorry, the number of cases are going up, but we're not over capacity today. The apex would bring us double capacity. That's the problem. So to say well, they're not using it now. I mean, I get it's a nice, sensational point, and it sounds like it means something, because people would assume you're requesting equipment for today.
But that's not what this is. We're not requesting equipment for today. Some cases we are. PPE, the gowns, the masks, et cetera, we only have a very short supply of that. Literally, one week, two weeks or so. You have some hospitals saying that they only have a couple of days supply on the PPE. But the ventilators, 30,000 ventilators, that's, that's not until the apex, which we estimate to be 21 days. The president also said he doesn't think we'll need 30,000 ventilators. And I hope he's right. I hope we don't need any ventilators. I hope this virus goes away tomorrow. I hope some weather change that just kills it.
But, I can't operate on a hunch. I have to operate on data and facts and science. We have McKinsey & Company, we have the Weill-Cornell medical institute. I talked to Dr. Fauci, I talked to the World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health. We have a mathematical projection of the caseload increase, based on China and South Korea, and Italy, and the numbers in New York State, and that's where we get our projections. And I have to prepare for that projection. That projection goes to a need of 30,000 ventilators. So I wish it weren't true, and I'm an optimist so I'm hoping we don't need that many. But as a government official, as the Governor, I have to operate on data, I can't operate on my gut instinct about a coronavirus, which by the way, nobody knows anything about the coronavirus. So, that's why I make the assumptions I make based on the projections and the data we have.
Alan Chartock: Do you get furious, I mean personally angry, when the President pulls a move like this and doesn't think about it and just thinks he's going to get away with it. Doesn't it anger you personally?
Governor Cuomo: You know, if it angered one, one would have a serious ulcer by now, right? The President and his Tweets, this has been from day one. You know, they tend to be emotional, they tend to be provocative. I don't think anyone really takes them factually, they're often not correct, they're not based on fact. So I don't know that anyone really takes them as informational, factual Tweets or transfers of knowledge, it's just what he does.
Alan Chartock: But why does he do it? I'm assuming it's political, I'm assuming from where I'm sitting, you're getting all this credit for handling yourself so well and all the factual material you're putting out there, and he's not doing that, he lies. So, if that's the case, maybe this is just, you're not me, I'm getting even with you.
Governor Cuomo: You know, maybe. But who knows, who knows. Maybe coincidental, but today the President also blasted General Motors for being slow on the production of ventilators.
Alan Chartock: Yeah, I wanted to ask about that.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah and that's curious because when the President acknowledged the need for ventilators their strategy was to go to companies that volunteered to help create them.
Alan Chartock: As opposed to?
Governor Cuomo: As opposed to the Defense Production Act when you mandated that they be produced. And the interesting thing, GM was at the top of the list of the companies that were going ventilators. The President basically, really took them to task for being slow today and then also today said, "I don't think New York needs 30,000," and repeated the Fox point that they're not being used. I don't know, maybe they're connected or maybe they're all random thoughts, I don't know. But, my relationship right now with the federal government is not a political relationship, it's a fundamental, Constitutional, operational relationship. And we need the federal government, I asked the federal government today for an additional four temporary hospitals to be built by the Army Corps of Engineers and that's another 1,000 beds that we would have to the count. That's important. So I'm trying to keep politics, emotion out of this and just function as a good partner, cooperative partner in a state-federal relationship, which is where we are now. Look, if the government relationship ever had to work, it has to work now.
Alan Chartock: You were supposed to talk to the President, I understand, today about that, about these additional emergency hospitals. Did you have that conversation?
Governor Cuomo: Not yet, but I will contact him today. I spoke to him a couple of times yesterday.
Alan Chartock: Really? How does that work? How do you get through to the President of the United States? Do you say, "This is Andrew Cuomo on the phone," and he picks up or do you have to go through a lot of red tape to get to him?
Governor Cuomo: Not so much. I call his assistant and sometimes he's available. Sometimes he calls back, but he's always been, he's always made himself available. It's never been that I can't get him and that's been remarkable. I'll tell you the truth, he has a very busy schedule and he's remarkably good at returning my phone calls, that I can tell you. He's highly respectful of that relationship.
Alan Chartock: Vermont has already cancelled the rest of the school year. How likely is it that it'll come back at all in New York?
Governor Cuomo: Well, I'm doing it in two-week tranches. Just because we really don't know what we're dealing with. I cancelled it for two weeks today. I renewed it for another two weeks, Alan. If the numbers don't change in two weeks dramatically, then we would cancel it for another two weeks, but there may come a point in time where you just say, forget it, the numbers aren't changing and the two intervals are no longer rationalized, so just make a decision. But I still want to do two weeks by two weeks because who does know, right? We really don't know what we're dealing with. We have all this past data and trajectories, but maybe God intervenes and does something special for us. And I don't want to say now it's cancelled the rest of the year and all the school districts unwind and the teachers make plans and then have to go back. You can't start the engine once you turn it off.
Alan Chartock: You made a little news talking to us and to others, you said we were going to have to slash education funding. Slash may be too profound a word in the budget, but it's going to cost money. You'll have to come up with that money to balance the budget from somewhere. So, do you mean by that specifically?
Governor Cuomo: What the federal government did, we were waiting. There was one variable before we close the state budget. Which was, what was the federal government going to do in its relief bill? And we found that out when they did their two trillion-dollar plan. And their two trillion-dollar plan has unemployment insurance, and a lot of goodies, small businesses, money for hospitals, money for local governments, a lot of good things in there. But they didn't give any money to state governments and they didn't give money to local governments for non-corona virus issues. So, they gave New York State five billion dollars to use on the corona virus. That totally disregards the point that we have 10 to 15-billion-dollar gap in the budget because revenues just stopped and the federal government postponed the tax filings until June. So, by definition we won't even collect any money until June and in June the receipts will be way done. So, we have a 10 to 15-billion-dollar hole. We have to do a budget in three days. They give us zero for the state budget.
Alan Chartock: So, what are you doing?
Governor Cuomo: Well, there's no option. I said kiddingly to a legislator before, I said, "This is the easiest budget we've done. There's no option. The number is zero. We have no money." So, where do we spend money? It's education. And we don't have money to fund education, certainly at any increased level that we discussed in my initial budget projection. We'll have healthcare money, because they do give five billion dollars to fight corona virus. And the corona virus money I would assume is fairly fungible since everything is corona virus now from a hospital's point of view and they gave hospitals additional funding. When you give a state no relief, then, and you know the state government is looking at 10 to 15 billion dollar whole, they in essence cut education funding. Which is what they did.
Alan Chartock: What are you going to do about that? Where do the school districts get that money, how do they deal with it? They have budgets, they have teachers' salaries that negotiated increases. What do they do?
Governor Cuomo: What we're looking at now is the federal bill does fund school districts. They sort of by-passed local government and funded the needs that they wanted to fund with their federal bill. So we're looking at how much they funded school districts to see how far that will go. We're looking to see how much they funded hospitals to see where that will go. But when they gave nothing to the state, that was it. Also, by the way, this state once again gets clobbered by the federal government. We get - the $5 billion we get for the coronavirus, that's 1.9 percent of our budget, okay? Of our overall budget. We have more coronavirus cases than any state in the United States. They give states out west 10 percent of their budget, 17 percent of their budget, 19 percent of their budget. And they have like four coronavirus cases.
Alan Chartock: So it's pork barrel as usual with those guys. Let me ask you something - we've been getting some calls. Some leaders from upstate New York are calling on you to establish a travel ban on people coming from the New York City area or to establish in order to require them to self-quarantine for 14 days. I don't like it, but I'm not the governor, you are. Would you issue such a ban?
Governor Cuomo: No. I don't like it. I don't like it socially or culturally. I don't like what it says about us as one state, one family. Also I don't believe it's medically justified. Our Health Commissioner Howard Zucker doesn't recommend it.
Alan Chartock: It does seem that when people get into this kind of mess, some people get angry and then you start seeing lines at gun shops to buy even more guns, and then you start thinking about all the domestic politics of people being cooped up together and people having domestic fights. It's very worrisome to me.
Governor Cuomo: Oh, no - this is perilous ground, Alan. This is perilous ground. You're exactly right. You can see how these fabric of society quickly frays. People are under stress. People are frightened I think, first of all, the fear turns into an anger. The possible chaos, "Let me get a gun, let me buy ammo." These shops are overwhelmed apparently. Isolation itself is something, right? If you're isolated alone - people are isolated now, right? My daughter was in isolation. You spend 14 days alone in a home. That's emotionally very stressful. You spend 14 days in a house with kids and your partner - that can be stressful on a much different level. The fear on top of it. You're out of control. Any controlling personality, "How do you deal with this? I can't touch a doorknob, I'm afraid of another human being." It's so difficult on so many levels and so destructive on so many levels.
Alan Chartock: Governor, I only have two minutes of your very valuable time, and I do appreciate you're being with us, but I wanted to ask you something. Senator Schumer did this package that we're looking at now, which you've been somewhat critical of or about. I'm wondering how you and Schumer are getting along, have you talked? He is after all the leader of the Democrats in the Senate.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah no we've talked about it - this state, not only did it take a beating in this bill, but the previous bill that had $6 billion for New York State allocated in Medicaid money, we don't even qualify for because they put in a provision in the bill that you can't make any changes to your Medicaid program, and we're in the middle of MRT, which started back in January and has nothing to do with this bill, the Medicaid Redesign Team. The MRT is finished and I said to all of the congressional delegation, you know we're not even going to get the $6 billion, what they call Medicaid money, from the previous piece of legislation because we redesigned Medicaid to make it more efficient. And it was an MRT that was passed by the Assembly and the Senate, headed by Michael Dowling, Northwell, and Dennis Rivera, former head of 1199. They said, the only excuse I heard, was well unions didn't like it. First of all, what unions did not like it? Dennis Rivera is from 1199. That is the hospital union.
Alan Chartock: Yes.
Governor Cuomo: And, what is that? That's all-time politics. Unions didn't like it, somebody didn't like it, so you just didn't give $6 billion to New York. And the second bill, where we did get no money for the state government. And then you watch, when we cut education funding they are going to say "oh, the State cut education funding." The State, baloney. You don't like your education budget? Go call your federal representative.
Alan Chartock: So, we're out of time. I hate this because I really wanted to talk to you for a while longer. I really do but I was told to cut it off at 3:50.
Governor Cuomo: Well, I am not going anywhere unless you are in a rush.
Alan Chartock: No, I am not. I would like to ask you the next question then if you have a couple seconds.
Governor Cuomo: Go ahead.
Alan Chartock: So, how do you get your job? I mean you have got to figure out not only what you want to spend in the budget, and you have come up with a plan that you can adjust the budget as you go. The legislature clearly may have some problems with that. How do you deal with that?
Governor Cuomo: I don't know if they have any problems with it because I do not know what the alternative is. We are going to have to adjust down the initial - The legislature was waiting for this federal bill. And they all assumed the federal bill would have an amount of funding for the state government. So, that is why we are all sitting here waiting. So, everybody is shocked. I don't know what alternative we have. We have to revise down the initial projection because we just don't have the money. And then well maybe the economy will come back, maybe it's a couple months, maybe it's six months, maybe the federal government will actually act responsibly and pass a bill that helps the state. So, what we are thinking is we revise down the initial projection and then we do basically a quarterly update that reflects the actual finances.
Alan Chartock: Well is that in a day? Is that you? Does the legislature get to participate in these decisions? Because the way I read it, maybe the newspapers were not quite right on this, that you wanted that power for yourself as opposed to sharing it with the legislature. What's up?
Governor Cuomo: No, I'm saying what I'm talking about is make it a pure mathematical formula. We do the initial budget. We do the reductions and then we say this is what you will get. You will get $100 if we have $100 and then we will tell you mathematically how much money we have versus that $100 every quarter. So, it is like local government can look at the bank statement and you will know exactly what we get and what we are paying out.
Alan Chartock: But how do you plan for that? In other words, you make a budget and the schools go out and say "okay, this is what we have to spend." And all of a sudden you hear from the legislature and the Governor it is going to be less.
Governor Cuomo: Well, at first, you do not plan until we pass the budget. That is the only good news. They did not have anything to plan against. They had my projected number, but they know my projected number is just my projected number. They don't get a number until the budget comes out. So, the budget projection will be a number for them to plan against. They will then have to deal with a certain level of uncertainty which I also have to deal with. Here is the number. I can tell you this is going to be the number today. I can't tell you if it is going to be more, but here are quarterly updates that you are going to get. So, you will know what I know when I know it.
Alan Chartock: Now, the leaders of both houses Governor, have you spoken to them about this plan? Are they on board or are they balking?
Governor Cuomo: Well, it's never been here before but I don't know what our option is. I don't know what our finances are going forward. They don't know what our finances are going forward. We do know the hole we're in on day one so I think it's the most honest way to do this. Here is the initial projection and then if the money comes in we'll give it to you. If the money doesn't come in we're not going to be able to give it to you.
Alan Chartock: Now you've always been proud of the fact that you've been able to pass these budgets on time. Doesn't look good this year, right? Am I wrong?
Governor Cuomo: Well, there is an incentive for everyone to do it because it is professionalism. It is one of the indicators of pay increases. It is one of the indicators of a successful legislative session. They can do it on time. I mean there's not a lot of good news in it but again there's not a lot to argue about. There is no money to spend. You can't spend a lot of time Alan arguing about how to spend it.
Alan Chartock: I'm sure that the teachers unions and the others are going to land on these, your legislative colleagues, and say, hey, help, help, help. There may be a tendency to make you into the bad guy.
Governor Cuomo: Then fine. Let the Legislature say, okay, here is my alternative. I can turn loaves and fishes, you know. I can make them multiply. Look, every interest group, every lobbyist gets paid to say one word which is 'more'. I need more. It is really hard in this environment to come forward and say, the economy is crashing down but I should be held harmless from all of reality. I'm sure some of them will not have a problem doing it but it really is on the edge of ridiculousness.
Alan Chartock: Are you watching your own health, Governor? We see Brian Miller has tested positive, the fourth member of the State Legislature, Assemblyman Brian Miller. Obviously a lot of us aren't going out of our houses. I'm one of them. But every time I turn on the TV or see you you're with other people. Are you cognizant of the fact that you could get sick?
Governor Cuomo: Yes. But I'm also cognizant of the fact that I have a job to do now, Alan, and I don't have that luxury frankly of just worrying about my own health and every day, every day, it weighs on me that police officers are going out there, nurses are going out there, first responders. I was with the National Guard today. I called up these people, I brought them out of their home, I brought them into harm's way, I did that, it was in the best interest of the state but I did that and I said to them what I've said to the National Guard by the way in every circumstance. I will never ask you to do anything that I won't do myself and I'll never ask you to go anywhere that I won't go myself.
Alan Chartock: Should we be doing more? I got a letter from a lady today, her son picks up the materials for the prisons where they're manufacturing and has to deliver it and she's scared because they have no masks, they have nothing to wear and she said, will you call you friend the Governor and see what he can do? You must get this every minute.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, I get it every minute. I get it every minute and there's never enough that you can do because what they're really saying is why should my friend, my brother, my son, be in a place of danger? And there's no good answer to that, Alan. It's public service. It's public duty. It's community spirit. It's we have to keep the place running. The lights have to be on. The food has to be in the grocery store. We need hand sanitizer and people sacrifice themselves and take risks. And so yeah, I'm not going to sit at home and say everybody else I'm going to call the National Guard and I'm going to just protect myself. I'm not build that way. I can't do it. I can't do it in good conscience. That's not what this job is. I don't believe that's what this job is and if that's what it takes I'm not willing to do it. I'll tell you God's honest truth. I spoke to Dr. Zucker. He makes the same point that you make. You're in these situations. You expose yourself and I'm asking thousands of people to do that every day. I'm not going to do it myself. I can't do it.
Alan Chartock: Governor, thank you so much. I can't tell you how we appreciate the fact that you're honoring us by talking to us and telling us what you're thinking and feeling and I very much appreciate it. That's a personal remark and anybody who doesn't like it, tough noogies. That's the way I feel about it and thank you so much for being with us.
Governor Cuomo: Thank you. I love that - tough noogies. I'm haven't heard that in a while. I'm going to use that. Thank you, Alan.
Alan Chartock: Okay.
Governor Cuomo: Thanks. Bye.
March 27, 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
Governor Cuomo: "This is no time for politics. This is a time for exquisite coordination between the federal government and the state governments because we need each other."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront with Erin Burnett.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Erin Burnett: Governor Cuomo joins me now on the phone. Governor, you were listening to Trump in his briefing a few moments ago and he said some of the governors haven't been appreciative. He wants governors to be appreciative. He said the multiple times. He said you are among those who have been appreciative. Is that the case what is your response to the President?
Governor Cuomo: I said I've been working closely with the President. This is no time for politics. This is a time for exquisite coordination between the federal government and the state governments because we need each other. The federal government is basically using the state governments as the instrumentality so I said to the President, I put my hand out in partnership. We've had political differences in the past. Forget about that. Let's work together and help me deliver for my people. My state as you said has the highest number of cases in the country. The President has been very cooperative. I'll tell you something else, Erin. I applaud the President on his use of the Defense Production Act in his conversation about General Motors. Good for him. That gives him the muscle of the lot to get companies to actually respond to the production of ventilators which is exactly what we.
Erin Burnett: So let me ask you on that point, General Motors is telling me that this won't change anything that they're doing. They're all out and producing at cost. They do say it will change his ability in terms of ordering things and streamlining. Would you agree with that, or would you say that companies like General Motors were dragging their feet?
Governor Cuomo: Dragging their feet suggests a pejorative. When you use the Defense Production Act and you have the law on your side you can basically order a private company to do something, to manufacture a product. It's a extreme measure no doubt but this is an extreme time. From the President's point of view, from what he said, General Motors was not delivering the product and not gearing up. And look, if a corporation is dealing with it's normal timeframe that suits them, that is one thing, but here the President is saying, I need this product, and I need it fast. If it will cost more money to accelerate the design and coming up to speed and so be it and the federal government will pay it. He's right. These ventilators are going to be a matter of life and death and whether they're delivered in four weeks or six weeks or 10 weeks or 12 weeks, you're talking tens of thousands of lives that will be relying on it.
Erin Burnett: I want to give you a chance to say to people watching right now, last night the President said I don't believe you need 30 or 40,000 ventilators talking about you in New York, sort of saying now, can we order 30,000 ventilators? What do you say to him? Why are you so sure that you are going to need at least that number?
Governor Cuomo: I hope the President is right. I'll go better than what the President said. I hope I don't need any ventilators. I hope this is a bad dream and it all disappears tomorrow. But I can't govern that way. I govern on the data and on the numbers and on the science. I have projections done by some of the best companies on the globe. I am talking to world health leaders, Dr. Fauci, studying what's happening in China, South Korea, etcetera. If you look at the numbers and the trajectory, we are looking at 40,000 possible ventilators, 140,000 possible hospital beds. Those are the numbers, Erin. I don't get into hope and emotion. When it comes to actual planning and a plan of action, use the numbers. We use the science, the data.
Erin Burnett: So the President then said in the briefing, I don't know if you heard this, Governor, because I know you have a lot going on, but he did say that they had shipped you a lot of ventilators and they had sent them to a warehouse, he referenced a warehouse in New Jersey, and that you were still complaining about them, but they were there, and you just weren't aware that they were actually in the warehouse, but that he had delivered many ventilators. Is that true that they were they in a warehouse and you did not know about?
Governor Cuomo: That's the first I've heard the warehouse was in New Jersey, funny way of delivering it to New York. But I knew very well that the federal government delivered 4,000 ventilators. We have been buying ventilators on our own. The ventilators are in a stockpile, they are not yet deployed because we do not need them yet. Right? The whole concept of a stockpile is to build up the reserve so when you hit the apex of the curve you have the supplies. I have enough ventilators today. I'm not worried about today, I'm at about 48,000 people in the hospitals today. I am worried about the apex of the curve that they project that takes that 48,000 to 140,000. And that is when I need ventilators and more PPE and et cetera. And that's what the stockpile is for - by definition a stockpile is not for immediate deployment.
Erin Burnett: Right. Before we go, I want to ask one other thing, because you talked about possibly being 21 days away from the peak in New York. The U.S. Surgeon General today though says he's hopeful that cases will actually start to come down next week in New York. Do you, have you seen any data that would support that conclusion?
Governor Cuomo: Yeah again, these words, Erin, hopeful, you know I don't relate to that concept in this. You have numbers, you have projections by medical experts. I don't know how you can make that statement nationwide because you have different curves in different parts of the country. You have one curve in L.A., one curve in New York, one curve in Florida, do I don't know how you could even say—
Erin Burnett: He said specifically New York.
Governor Cuomo: Oh, well then I don't know what numbers he's looking at because he's not looking at any numbers, any science, any data or any expert that I have heard from. And I don't see how you can plot those numbers that are moving steadily up, have not slowed at all, and think that they are going to turn in in a week.
Erin Burnett: Governor Cuomo, I appreciate your time, thank you, sir.
Governor Cuomo: Good to be with you.
March 27, 2020.
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-msnbcs-all-chris-hayes
Governor Cuomo: "This can't be personal and it can't be political because literally we are on the cusp of losing thousands of people who did not have to die, Chris. That is what the ventilators are about. They did not have to die. If we do what we have to do."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Chris Hayes: Joining me now by phone, a man currently managing this crisis in what is the epicenter of the pandemic globally. the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. Governor, thank you for some making time. I want to start on the ventilator issue. The president seems to think the estimate of needing 30,000 ventilators he feels is too high, that you're over estimating how much you're going to need. What's your response to that?
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, well, Chris, listening to your lead-in and thank you for having me. You're exactly right. This comes down to ventilators. And by the way, it did in China, it did in South Korea, it did in Italy and it did as soon as the numbers started to break here. And it is unusual. The number of ventilators we have in our health care system when you add up all the hospitals in the State of New York is about 4,000. We need about 40,000 here. This is a disease that is a respiratory disease. People are on the ventilators and the ventilators are a matter of life and death. And they're on ventilators longer with this disease than most other diseases. The average length of stay on a ventilator is about four to five days. Here it's about 20 days. Which is one of the reasons why you need so many. The president says 30,000 sounds high. You know, I don't know what the basis is. I don't know have a medical degree. So what I do is I just study the numbers and the science and the data and I follow the data. We have McKinsey & Company, we have and Weill-Cornell medical center, I talked to the World Health Organization, look at the models of China, look at the models of South Korea, look at the models of Italy and look at the models of the numbers in my state, you see it takes you to 40,000 ICU beds, with ventilators, and 140,000 hospital beds. That's what the numbers say at apex. So I plan by the numbers. And I don't know how to do it any other way, Chris.
Chris Hayes: Where are you right now? I think I know when this went into it, you said the state had 4,000, I think there was maybe another 7,000, some of which did come from the federal government. How far are you from what the state needs right now to handle that peak if it comes at what the model suggestions?
Governor Cuomo: We're scrambling to buy them all across the globe. One of the things that has happened here is because the states were left on their own to purchase, in a cruel irony, the states are bidding against other states, Chris, for the same materials and they're actually bidding up the price. So I'll get an order for ventilators and I'll have a company say I'll send you 5,000 ventilators in three weeks and then they call me back and they say sorry, I sold them to Illinois or California or Florida. That's the situation we're in. I need about 30,000. we're about halfway there, counting orders that we have. We've gotten 4,000 from the federal government. I had 4,000 in our hospital system. we bought about 7,000 and then we have a scattering of orders which may or may not come in. One other point on something you mentioned. I applaud the president for using the Defense Production Act. I said last week he should have used it. This is not a time to be bargaining with corporations or relying on the volunteerism of corporations. We need these ventilators and we need them now. Not when the corporation decides it's convenient for them to do the design and to put a new line in operation. You're talking about my possible apex is 14 days away. If I don't have the ventilators in 14 days, Chris, people die.
Chris Hayes: You know, that strikes me as part of the difference in which governors, I think, across the spectrum generally and the president have approached this, which is a kind of planning for the worst and hope you're wrong, right? So, if you get too many ventilators, what's the worst thing in the world that happens as opposed to planning for the optimistic case scenario and erring on the other side? What are the stakes if you're wrong in the wrong direction for people in New York, sick people in New York?
Governor Cuomo: No, you're exactly right. The difference is somebody who's been out there and somebody who's been through it and somebody who hasn't, right? I used to be in the federal government as you know, I was HUD secretary and I've done floods, hurricanes, all sorts of disasters. Yeah, maybe send out too much equipment. So what? The real crime and the heartburn is if you have too little. So, and I'm not even taking an aggressive model. I have a reasonable numeric model based on our numbers and again, you have a whole world of data going back to China. And we're just asking for what we need for our reasonable model. I'm not -- because many of these I'm paying with state money. And these ventilators, they're about $25,000 each, Chris. So I'm not eager to buy more ventilators than I have to
Chris Hayes: Right. You had been a critic of the relief bill that has now been passed and signed because of precisely the issue you're articulating here, whether there was sufficient money for the state. Obviously, all these states are scrambling, they're going to be paying out-of-pocket for these things, as they should, this emergency funding, less money will be coming in in taxes. Every state is going to be walloped with a deficit. Do you think what came out of Washington today is sufficient for the kind of hole that New York is going to be looking at?
Governor Cuomo: No, it's not everyone close. Look, the bill, they all applauded themselves. The bill did a lot of good -- the unemployment insurance is good, the small business aid is good, the health care aid is good. But they left out a very important function, which are the state governments and local governments. You know, my economy is shut down like everybody else's. I have no revenue, and all I have are expenses. And none of the aid went to a state government. Now, it's not like it's my money and I'm going to go out and buy something. If you starve the state government, where -- what I fund is education. And I fund health care. So when I have no budget, Chris, it means I have to turn around and cut schools all across my state and cut health care all across my state. It makes no sense. Now, you know, states don't have a voting constituency, right? You can't come and hand me a big check so it's not as politically advantageous when you do a bill in Washington. But I think it was shortsighted and I think they say they're going come back but you know, who knows.
Chris Hayes: There's been, I think the state announced the release of some prisoners in New York State. I know that New York State has a very large elderly prisoner population in the state. There is real concern about incarcerated folks in the state, particularly those elderly folks and the susceptibility to the coronavirus, the prisons as vectors for infection, particularly when you have COs and other people that are going to be coming in and out and going into rural areas that maybe have fewer hospitals. What steps are you taking to deal with that? Are you considering trying to decarcerate some of these places to get out ahead of that?
Governor Cuomo: You know, we have been very aggressive, Chris, number one in bail reform in general. We passed one of the most sweeping bill reform bills in the history of the State of New York so we're incarcerating fewer people than ever before and taking special measures for this virus situation. For example, we're releasing people who are in jails because they violated parole for non-serious reasons. And wherever we can get people out of jails, out of prisons now we are. We also put in additional protections in the prisons to try to protect both the workers and the prisoners.
Chris Hayes: Just one follow-up and then I'll ask a question about the White House and then I will let you get back to work. You just touted bail reform. You're not trying to do that right now? There is reporting that you are.
Governor Cuomo: No, there is a discussion back and forth between the houses. It was a sweeping bill we did on bail reform and many times when you make a change, a basic change in a complex system, you have to go back and do some fine tuning. And that's what we're dealing with between the houses of the legislature but that's usual. You go near a system like education or health care or the criminal justice system and you change the major gear in the system. You then often have to come back and make some other adjustments to make it work.
Chris Hayes: Final question for you and I will let you get back to work. The relationship between this President and governors has been tempestuous in many cases. Today he talked about the Governor of Michigan and called her 'that lady' and told Mike Pence that he advised Mike Pence not to call the Governor of Michigan and not to call the Governor of Washington because they were insufficiently appreciative. How does that hit your ears as you are in up to your neck in this crisis and you hear the governor -- the President essentially saying everybody has to be sufficiently appreciative or they won't get the help they need?
Governor Cuomo: Chris, by the question, I would be doing my state a disservice if I now attack the president, right? Let me just say this, I probably have been the number one critic of President Trump since he got into office and we've had some real battles and his tweets, has tweeted nasty stuff about me and about my family. On this situation, I said to him, look, forget the politics. Let's put it aside. It's very simple. I need help. You're the federal government and this relationship has to work or a lot of people die. You do the right thing by my state and I will be appreciative and vice versa. And that's how it has been working. He has been responsive. He's done a lot of good things. He has the Army Corps of Engineers in our state, FEMA. He waived the 25% state match, which is a big deal. So he has been very helpful and corporative overall and when we have differences I say we have differences. We had a difference on the Defense Production Act, et cetera. I'm not shy when we have a disagreement but when things are working well I say that, also. This can't be personal and it can't be political because literally we are on the cusp of losing thousands of people who did not have to die, Chris. That is what the ventilators are about. They did not have to die. If we do what we have to do.
Chris Hayes: Governor, Andrew Cuomo, I appreciate you taking the time this night.
Governor Cuomo: Thank you. My pleasure, Chris.
March 28, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic: 'See if You Can't Find a Silver Lining in All of This'. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-see-if-you
Governor Cuomo: "People come up with all of these interesting ideas, you know. Who's painting their house because they never had time to paint their house before. Who's working on a project that they never got to. Who's reading a book that they never got to do. Who's writing a book. A few people say I'm writing my journals, I'm writing my life story. You know, find a way. You have the advantage of time here."
Governor Cuomo: "I'm not trying to say it's not a terrible circumstance, but even in a terrible circumstance, if you look hard enough, you can find the little rays, a few rays of light, and people are doing it and I think we all should."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo urged New Yorkers to find a silver lining in the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic, using the time they have unexpectedly been given for new and productive use.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
My gratuitous two cents, see if you can't find a silver lining in all of this. People say extraordinary things to me that I just pick up anecdotally. I was going for a walk with one of my daughters and Captain, Captain's my dog. People come up with all of these interesting ideas, you know. Who's painting their house because they never had time to paint their house before. Who's working on a project that they never got to. Who's reading a book that they never got to do. Who's writing a book. A few people say I'm writing my journals, I'm writing my life story. You know, find a way. You have the advantage of time here. And you have the advantage of time for communication. I've had conversations with my daughters, hours-long conversations, where it's just us, just us talking. No place to go. She doesn't have to go to work. She doesn't have to run out. And they're priceless, they are priceless. I'll never get the opportunity in life to do that again. You know, we're going to get through this, and they're going to go off and find a boyfriend, and do whatever they do. I've had conversations with my mother, who can't leave the house, and she's in the house, and so we sort of take turns talking to Mom. And I talked to my mother for hours. And it's special. It's special. So, yes, it's terrible. And I'm not trying to say it's not a terrible circumstance, but even in a terrible circumstance, if you look hard enough, you can find the little rays, a few rays of light, and people are doing it and I think we all should.
March 28, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Issues Executive Order Moving New York Presidential Primary Election to June 23rd. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-issues-executive-order-moving-new-york
Issues Executive Order to Enable Moving Tax Filing Deadline for Personal and Corporate Taxes to July 15th
New York State's Wadsworth Lab Has Started Evaluating New Antibody Test
Governor Announces Three New Sites to Add 695 Hospital Beds to the State's Capacity; State Will Begin Using Some Facilities Only for Patients with COVID-19
Following Governor's Request, Federal Government Has Approved Four Additional Sites for Temporary Hospitals
First 1,000-Bed Temporary Hospital at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Expected to Open Monday
70 Non-Profit Organizations Statewide Will Receive $7.5 Million in Operating Support Funds to Provide Technical Assistance to Small Business Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
Confirms 7,681 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 52,318; New Cases in 44 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo is issuing 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.
Governor Cuomo also issued an executive order to enable the tax filing deadline for personal and corporate taxes to be pushed back to July 15. The federal government took similar action earlier this month.
The Governor also announced that the State Department of Health Wadsworth Lab is working in partnership with others labs to evaluate antibody testing that is designed to help very sick COVID-19 patients.
The Governor also announced three new sites - South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island, Westchester Square in the Bronx and Health Alliance in Ulster County - to serve as a place for emergency beds. The three new sites will add 695 more beds to the state's capacity. Additionally, in a new approach, the State will begin designating some facilities only for COVID-19 patients. The state has identified three sites - South Beach Psychiatric Facility in Staten Island, Westchester Square in the Bronx and SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn - that will provide more than 600 beds specifically for COVID-19 patients.
Following a conversation with President Trump this morning, Governor Cuomo also announced the federal government has approved four new sites for temporary hospitals for construction by the Army Corps of Engineers - the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the Aqueduct Racetrack facility in Queens, CUNY Staten Island and the New York Expo Center in the Bronx - adding an additional 4,000 beds to the state's capacity. The Governor toured the four sites yesterday. These temporary hospital sites are part of the Governor's goal of having a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in each New York City borough as well as in Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Every emergency situation is unique, but the number one rule is always plan ahead and be proactive — and that's exactly what we have been trying to do
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
"Every emergency situation is unique, but the number one rule is always plan ahead and be proactive — and that's exactly what we have been trying to do," Governor Cuomo said. "Our mission is to be prepared and have the proper equipment, supplies, facilities and personnel when the apex hits. We are continuing to advance emergency measures that reduce density as much as possible, and to that end we are going to delay the presidential primary election until June because it's not wise to be bringing large numbers of people to one place to vote."
The Governor also announced that the first 1,000-bed temporary hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is expected to open on Monday. The temporary hospital site was constructed in one week.
The Governor also announced that the Empire State Development Board of Directors approved $7.5 million in COVID-19 Business Counseling support to 70 non-profit partners across New York State. The funding will enable these organizations to provide small businesses with necessary guidance to secure disaster assistance, such as Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to 24 Entrepreneurship Assistance Centers and up to 23 Small Business Development Centers will receive $5 million, with an additional $2.5 million awarded to up to 23 Community Development Financial Institutions.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 7,681 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 52,318 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 52,318 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
195
8
Allegany
2
0
Broome
23
5
Cattaraugus
1
1
Cayuga
2
0
Chautauqua
5
4
Chemung
12
1
Chenango
8
4
Clinton
12
1
Columbia
22
2
Cortland
5
1
Delaware
8
0
Dutchess
262
37
Erie
318
99
Essex
4
0
Franklin
4
2
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
7
1
Greene
7
1
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
9
0
Jefferson
6
3
Livingston
5
2
Madison
19
2
Monroe
192
32
Montgomery
5
0
Nassau
5537
880
Niagara
33
10
NYC
29766
4368
Oneida
23
10
Onondaga
129
14
Ontario
16
2
Orange
1101
190
Orleans
3
0
Oswego
7
3
Otsego
7
2
Putnam
131
20
Rensselaer
38
3
Rockland
1896
439
Saratoga
96
14
Schenectady
72
6
Schoharie
5
2
Schuyler
1
1
St. Lawrence
8
5
Steuben
13
1
Suffolk
4138
753
Sullivan
72
8
Tioga
4
2
Tompkins
45
19
Ulster
128
29
Warren
13
5
Washington
6
0
Wayne
12
1
Westchester
7875
688
Wyoming
7
0
March 28, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Issues Executive Order Moving New York Presidential Primary Election to June 23rd. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-issues
Issues Executive Order to Enable Moving Tax Filing Deadline for Personal and Corporate Taxes to July 15th
New York State's Wadsworth Lab Has Started Evaluating New Antibody Test
Governor Announces Three New Sites to Add 695 Hospital Beds to the State's Capacity; State Will Begin Using Some Facilities Only for Patients with COVID-19
Following Governor's Request, Federal Government Has Approved Four Additional Sites for Temporary Hospitals
First 1,000-Bed Temporary Hospital at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Expected to Open Monday
70 Non-Profit Organizations Statewide Will Receive $7.5 Million in Operating Support Funds to Provide Technical Assistance to Small Business Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
Confirms 7,681 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 52,318; New Cases in 44 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "There's an old expression, you go to war with what you have, not with what you need. Which is true. When the bell goes off and you have to go to war, you deal with what you have because it's too late to do the preparation. The but on that is until you're in that situation, do everything you can do to be prepared for it."
Cuomo: "This is not a sprint, my friends, this is a marathon. You have to gauge yourself. You have to understand that this is going to be a long-term situation, and even though it's so disruptive, and so abrupt, and so shocking, it's also long-term. And each of us has to do our own part to adjust to it. It is a new reality. It's a shocking new reality. There is no easy answer. We're all working our way through it, and we all have to figure out a way to get through it."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced he is issuing an executive order to move the presidential primary election from April 28 to June 23rd, aligning it with the congressional and legislative primaries in New York.
Governor Cuomo also issued an executive order to enable the tax filing deadline for personal and corporate taxes to be pushed back to July 15. The Federal government took similar action earlier this month.
The Governor also announced that the State Department of Health Wadsworth Lab is working in partnership with others labs to evaluate antibody testing that is designed to help very sick COVID-19 patients.
The Governor also announced three new sites - South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island, Westchester Square in the Bronx and Health Alliance in Ulster County - to serve as a place for emergency beds. The three new sites will add 695 more beds to the state's capacity. Additionally, in a new approach, the State will begin designating some facilities only for COVID-19 patients. The state has identified three sites - South Beach Psychiatric Facility in Staten Island, Westchester Square in the Bronx and SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn - that will provide more than 600 beds specifically for COVID-19 patients.
Following a conversation with President Trump this morning, Governor Cuomo also announced the federal government has approved four new sites for temporary hospitals for construction by the Army Corps of Engineers - the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the Aqueduct Racetrack facility in Queens, CUNY Staten Island and the New York Expo Center in the Bronx - adding an additional 4,000 beds to the state's capacity. The Governor toured the four sites yesterday. These temporary hospital sites are part of the Governor's goal of having a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in each New York City borough as well as in Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.
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.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Let's talk to you about where we are. Today, this is a situation which none of us have ever seen before and it manifests itself in many different ways. There's economic anxiety. People are out of work. What does this mean? Unemployment insurance, will it cover the bills. There's isolation. There's fear of the unknown, there's misinformation. You put it together, it is very disorienting, to say the least. If you're feeling disoriented, it's not you. It's everyone, and it's everywhere, and it's with good cause. Today is Saturday. You know how I know today is Saturday? Because my alarm clock said Saturday when I woke up this morning. But if you drive around, it doesn't seem like Saturday, right? Saturday is the day that people are off work, except people were off work yesterday. Saturday is the day that the traffic is lighter. But the traffic was lighter yesterday. So, it's literally one day blending into the other. And just as a matter of perspective, a matter of context, this feels like it's been going on forever. But it really hasn't. New York State had its first case of COVID just 27 days ago. New York schools closed only ten days ago. The New Rochelle cluster, which was the highest cluster in the United States, which, thanks to the good work of our health department, has now come down. That was 18 days ago when we started the school closings in New Rochelle and started the testing and the drive-throughs. The overall shutdown of non-essential workers was only eight days ago. Feels like a lifetime.
Perspective, well, how long does this go on? How long do we expect it? China, which was the first test case, right, first case was 12 weeks ago. That's when it started in China. South Korea started nine weeks ago. Italy about eight weeks ago. South Korea started nine weeks ago. Italy about eight weeks ago. So keep it all in perspective during this disorienting time where one day is blurring into the next. A lot of people ask me why is there so much talk about the ventilators? I never heard about a ventilator before. You're not alone, I never really heard about a ventilator before either.
But every emergency situation is unique and every emergency situation winds up focusing on an issue that you would have never thought of before. We've been through emergency situations, Superstorm Sandy. We needed 1,000 portable generators immediately. Whoever heard of needing 1,000 portable generators? We had flooding in the northern part of the state. We need 700 miles of sandbags. Whoever heard of needing 700 miles of sandbags? So there's always a particular circumstance that winds up developing in these situations that really you could never anticipate.
And in this situation, it is about a ventilator. Why? Because the majority of these patients, they're not coming in needing surgery, you know. It's all the same. It's a respiratory illness. Their lungs are damaged. They're having trouble breathing. They have a cough and they all need a ventilator. And that is the peculiarity of this situation. Compounding it is usually when we equip a healthcare system, people are usually on a ventilator for three or four days. With COVID patients, they're on for 11 to 21 days. That then compounds the ventilator issue. Not only do you need more, but people are on them longer, so you need even more, and that increases the problem.
I think the president was right to use the Defense Production Act. What the Defense Production Act basically says is I'm not going to ask private companies to help out, and it's great that we have volunteers, et cetera, but the Defense Production Act gives the federal government significant leverage to actually say, I need these produced and I need these produced by X date. Now, the federal government still pays. They pay an increased cost for the accelerated production, but it gives the federal government the ability to do that. And when it comes to ventilators, they are the necessity in this situation. What do I do as governor? Basically, I ask people who know, I ask the experts a lot of questions.
And just staying on the ventilators, well, what if? What if? What if? What if we can't get the ventilators? What do we do if we don't have enough ventilators? Then you use bag valve masks. What is a valve bag mask? This is a bag valve mask. This is what you do if you have a person that needs a ventilator, and you don't have a ventilator. The way this works is it's basically a manual ventilator and someone squeezes the ventilator, the bag, continuously. This looks easy. I guarantee, if you do this for any length of time, you see how difficult it winds up being. This is the alternative if you don't have the ventilator. We are actually buying these. We bought about 3,000. We've ordered about an additional 4,000 of these bag valve masks. We've even talking about training National Guard people to learn how to operate this device, which is relatively simple to operate, but you need a lot of people to operate this 24 hours a day for each patient, right? So those are bag valve masks. They're the alternative to ventilators and short answer is, no thank you. If we have to turn to this device on any large-scale basis that is not an acceptable situation. So we go back to finding the ventilators because we need the ventilators.
Well, you need 30,000 ventilators. Do you really need 30,000 ventilators? Look, I'm not a medical expert. Even the medical experts can't tell you what you're going to need here at the high point. They do numerical projections and then you plan based on the projection. You plan based on the data, based on the science, based on the numbers. The data says at that high point of need, you could need 140,000 hospital beds and you could need 30,000 ventilators. That's what the numerical projections say. So we're planning for that quote, unquote worst case scenario which the models predict. Maybe we never get there, maybe we flatten the curve and we slow the infection rate so we never get to that point and that's what we're trying to do and we're working on that day and night. But, if we can't flatten the curve, you can't slow the infection rate, you hit that apex, make sure you're ready for the apex and that's where the 30,000 ventilators come in.
I have no desire to procure more ventilators than we need. On a very practical basis, the state is buying most of the ventilators. The ventilators cost between $25,000 to $45,000 each. So they're very expensive and you're talking about a state government that quite frankly is already in a, from a position of revenue, in a terrible position because we're not collecting any revenues, literally. So I don't want to buy any more ventilators than we need to buy on a very parochial basis. I don't want to pay for them and after this is over, we'll have a great stockpile of ventilators whatever we do, but the state has no interest in inflating the number of ventilators that we actually need.
Something interesting about the price of ventilators. When we started buying them they were about $25,000. Now, they're about $45,000. Why? Because they're in such demand and there's such competition to buy the ventilators, which I'll touch in a moment. The government has sent us 4,000 ventilators. Those 4,000 ventilators are not currently in use. Why? Because we don't need them currently. What we're doing is we're planning for that apex. We're planning for the critical need and making sure we have the equipment to staff the beds for that critical need. We're not at that critical need. Projections change, but the models say you're 14-21 days away from that apex we call it, when that curve hits the highest point. But when the curve hits the highest point, it is too late to try to acquire what you need. Acquire what you need, that's the concept of putting together a stockpile and that's the process we're going through now. We only have 14-21 days so it's not a significant amount of time, but do everything you can to get ready now.
There's an old expression, you go to war with what you have, not with what you need. Which is true. When the bell goes off and you have to go to war, you deal with what you have because it's too late to do the preparation. The but on that is until you're in that situation, do everything you can do to be prepared for it. If they tell you you're going to go to war in 14-21 days then spend the next 14-21 days getting ready everything you would need when you actually have to go to war. For us, the war would fully engage if and when we hit that apex. And that's why everything we're doing now is in anticipation of that. Flatten the curve so the apex never happens. God forbid the apex happens, make sure we have as much of the equipment, staff, et cetera that we would need for that moment.
A few updates. They still forecast the apex to be 14-21 days. Again, that changes on the modeling every time the case load goes up or down a little bit that effects the calculation on the apex. What do you need at the apex? One hundred and forty thousand beds. That's hospital beds, dormitory beds, we're working on that every day and we're getting closer and closer to that 140,000 number. PPE equipment: right now we have enough PPE in stock and all the local health systems say they have enough PPE in stock, short term. No one has enough long term so we're still buying and we're still talking to the federal government about acquiring more PPE. There is a concern among health care professionals because the CDC guidelines suggest a different protocol for PPE and masks depending on the condition and apparently there is a crisis set of guidelines that the CDC puts out for how often you change a gown, how often you change your mask, et cetera in a crisis. And the CDC has put those crisis guidelines in place and many health care professionals are concerned that those guidelines do not adequately protect the nurses and the doctors and the health care staff that are working on this issue. Dr. Zucker is looking at that. If we believe the CDC guidelines don't protect health care professionals, we will put our own guidelines in place. You have a bed, you have the equipment, you need the staff and that's where we're working on bringing more reserves staff and putting that reserve staffing capacity in place and that's going very well, and back to our favorite ventilator quest.
Word to the local health systems, we need the local health systems to think more holistically. In other words, you'll have a regional health system with Western New York, Central New York, New York City and they'll have a number of hospitals. You can have a single hospital get overwhelmed within that system. You can have the staff get overwhelmed. You can have one hospital where they run low on supplies. The local health systems have to choose their orientation where it's not hospital by hospital, which is the normal culture - every hospital is free standing on its own, and is its own entity and buys its owner equipment, has its own staff, et cetera. I need the local health systems to change their orientation and operate and plan as if that system is one. If you see a local hospital getting overwhelmed, shift to an adjoining hospital, both within the public system and the private system. Your public hospitals and then you have private hospitals, voluntary hospitals. We have to stop operating as individual hospitals, and they have to operate as a system. I need the local officials to that.
So patients can and should be moved among those local hospitals as the need requires. Staff can and should be moved among those local hospitals as circumstances require. State department of health has not only advised that but has mandated that. It's not the normal operating culture but it is a necessity in this situation, because depending on where a hospital is, you'll have hospitals getting overwhelmed because they'll happen to be in an area where there are not a lot of other hospitals, or because that's a hot zone, cluster zone, that hospital gets overwhelmed. All right. Shift, cooperate, plan as a local health system. There may come a point where the state steps in and actually allocates among local health systems. This is when I said the other day, you may have patients from downstate New York to Upstate New York. Why? Because if the entire local health system in downstate New York gets overwhelmed or the local health system on Long Island gets overwhelmed, and the Long Island health system says to me, "Look, we've allocated and have eight hospitals. We allocated everything we can among our eight hospitals. We're still overwhelmed." Well then we'll shift the burden literally to a different health system. And I just want them to anticipate that and see that's coming.
We have asked the pharmacies to cooperate above and beyond here and do free home delivery. There are long lines of pharmacies right now. That's not good for anyone. I'm going to be speaking with some of the major pharmacy chains today to ask if they would be cooperative but this would be a very big benefit. I understand it a hardship on the pharmacies to provide home delivery, I'm asking them to do it free of charge, but it will make a very big difference.
Also, the Department of Health is monitoring the density and activity in the New York City parks, specifically on the playgrounds. This has been a problem. We spoke about it last week. The New York City Mayor de Blasio and the Speaker Corey Johnson have spoken to this and gave us a plan. We accepted the plan. The plan is premised on the fact that people will reduce the density in playgrounds - no basketball, no contact sports, social distancing. There have been reports that is not happening and it's not in compliance. Speaker Johnson has made this point and I believe he's right. So if the density compliance is not working on a voluntary basis, we could get to a point where we will close those playgrounds. So I again ask the people in New York City, especially young people, take this seriously, for yourself and for others and let's do it on a voluntary basis. We're also now administering 1,100 tests of the hydroxychloroquine and the Zithromax. This is the prescription the President is optimistic about, we hope to be optimistic also, but we're now using it on a large scale basis particularly in the New York City hospitals and we'll be getting results soon.
Javits will open Monday - I was there yesterday. It's a 1,000 bed emergency hospital. It is amazing what the Army Corps of Engineers did in a short time. It was about one week and the progress they made is really extraordinary and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. The Army Corps of Engineers, the National Guard, which is our workforce that we call out in all these situations - I've worked with many of them and I know them after so many situations together, but they showed up and really done a great job and this should open on Monday. The USNS Comfort is going be on its way as of today I'm told. The President is going to be seeing it off. It should be here on Monday. That will be 1,000 beds. It also brings medical personnel, which frankly are more important than the beds in this case. And it has operating rooms, et cetera. We'll use this to backfill and take pressure off the hospitals. So a hospital can backfill on to this 1,000 bed facility. I'm hoping it gets here Monday and I will greet it with open arms.
I spoke to the President this morning. Actually, just before I came in today. I apologize for being a few minutes late. And the President approved four new sites for emergency medical facilities. One in Brooklyn at the Port Authority cruise ship terminal it's called - one at Queens at aqueduct racetrack and one on Staten Island and one in the Bronx at the New York Expo Center. I went and toured these sites yesterday. They are perfect -- well, perfect. None of this is perfect. They are appropriate and suitable to bring in large scale medical facilities. They're 100,000 square feet, 120,000 square feet. They're open, they have electric, they have climate control, et cetera. So, this is going to be a big advantage. This will add another 4,000 beds and there is one in every borough in New York City, which was important to me. Every borough knows that they have a facility and they are getting the same treatment that everyone else is getting. I'm a New York City outer borough person. You don't know that classification unless you're from New York City. Outer borough. Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Bronx. Those are out boroughs. Manhattan is the inner borough, but they never call it an inner borough. Everyone is being treated the same. We're adding to that bed capacity to get to the 140,000 beds. We've added 695 additional beds South Beach Psychiatric Center on Staten, which is opening up. We have the Westchester Square Bronx 200 beds. Health Alliance in Ulster County, 235 beds. So, you see again, we're trying to have facilities all around the geographic location that's experiencing the increase.
We're also making another shift where we're going to go to COVID-only hospitals. Where people in those hospitals will just have the COVID virus. So the staff that is there is basically working with one type of issue as opposed to a normal hospital setting where you can have people with heart ailments and other medical issues. And on top of them, the COVID patients. The Health Commissioner has given us good advice. It's smarter to keep the COVID patients separate. You don't want a person who goes into a hospital with one situation developing COVID because they happened to be exposed. So, this is smart and we're going to isolate 600 beds for just this treatment. South Beach again, Westchester Square and SUNY Downstate, which is in Brooklyn.
This shows you the coverage that we'll have when all of this is said and done. You'll see it's equally distributed. It's significant and, in truth, many locations have been constructed, adapted, modified, and it's been done in a very short period of time. Again, all this in contemplation of the apex. If we're lucky the apex never happens.
The New York State Department of Health has gotten approval by the FDA to start a new test, which is an antibody test. We can test individuals to see if they were, in fact, infected by the virus, resolved, and now have the antibodies so they have an immunity to the virus. This is being done here. It's managed by our health department. The FDA has given us approval. Department of Health is working with private hospitals who actually enact this now. This could be a big breakthrough if that happens.
On the theory of risk, reward, we're supposed to have a presidential primary election that's coming up on April 28th. I don't think it's wise to be bringing a lot of people to one location to vote. A lot of people touching one doorknob, a lot of people touching one pen, whatever you call the new device on the ballots, so we are going to delay that and link it to an election that was previously scheduled on June 23rd. The June 23rd is for state legislative races and Congressional races. We'll move the presidential election to that date. Ironically, I had advocated that it be on that date all along anyway, so there's only one election and people only needed to come out once. Everybody wants to vote, everybody wants to do their civic duty, but don't make me come out and vote 11 times. Put the elections together so I can go to the ballot once and this will actually do that.
We are also extending the tax filing deadline to July 15th. This good news for individuals, for businesses. You don't have to file your state tax return, you file it with the federal tax return on July 15th. This is bad news for the state of New York on a parochial level. That means we receive no revue coming in until July 15th.
This is the increase in the trajectory in the number of cases. You see it goes up again. The number of people tested, we tested 17,000 yesterday. Again, we're testing more than any other state in the country and more than China and Korea ever tested. Total tested is up to 155,000. Number of new cases 7,681. You see the state getting more and more covered. Just a handful of counties that have not reported any positive tests. This is the summary. 52,000 tested, 7,000 currently hospitalized, 1700 ICU patients, 2700 patients discharged. That's up 681. Remember, people go into the hospital, people get treated, people leave. Remember, most people never go into the hospital. 80% they self-resolve.
Most impacted states. State of New York, 52,000. Next is our neighbor New Jersey, 8,000, then California, 4,000. But, you see the reports nationwide that other states are finding it, other cities are finding it. I believe you're going to see more and more of that. But again, in comparison, you take California, 4,000 cases, compare that to the situation we're in with 52,000 cases. People say I advocate for more help for New York with the federal government and I ask for more things than other states are asking for. Yes. Respond to the need. Respond to the need. We have 52,000 cases. California has 4,000 cases. I want California to have all the help they need, but I want to make sure the distribution of need is proportionate to the number of cases. If you're looking for good news today on the numbers, the number watchers, this is good news. I wouldn't put tremendous stock in it, but it's good news.
We're watching the trend, right, because we're trying to gauge if there is an apex, the number of daily ICU admissions, which are the critical points for us, ICU admissions, people who need ventilators, ventilators are what's in short supply. The ICU admissions went down only 172 compared to 374 the day before. You see the overall line is still up. The 374 was very troubling because that was a gigantic leap. The 172 may be a correction from the 374. I don't like to look at the data on any one night. We average three or four nights to get a more consistent track, but this is good news on a one-day number. The number of ICU admissions dropped as did the number of new hospitalizations dropped. So, there's a correlation there that also affirms both, right? Affirms the ICU numbers to the new hospitalization number. But again, I wouldn't put any - I wouldn't put too much stock in any one number. You see the overall trend is still up, but you could argue that the trend is slowing. I say, don't argue, follow the numbers, get more numbers, whatever the numbers say, the numbers drive the policy. So, we'll track it every day and we'll see from where we go.
The worst news, the news that is most depressing to me, and I'm sure every New Yorker, the number of deaths are up to 728. Of that 728, what's happening is people are on ventilators longer, you saw that average length of stay on a ventilator. The longer you are on a ventilator, the less chance you're coming off that ventilator. That has always been true. It's more dramatic in this situation. Since this has been going on a period of time, you're having more and more people now who are on ventilators for a longer and longer period of time and those are the people we're losing. They tend to be people who came in with underlying illnesses, underlying respiratory illness, compromised immune system. Not all of them, but most of them, but that doesn't make you feel any better, right? These are still people who we lost because of this virus. If they didn't have this virus, they would be with us today. So I don't accept the concept of well, these were people who were old and death is inevitable. Yes, death is inevitable for all of us, just not today, right? That's the point.
Again, total perspective. It's not a new situation. It's not just New York. It's not just the United States. This started in China. They have all the data since China and you have a very broad data base to call from. Again, on prospective, don't forget the basics. People feel this has been going on for so long. Wash your hands, washing your hands by the way is just as effective health care professionals will tell you as hand sanitizer. So, wash your hands, don't touch your face. I'm a big face toucher for some reason, my own face, I don't touch anyone else's face. Stay six feet away from people. The social distancing is important and don't get complacent. These rules are not just important in the beginning, you have to do this every day, so you have to stay disciplined about it.
General comment as to where we are, rule one in any almost any situation in life certainly in government, certainly in an emergency situation is to plan forward. Plan forward. Plan the next step. Don't be reactive, be proactive. Don't wait to find out what the virus is going to do to you. Anticipate what is going to happen and plan for the step ahead. We have been behind this virus from day one. We have been in a reactive posture from day one with this virus. We're waiting to see what the virus does and then we're responding. The virus makes another move, we respond. No, you don't win on defense. You win on offense. You have to get ahead of this and anticipate what's going to happen and create that reality now. That's what we're doing with the apex preparation, right? We don't have that crisis today. We could have that crisis in 14 to 21 days. So yes, I'm creating a stockpile today for a possible reality 14 to 21 days from now. I'm not going to wait for day 13 to say, "Oh my gosh, we need 30,000 ventilators. It's over."
So get ahead of it. That's our apex preparation plan, but beyond just New York, as a nation, we have to start to get ahead of this in two areas specifically. On purchasing, you can't have a situation where 50 states are competing with each other to buy the same material. That is what is happening now. When I showed you the price of ventilators, went from $25,000 to 45,000. Why? Because we bid $25,000. California says, I'll give you $30,000 and Illinois says, I'll give you $35,000 and Florida says I'll give you $40,000. We're literally bidding up the prices ourselves. Now every state, no one's doing anything wrong, I'm here to protect New York. That's what I get paid to do. I have to acquire the ventilators. I have to pay whatever I have to pay to acquire the ventilators. I don't mean to take them from other states, but when you have a system where you say to the states "Okay, you go out and buy what you need to buy." We all need to buy the same thing. We all need to buy PPE and N95 masks, we all need to buy ventilators, so we're all shopping the same distributors, the same group, and it's not even legally price gouging. I was Attorney General. I don't think you have a price gouging case. This is just private market competition. My daughter Cara is working on the purchasing team. They change the prices -- you can see the prices going up literally during the course of the day.
So, if the federal government organized this, if the states organized among themselves, because you can't have the states competing against the states, and then by the way, when the federal government goes out to buy the same equipment for their stockpile, now it's 50 states competing against the states and the federal government competing against the states. So, this is not the way to do business. We need a nationwide buying consortium. Either the federal government should say I'll be the purchasing agent for the nation and I will distribute by need, or the states, which is hard to organize 50 states. I'm Vice Chairman of the National Governor's Association, I'm going to talk to them about this. Maybe the states could come up with a voluntary buying consortium and then we distribute by need. But, this is something that has to be worked out not just for this, but for the future because this can't happen again.
Also we have to plan forward on testing. We've mobilized, we've scrambled, but this is still not where it needs to be. We need many more tests. There are still people who can't get tests and we need tests that are faster. There are other countries that are developing faster tests, developing home tests. We have a rigorous approval process through the FDA and CDC in this country; it served us well in normal circumstances. These are not normal circumstances. I would say to the market if you have a test, and a home test, and a state wants to take responsibility for monitoring the results of the test, God bless you, because you can't have a situation where you have a five-day waiting period for a test. That's five days for the person to be out there and possibly infecting other people, and if the goal is to open up the economy as quickly as you can you're going to need a much faster testing process to find out who had the antibodies, which means they had the virus and resolved, and who's negative and who's positive. So, you are going to need a much faster testing processing. That's the only way you get the economy up and running in a relatively short period of time.
I'll end where I began. You saw the number of days that this has been going: only 28 days. Schools closed only ten days; it feels like a life time. This is not a sprint, my friends, this is a marathon. You have to gauge yourself. You have to understand that this is going to be a long-term situation, and even though it's so disruptive, and so abrupt, and so shocking, it's also long-term. And each of us has to do our own part to adjust to it. It is a new reality. It's a shocking new reality. There is no easy answer. We're all working our way through it, and we all have to figure out a way to get through it. My gratuitous two cents: see if you can't find a silver lining in all of this. People say extraordinary things to me that I just pick up anecdotally. I was going for a walk yesterday with one of my daughters and Captain -- Captain is my dog -- and people come up with all of these interesting ideas, you know: who's painting their house because they never had time to paint their house before; who's working on a project that they never got to; who's reading a book that they never got to do; who's writing a book. A few people say I'm writing my journals, I'm writing my life's story.
Find a way -- you have the advantage of time here, and you have the advantage of time for communication. I've had conversations with my daughters, hours long conversations, where it's just us, just us talking. No place to go. She doesn't have to go to work. She doesn't have to run out, and they're priceless. They are priceless. I'll never get the opportunity in life to do that again. You know, we're going to get through this and they're going to go off and find a boyfriend and then do whatever they do. I've had conversations with my mother who can't leave the house, and she's in the house so we sort of take turns talking to mom. I talked to my mother for hours and it's special. So yes, it's terrible and I'm not trying to say it's not a terrible circumstance. But, even in a terrible circumstance if you look hard enough you can find a few rays of light, and people are doing it and I think we all should.
It's going to be a marathon, but we're going to get through it and we will get through it, and we are going to be the better for it when we get through it. We will have learned a lot. We will have changed. We will be different, but I believe net, we'll be different in a positive way.
March 28, 2020.
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on CNN With Ana Cabrera. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-cnn-ana-cabrera
Governor Cuomo: "As far as the quote, unquote quarantine, which means a lot of different things now obviously in this environment - but that's where we are, that's what we're doing. We started a mandatory isolation. You stay home unless you're an essential worker. So we're doing that and I think that makes sense. Makes sense for the state, makes sense for other states, our neighboring states, Connecticut and New Jersey, which the President mentioned are doing the same thing. So that policy, I think, makes sense.... If you said that we are geographically confining people, that would be a lockdown... I don't believe it's legal. I think it would be economic chaos."
Governor Cuomo: "With Rhode Island, they're a neighboring state. I think what they did was wrong, I think it was reactionary, I think it was illegal, but we'll work it out amicably I'm sure. We have conversations going back and forth. No state should be using police to prohibit interstate travel in any way."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on CNN with Ana Cabrera to discuss New York State's ongoing efforts to combat COVID-19.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available here:
Ana Cabrera: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo joins us now. Governor, I know how busy you are, thank you for taking the time. What's your reaction to what you just heard?
Governor Cuomo: Good to be with you. Well, Ana, as far as the quote, unquote quarantine, which means a lot of different things now obviously in this environment - but that's where we are, that's what we're doing. We started a mandatory isolation. You stay home unless you're an essential worker. So we're doing that and I think that makes sense. Makes sense for the state, makes sense for other states, our neighboring states, Connecticut and New Jersey, which the President mentioned are doing the same thing. So that policy, I think, makes sense. I don't know what an enforced quarantine means, but that's what we're doing already.
Ana Cabrera: So do you have any problem with the idea of there being travel restrictions? Essentially what I heard from the President is perhaps New Yorkers couldn't leave the state.
Governor Cuomo: Well, that's not a quarantine. That would be a lockdown. If you said that we are geographically confining people, that would be a lockdown. Then we would be Wuhan, China, right? And that wouldn't make any sense. This is a time when the President says he's trying to restart the economy, New York is the financial sector. You geographically restrict a state you would paralyze the financial sector. You think the Dow Jones, the stock market has gone down - it would drop like a stone. I don't even believe it's legal. Interstate commerce clause, et cetera.
So I think it would be exactly opposite of everything the President is talking about. How would you ever operationally stop goods from coming to New York and New Jersey and Connecticut and food and trucks, et cetera? I can't believe he's considering that.
Ana Cabrera: What if he does want a lockdown? Would you sue to stop him? You said you don't think it's legal.
Governor Cuomo: Look, a lockdown is what they did in Wuhan, China and we're not in China and we're not in Wuhan. I don't believe it would be legal. I believe it would be illegal. You can't say you cannot leave the State of New York or the State of New Jersey or the State of California. And by the way, if you wanted to start to do that, that would ripple all across the country. It's New York, New Jersey, Connecticut today, tomorrow it's New Orleans, the day after Detroit. Then it's Texas, then it's Florida, then it's California.
At the same time we say we're trying to restart the economy, I can't remember in history when it was done. You'd have to go back to the Civil War to talk about borders of states like that. I think it would paralyze the economy, I think it would shock the economic markets in a way we've never seen before. As a governor, I'm not going to close off my borders. Trucks have to come in. Food has to come in. Mail has to come in. I'm not going to put the health and safety of my people at risk.
What the President has been trying to achieve, he's worked very hard to be working with the governors. He's worked very hard to be working with the State of New York. I spoke to him this morning. We have a good cooperative relationship so it would be exactly opposite everything he has said and everything he has done to date. And it would be wholly counterproductive.
Ana Cabrera: Have you talked to him this afternoon since he made those remarks?
Governor Cuomo: No. I literally spoke to him just a few minutes before. We had a good conversation. We talked about additional aid for the State of New York in terms of temporary hospital beds. We talked about the medical ship that is coming to New York. He never mentioned anything about a quarantine.
Ana Cabrera: How would this even work? Do you think he would send in the military to guard the bridges and tunnels going in and out, for example, New York City? If it's just the city that is locked down.
Governor Cuomo: No, it couldn't work. That's why I said it would be the pictures you saw on TV with Wuhan Province in China. I don't even know how you could possibly do it. We need goods coming in an out of New York. We need food coming in. We need mail coming in.
Ana Cabrera: On the point that you made also about the financial sector about being able to have interstate commerce, but also the financial sectors. It's the heart of Manhattan. What would this mean for the stock market? Would it have to shut down?
Governor Cuomo: Oh, it would drop like a stone. I mean, I don't know if it would operationally have to shutdown but it may as well shutdown. You say you can't come to New York to do business; business people can't leave New York to go to Chicago for a meeting. I mean, it would be chaos and mayhem. And that would drop this economy in a way, I think, that wouldn't recover for months if not years. So, it's totally opposite everything he has been saying. I don't even think it's plausible. I don't think it's legal, and it would really - it would be total mayhem. I don't have another word for it.
Ana Cabrera: The New York stock exchange specifically - I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you. I think there's a slight delay with our signal here, but I was thinking about the New York stock exchange. Obviously if this - again, it's a bit vague right now about the quarantine that he's speaking of, but at one point he mentioned New York City. I imagine there's a lot of people who go in and out of New York City who don't live in the city that might part of the stock exchange. That's what I was talking about when it comes to the impact to the stock market, right?
Governor Cuomo: You're exactly right. There are people who come in and out all day long dealing with the stock exchange. There are meetings - thousands of people coming in and out that are directly related to the stock exchange. So, and I know the presidents very concerned about what's happened to the stock market. We all are. I am as governor of New York. Every person who has a retirement fund and has watched it dropped is concerned. So why you would want to just create total pandemonium on top of a pandemic, I have no idea.
Ana Cabrera: Well, if you think about the actions you took, right, when it came to New Rochelle, and you put in, you know, a zone that was somewhat restrictive, and you did that in order to stop the spread, if there isn't some kind of a lockdown, how do you get it under control? How do you prevent the spread from getting worse?
Governor Cuomo: We had the hottest cluster, if you will, the hottest hot spot in the United States of America was New Rochelle, Westchester as you said. And we did something called the containment zone that said we closed the schools and no large gatherings. We never said you can't come and go. We never confined people's mobility. We never imprisoned people in a geographic area, even in New Rochelle. We called it a containment zone, which was not the best word. It was to contain the virus - it was not to contain people. We never contained anyone. I can't remember the last time this country said we're going to contain you in an area.
Again, that's why I think - I don't even believe it's legal. You have all sorts of provisions - states' rights, interstate commerce, et cetera. So, it's a preposterous idea, frankly. And again, it's totally opposite what the president wants to do, which is work with the states, help the states, get the economy running and bring some sense of stability. You wouldn't at this point literally fracture the entire nation because it's not just New York, New jersey or Connecticut, right? It's Louisiana and New Orleans. And you're going to see these numbers continually going up. So, every few days it's going to be another hot spot. That's where we are. And if you start walling off areas all across the country you would just be totally bizarre, counterproductive, anti-American, anti-social. It wouldn't even be productive. Look, this virus, you don't know who has it. We've done more testing in New York than any other state. That's why we know better who has it in New York. But once these other areas actually start to have the right test and the volume of tests you're going to see it's all across the country.
Ana Cabrera: Governor, will you call the President tonight and speak with him about this?
Governor Cuomo: Look if the president was considering this, I guarantee he would have called me. I mean we talk about relatively trivial matters when it comes to dealing with this situation. This - this is civil war-kind of discussion.
Ana Cabrera: So, you don't believe he really is serious about it?
Governor Cuomo: I don't believe he's serious - that any federal administration could be serious about physical lockdown of states or parts of states across this country. I don't believe it's legal. I think it would be economic chaos. I don't think the American people would stand for it. It's just a question of time before you see the numbers growing in hotspots all across this nation. So I think it makes absolutely no sense and I don't believe any serious governmental personality or professional would support it.
Ana Cabrera: There are growing concerns though, that we're hearing not just from the president, but from governors in other states about travelers coming into their states from New York. There are reports that the governor of Rhode Island has ordered that all vehicles with New York State license plates be stopped when entering that state. What's your reaction to that?
Governor Cuomo: I think that's a reactionary policy. I'm concerned about people with the virus coming into my state, right. So I think that's a reactionary policy and I don't think that's legal. And we're talking to Rhode Island now. If they don't roll back that policy, I'm going to sue Rhode Island, because that clearly is unconstitutional. I understand the goal and I could set up my borders and say I'm not letting anyone in until they take a test to see whether or not they have the virus. But, you know, there's a point of absurdity, and I think that what Rhode Island did is at that point of absurdity. Again it's not even legal. They're a neighboring state, I'm sure we're going to be able to work it out. But I think we need balance in all of this. I understand people are nervous and people are anxious and this is a frightening situation, but we have to keep it in focus, and we have to keep the ideas and the policies we implement positive, rather than reactionary and emotional.
Ana Cabrera: So if you think that these actions are illegal, what are you prepared to do? Would you sue Rhode Island? Would you sue the federal government? What happens?
Governor Cuomo: Well, I've sued the federal government many times, by the way, over the past few years. We've had quite a number of policy decisions. I do not believe it's going to come to that on this. Again, I've been speaking to the president. This would be a declaration of war on states. A federal declaration of war. And it wouldn't just be New York, New Jersey, Connecticut. Next week it would be Louisiana with New Orleans, and the week after that it would be Detroit, Michigan, and it would run all across the nation. And I don't think the president is looking to start a lot of wars with a lot of states just about now for a lot of reasons. With Rhode Island, they're a neighboring state. I think what they did was wrong, I think it was reactionary, I think it was illegal, but we'll work it out amicably I'm sure. We have conversations going back and forth. No state should be using police to prohibit interstate travel in any way. No state should be able to say, you know, I'm going to use my police to make sure you don't come in with a license plate. By the way, you're in Rhode Island, what if you travel to New York and you travel back to Rhode Island? Do you get stopped and you can't reenter Rhode Island? You know how many people from Rhode Island come to New York to do business? So, we have to be a little smart in all of these policies.
Ana Cabrera: I want to ask you more about the situation specifically in New York, because the stories that we're hearing from hospital workers are not good. We see the lines outside places like Elmhurst. What is the status when it comes to ventilators in New York State? Because I know that's been one of the big issues of concern for you.
Governor Cuomo: Well the ventilators, which, by the way, before this situation nobody really gave a second thought to ventilators. What has happened, one of the peculiar situations with disease is it's a respiratory disease, it affects the lungs very badly, and people who are acutely ill with this virus, they all need a ventilator. And they're on these ventilators much longer than most people are on ventilators with other disease. So you have more people needing ventilators and they are on them longer, which increases the need for the ventilators. And everybody is trying to get ventilators. You have 50 states bidding against each other to get ventilators. You have 50 states competing with the federal government trying to buy ventilators. You have countries around the world trying to get ventilators. So, we're trying to do the best we can. We're acquiring as many as we can. There's a new technology that we're using that splits, they call it splitting, where one ventilator can do two people. We're implementing that procedure across the state. And we're doing the best we can to move the people who need the ventilators to the places that have the ventilators. But that's one of the great logistical problems with this entire situation. The problem is you want to flatten that curve so you don't overwhelm the hospital system. The hospital system, it's beds, it's staff, but then it is equipment, and at the top of the equipment list are the ventilators.
Ana Cabrera: What is the latest on the fatality rate in your state?
Governor Cuomo: You know, it dropped today. It is still going, the overall line is still up. Today was a drop. We're not sure if it's a one-day drop, we tested 17,000 people overnight, 7,000 hospitalizations. But we still see it going up. The possible apex by numerical projections has us needing 140,000 hospital beds and about 40,000 ventilators, which is a very big number that would overwhelm the health care system. So we're trying to get down the curve, get down the spread of infections, and at the same time ramp up that hospital capacity, God forbid that actually happens. And we're getting very creative in doing that. We're opening temporary hospitals in locations across the state. So we are doing everything we can to increase the hospital capacity and flatten the curve at the same time.
Ana Cabrera: I hear what you're saying about the reaction in terms of providing the space, having the resources to deal with an influx and a rush of more and more patients. If you were completely against a federal lockdown, how do you get it under control?
Governor Cuomo: You get it under control the way we're operating. Look there's not a lot of options here, right? Reduce the spread, quote/unquote flatten the curve, that's what they all talk about. We've taken every action you can take there. Nobody can go to work except essential workers. Reduce density in places - close the restaurants, close the gyms, no gatherings. So you reduce the spread. You increase the hospital capacity. You test, test, test. We're doing more tests than any state in the United States, more per capita than China or South Korea. So you isolate the positive. And part of it is it runs its course. All you are hoping is that you slow down that spread of infection, you drop that curve to a level that you can treat in the hospitals. And that's what we're doing. We're anticipating an apex of that curve, the high point to be anywhere from 14 to 21 days. So, that is really the essential moment for us, when you get to that high point. And they say that is 14 to 21 days. With any luck at all, after that high point, the number of cases start to drop.
Ana Cabrera: Okay Governor Andrew Cuomo, you've taken a lot of time with us, thank you very much for the conversation. Wishing you lots of luck. Be well.
Governor Cuomo: Thank you, Ana.
March 29, 2020.
Video, Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic: Being a First Responder is 'An Act of Love and Courage'. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-being-first-responder
Governor Cuomo: "I don't even have the words to express my admiration for them. FDR always had words. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear. To me that says it all today."
Cuomo: "Something is more important than their fear, which is their passion, their commitment, for public service, and helping others. That's all it is. It's just their passion and belief in helping others. And that overcomes their fear. And that makes them, in my book, just truly amazing, outstanding human beings."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo expressed his admiration for the courage and resilience of first responders across New York State as they work to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
These public people, I don't even have the words to express my admiration for them. FDR always had words. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear. To me that says it all today. Everyone is afraid. Everyone is afraid. You think these police officers are not afraid to leave their house? You think these nurses are not afraid to go into the hospital? They're afraid. But, something is more important than their fear, which is their passion, their commitment, for public service, and helping others. That's all it is. It's just their passion and belief in helping others. And that overcomes their fear. And that makes them, in my book, just truly amazing, outstanding human beings. And I with them and their families all the best.
March 29, 2020.
Governor Cuomo, Speaker Heastie, Senator Bailey and Assemblyman Benedetto Announce New COVID-19 Mobile Testing Site for the Northeast Bronx. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-speaker-heastie-senator-bailey-and-assemblyman-benedetto-announce-new-covid-19
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, Senator Jamaal T. Bailey and Assemblyman Michael Benedetto today announced they have secured a critical new COVID-19 mobile testing site for the Northeast Bronx.
"Our main strategy to slow the spread of this virus has been to increase testing and reduce density in every community across the state," Governor Cuomo said. "The multiple drive-through mobile testing facilities we have created are helping keep people out of hospitals and other healthcare facilities where they could potentially infect other people or get sick themselves, while increasing our testing capacity. Co-Op City in the Bronx is home to a high number of vulnerable New Yorkers, and locating a new drive-through facility in this area will help protect those residents and give them a safer place to test for COVID-19."
"We are facing an unprecedented public health crisis and it is imperative that we do all we can to protect the public," said Speaker Heastie. "This testing site is important for the health and safety of those residing in co-op city as well as residents in neighboring communities and will be a huge benefit to the Bronx. Many seniors reside here and they are among the most vulnerable to this terrible virus. I would like to thank Governor Cuomo for his tireless efforts to help make this testing site a reality as well as my colleagues, Assemblyman Bendetto and Senator Bailey, for their advocacy and hard work to get this resource up and running."
The mobile testing center will be located in the parking lot of the Bay Plaza AMC Theater at 2210 Bartow Ave. 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, March 30, 2020 at 10 am. Site hours will be Monday - Sunday, 8am - 6pm.
Senator Bailey said, "I am pleased to inform the community that Co-Op City will be getting a testing site starting Monday. As you all know Co-Op City is a unique community, full of individuals who may be at high risk from symptoms related to COVID-19. Most notably, Co-Op's senior citizen population, as it is the largest Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) in the country and a densely populated area with well over 50,000 residents. The site will be at the Mall At Bay Plaza and will be a drive thru testing center. I'd like to thank Governor Andrew Cuomo, Speaker Carl Heastie, Assemblymember Bendetto and Prestige Properties for permitting the use of their space for such an important public matter."
Assemblymember Benedetto said, "In these difficult times, Governor Cuomo has shown remarkable leadership and today we are seeing more of the same. The residents of the East Bronx needed a testing station and Bay Plaza is an ideal site for it. With 50,000 people living just steps away in Co-op City (which is the largest public housing complex in the nation), many of which are senior citizens, the placement is genius. Thank you Governor and thank you to Speaker Heastie and Senator Bailey who worked so hard to make this happen."
This site is extremely important because of the unique nature and population density of Co-Op City and the surrounding North East Bronx area.
Co-op city is the largest cooperative development of its kind in the world and is home to thousands of families which include many seniors as well as a number of immunocompromised individuals. Over the past few weeks these populations have been found to be more susceptible to the COVID-19 virus.
March 29, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces NYS on Pause Functions Extended for the Next Two Weeks. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-nys-pause-functions-extended-next-two
Directs State Nonessential Workforce to Work from Home for Additional Two Weeks Through April 15th
New York's Wadsworth Lab has Developed New, Less Intrusive Test for COVID-19
Executive Order Also Allows Schools to Host Day Care Free of Charge
Following Governor's Call, Pharmacies Have Agreed to Offer Free Home Delivery
Announces State, in Partnership with Assembly Speaker Heastie, Senator Bailey, Assemblyman Benedetto and Borough President Diaz Jr., is Launching a New Mobile Testing Site in the Bronx
Confirms 7,195 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 59,513; New Cases in 44 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced all NYS On Pause functions will be extended for the next two weeks. The Governor also directed the state nonessential workforce to continue to work from home for an additional two weeks through April 15th. The state will re-evaluate after this additional two-week period.
In-person workforce restrictions, which have been implemented through various Executive Orders —202.3 (restaurants and bars, gyms, fitness centers, movie theaters and casinos); 202.4 (local government workforces, school districts; village elections); 202.5 (malls, public amusement facilities); 202.6 (all non-essential reduce 50%); 202.7 (barber shops, salons, other personal care); 202.8 (DMV); 202.10 (non-essential gatherings of any size); 202.11 (extension of school district closure until April 15, 2020) — are also extended until April 15, 2020 to enable uniform extension and review of such restrictions, and any such restrictions may be extended by future executive orders.
Governor Cuomo also announced that New York State's Wadsworth Lab has developed a new, less intrusive test for COVID-19. The new test is done through a saliva sample and a self-administered short nasal swab in the presence of a health care professional. Additionally, health care professionals can self-administer the test without another health care professional present. This new test will help conserve personal protective equipment, or PPE, for healthcare workers, reduce potential exposure of the virus to health care workers and will allow the state to continue to test as many individuals as possible in New York amid the national shortage of the more intrusive nasopharyngeal, or NP, swabs. Self-collection of nasal swabs has been done before for other respiratory viruses such as flu and it has been shown to be effective and safe, and collection of a saliva sample is simple and non-invasive. This new testing will begin within a week.
The Governor also issued an executive order to allow schools to host day care free of charge.
After speaking with the state's major pharmacy chains, the Governor announced that pharmacies have agreed to offer free home delivery to help reduce long lines for prescriptions at their facilities.
There is no state in the nation that is better prepared or better mobilized to combat this virus than New York
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
"There is no state in the nation that is better prepared or better mobilized to combat this virus than New York," Governor Cuomo said. "The number of cases is still going up towards the apex, and the development of new, faster tests will be critical in flattening this curve, getting people back to work and returning to normalcy. The state's Wadsworth lab has developed a new, less intrusive test that will allow us to increase our testing capacity, as well as save valuable PPE for our healthcare workers. We will get through this because we are New Yorkers - we are strong, we have endurance and we have stability. We have a plan, we're executing that plan and we will manage any obstacle that we come across."
Governor Cuomo also announced, in partnership with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Senator Jamaal Bailey, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto and Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., that the State is launching a new mobile testing site in Co-Op City, the largest public housing development (Mitchell Lama) in the country. This new mobile testing site located at the Bay Plaza Mall Parking Lot, AMC Cinema entrance in the Bronx will provide tests by appointment only and will prioritize symptomatic individuals who had close exposure to a positive COVID-19 case, health care workers and first responders displaying symptoms, and those working in or having recently visited a nursing home who exhibit COVID-19 symptoms. To get an appointment, New Yorkers can call the Coronavirus hotline at 1-888-364-3065.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 7,195 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 59,513 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 59,513 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
205
10
Allegany
6
4
Broome
29
6
Cattaraugus
4
3
Cayuga
2
0
Chautauqua
5
0
Chemung
15
3
Chenango
15
7
Clinton
13
1
Columbia
23
1
Cortland
6
1
Delaware
8
0
Dutchess
320
58
Erie
358
40
Essex
4
0
Franklin
6
2
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
9
2
Greene
7
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
10
1
Jefferson
7
1
Lewis
2
2
Livingston
10
5
Madison
24
5
Monroe
219
27
Montgomery
6
1
Nassau
6445
908
Niagara
38
5
NYC
33768
4002
Oneida
26
3
Onondaga
152
23
Ontario
18
2
Orange
1247
146
Orleans
3
0
Oswego
8
1
Otsego
10
3
Putnam
144
13
Rensselaer
39
1
Rockland
2209
313
Saratoga
102
6
Schenectady
76
4
Schoharie
5
0
Schuyler
1
0
St. Lawrence
12
4
Steuben
17
4
Suffolk
5023
885
Sullivan
88
16
Tioga
4
0
Tompkins
52
7
Ulster
146
18
Warren
18
5
Washington
7
1
Wayne
12
0
Westchester
8519
644
Wyoming
8
1
March 29, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces NYS On Pause Functions Extended for the Next Two Weeks. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-nys
Directs State Nonessential Workforce to Work from Home for Additional Two Weeks Through April 15th
New York's Wadsworth Lab has Developed New, Less Intrusive Test for COVID-19
Executive Order Also Allows Schools to Host Day Care Free of Charge
Following Governor's Call, Pharmacies Have Agreed to Offer Free Home Delivery
Announces State, in Partnership with Assembly Speaker Heastie, Senator Bailey, Assemblyman Benedetto and Borough President Diaz Jr., is Launching a New Mobile Testing Site in the Bronx
Confirms 7,195 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 59,513; New Cases in 44 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "This is New York and we are going to make it through this. We have made it through far greater things. We are going to be okay. We specialize in stamina, and strength, and stability, and that's just what we're doing now. We are strong. We have endurance and we have stability. And we know what we're doing. We have a plan. We're executing the plan."
Cuomo: "Aim high, do better, believe you can do better, be optimistic, and the way you get there is through unity and togetherness and cooperation. Through mutuality and community."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced all NYS On Pause functions will be extended for the next two weeks. The Governor also directed the state nonessential workforce to continue to work from home for an additional two weeks through April 15th. The state will re-evaluate after this additional two-week period.
In-person workforce restrictions, which have been implemented through various Executive Orders —202.3 (restaurants and bars, gyms, fitness centers, movie theaters and casinos); 202.4 (local government workforces, school districts; village elections); 202.5 (malls, public amusement facilities); 202.6 (all non-essential reduce 50%); 202.7 (barber shops, salons, other personal care); 202.8 (DMV); 202.10 (non-essential gatherings of any size); 202.11 (extension of school district closure until April 15, 2020) — are also extended until April 15, 2020 to enable uniform extension and review of such restrictions, and any such restrictions may be extended by future executive orders.
Governor Cuomo also announced that New York State's Wadsworth Lab has developed a new, less intrusive test for COVID-19. The new test is done through a saliva sample and a self-administered short nasal swab in the presence of a health care professional. Additionally, health care professionals can self-administer the test without another health care professional present. This new test will help conserve personal protective equipment, or PPE, for healthcare workers, reduce potential exposure of the virus to health care workers and will allow the state to continue to test as many individuals as possible in New York amid the national shortage of the more intrusive nasopharyngeal, or NP, swabs. Self-collection of nasal swabs has been done before for other respiratory viruses such as flu and it has been shown to be effective and safe, and collection of a saliva sample is simple and non-invasive. This new testing will begin within a week.
The Governor also issued an executive order to allow schools to host day care free of charge.
After speaking with the state's major pharmacy chains, the Governor announced that pharmacies have agreed to offer free home delivery to help reduce long lines for prescriptions at their facilities.
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.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Thank you for being here. Let us go through some updates for today, so everyone knows where we are and what we're experiencing. As you can see the increase on the trajectory of cases continues to climb, 7,681. Couple of updates that I would like to make to the local health providers. We want to anticipate this situation. We talked yesterday about planning forward, getting ahead of it, that we have been behind on this virus from day one. And rather than be reactive, be proactive, get ahead of it. Local health providers should be watching what is going on in different parts of the state and anticipating what's going to happen.
This is going to be a phenomenon of a rolling apex. We keep talking about the apex, the top of the curve. But the top of the curve will occur at different times in different places, right? The curve is a function of the rate of spread, the rate of density and when it started. So you'll see different curves, you see it all across the country. Started in Washington, State of Washington. Now you see New York, you see Chicago, you see New Orleans, you see parts of California. So that rolling apex is happening across the country. That rolling apex is also going to happen across the state of New York. The current projections all say New York City will face the first high water mark, if you will, high tide mark, the height of the curve, but then you'll see Westchester, you'll see Long Island, on a delay with their curve hitting a new height. Model projectors are not sure if it's Westchester first or Long Island first. Some suggest it's Westchester because we had that cluster in Westchester, if you remember, in New Rochelle. And then Upstate New York. We expect a curve in Upstate New York, also. It may not be as high, obviously, as New York City, Westchester, long island, but there will be a curve. So, if you are not in a highly affected health area now, that doesn't mean you're not going to have a real situation to deal with because these numbers are just going to continue to go up all across the state.
So for local health systems this is a new challenge. Most health systems have public hospitals and then they have private hospitals or volunteer, voluntary hospitals. And they basically exist on a day-to-day basis as two different systems. So you'll have public hospitals and then you have the private hospital system. And for all intents and purposes, in normal operating procedures, they operate as two systems, there's very little interaction. There's also very little interaction among individual hospitals, sometimes even within their own system. So you have public hospitals that are a part of a public hospital system, but each hospital basically operates on its own, right? Has its own identity. Certainly true on the private side where you have individual hospitals and they operate on their own. We have to change that mentality, and we have to change that mentality quickly. No hospital is an island. No hospital in this situation can exist unto themselves. We really have to have a new mentality, a new culture, of hospitals working with one another, both within the public system as well as the private system, and we need to think about the public system working with the private system in a way they never have before. There is an artificial wall almost between those two systems right now. That wall has to come down. That theory has to come down. This is going to be all hands on deck. This is everybody helping everyone else. One hospital gets overwhelmed. The other hospitals have to flex to help that hospital and vice versa.
We have Elmhurst Hospital for example in New York City that is under stress. The number of cases in that Elmhurst Hospital is high. When the number of cases is high, the stress on the staff is high. I was just speaking with Dr. Zucker about this. You do this for two, three, four weeks, the level of stress is very intense. Elmhurst Hospital is part of a public health system of about 11 hospitals in New York City. That system has to work together and those hospitals have to work together. The 11 health and hospitals in New York City, the public system. I'm going to ask Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Stringer to take a look at the system and figure out how we can get that system to work better together as a unified system. This is not going to get better soon. Right? So Elmhurst is under stress now. That stress does not abate for the foreseeable short-term future. So how do we make that system work better together and what recommendations do we have to improve H&H? We'll also be meeting with the private hospitals in New York City that are organized through something called the Greater New York Hospital Association. I'm going to be meeting with them tomorrow to talk about having those hospitals also organize, act as one, get out of their silos, get out of their identities, to work together.
Overall, we have local health systems the states roll which we've never really done before is getting those health systems to work with one another. So we talked about if New York City gets overwhelmed we'll ask the upstate systems to be a relief valve for the downstate health systems, which has never happened before to any scale and also vice versa. There will be a time where the upstate hospitals will be struggling and when the upstate hospitals will be struggling then we want the down state hospitals to be able to takeover and relief those hospitals.
That's actually the advantage of the rolling curve that they're projecting. If it does happen that way, theoretically, I almost think of it as a high tide mark, right? High tide comes first in New York City. Then the tide is on the way down and then it's high tide in upstate New York. So if the tide is dropping downstate then you have some relief for the upstate hospitals.
We put in place the New York Pause program. Today I am going to extend it to April 15, the directive that non-essential work force continue to work at home. We're doing it in two-week intervals because every day is a new day and we'll see what happens day to day, but I think it's not even questionable today that we're going to need two more weeks of non-essential workers.
Good news, Wadsworth, the New York Department State of Health, has developed a less intrusive saliva and short nasal swab test. I'm not sure what a short nasal swab test is but my guess is it wouldn't apply to me. It can be administered in the presence of health care workers. It requires less PPE, health care workers can self-administer it, kudos to the Department of Health on that. It also helps them limit exposure for health care workers and it should start as soon as next week.
People ask when is this over? I think the testing, you tell me when they come up with an inexpensive home test or point of care test that can be brought to volume, I think that's probably when you see a real return to normalcy in the workforce.
In other words, we're all talking about this curve, flatten the curve - at what point on the other side of the curve do you go back to work? Jesse asked this question the other day. There is no answer. I think the answer is going to be in in testing. Dr. Fauci who I think is - we're so blessed to have him here at this time, he talks about faster, easier testing. If you can test millions of people, if you could test today millions of people, you could send them to work tomorrow, right? So the development of these tests, I think, are very important and instructive. Tomorrow the USNS Comfort coming. That is about 1,000 bed capacity. It's staffed by federal officials, federal medical professionals. It is not for COVID patients but it is to take the back fill from hospitals.
Current stockpile, we're still working to purchase equipment all across the globe. We have a whole team working seven days a week. Unfortunately, we're competing against every other state in the United States for the same things. So it's very hard but we're making progress. In terms of finding staff, that's going very well. The volunteerism of New Yorkers, God bless them, we're up to 76,000 health care workers who have volunteered. 76,000. 76,000 people who volunteer to go into these hospitals at this time. Just think about that.
On the total people tested, we did 16,000, last night, total of 172,000 tested, that's the highest in the country. Positive cases 7,000 last night, total cases 59,000. The virus continues its march across the state of New York. Only two counties now that don't have cases. These are the overall numbers, 59,000 people tested positive. 8,000 currently hospitalized, 2,000 ICU patients, 3,500 patients discharged. We know - nobody really points to these numbers but this is good news. 846 people came out of hospitals yesterday, discharged after being treated for COVID, right? So yes, people get it, 80 percent have either self-resolved or have some symptoms at home. 20 percent go into the hospital - majority of those get treated and leave. It's the acutely ill by in large who are the vulnerable population and that's what we're seeing more and more. The deaths went from 728 to 965. What's happening now is as I mentioned yesterday, people are on the ventilator longer and longer. The longer you are on a ventilator, the less your chance of ever getting off that ventilator and that's what we're seeing. And we will continue to see the number of deaths increase. In terms of most impacted states, again, New York is still number one. Total new hospitalizations, these are the charts we look at every night. The number is up 1,175. It was 847 the night before.
These bounce night to night. Any one night's data could have a number of variables in it. What hospitals actually reported, when they reported it, how accurate they were? So more you look for a trend line, more than anything else, and there are trend lines. If you look early on, the hospitalization rate was doubling every two days, then it doubled every three days, then it doubled every four days - now it's doubling every six days. So you have almost a dichotomy: The doubling rate is slowing, and that is good news but the number of cases are still going up. So you're still going up towards an apex, but the rate of the doubling is slowing, which is good news.
Change in daily ICU admissions, you see a pickup in the ICU admissions, but again, you look for the trend line among those columns more than the individual columns. Change in daily intubations, we don't normally run this chart but these are the people most seriously affected and again, you see a trend line in that. You see some aberrations, March 26th the 290, but you see a trend line. And the trend line is what we're watching. You also see a trend line in people being discharged and this is a dramatic trend line. So people came in, they started to come in only March 18, right - so we're only talking about ten days. They started to get treated. A few of them got out early. A few more, a few more, a few more. And now you're seeing the discharge number trend way up because that's what's going to happen. People are going to the hospital, they get treated, they leave. Those that are acutely ill get put on a ventilator and then it's the inverse dynamic. The longer the longer they are intubated, the longer they are on the ventilator, the higher the mortality rate.
Again, perspective, these are the numbers from day 1 since China started. Also, we should all keep in mind we lost the first responders who go out there. I was talking about the 76,000 people who volunteered to help - medical professionals - being a first responder today, being a public health official, working in a hospital, working with senior citizens. This is really an act of love and courage. We lost Detective Cedric Nelson, 48-years-old, 32nd, 23-year veteran. He could've retired. So we wish him and his family peace.
We lost a nurse, we've lost a couple of other nurses. Kious Kelly 48-years-old who was the assistant nurse manager at Mount Sinai West. We wish his family the best. These public people - I don't even have the words to express my admiration for them.
FDR always had words: "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear."
To me, that says it all today. Everyone is afraid. Everyone is afraid. You think these police officers are not afraid to leave their house? You think these nurses are not afraid to go into the hospital? They're afraid. But, something is more important than their fear. Which is their passion, their commitment for public service and helping others. It's public service. That's all it is. Their passion and belief in helping others. And that overcomes their fear and that makes them, in my book, just truly amazing, outstanding human beings. I wish them and their families all the best.
The President and the CDC ordered a travel advisory for people of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. This happened last night. This is not a lockdown, it is a travel advisory to be implemented by the states. In essence, it's nothing that we haven't been doing. Non-essential people should stay at home. So it's totally consistent with everything we're doing and I support what the President did because it affirms what we've been doing. It also affirms what New Jersey and Connecticut have been doing.
Rhode Island issued an Executive Order that New York license plates would be theoretically stopped at the border for mandatory quarantine of some period. That Executive Order has been repealed by the State of Rhode Island and we thank them for their cooperation. That was repealed last night.
Personal opinion, not fact, gratuitous. This is disorienting, it is frightening. It's disturbing. Your whole life is turned upside down overnight. To the best you can, you find a way to create some joy. You try to find a silver lining in all of this. How do you break up the monotony? What do you do? How do you bring a smile to people's face? I'll give you my idea for today: Sunday, I come from an Italian-American family. Sunday was family day. We had the big family dinner, which you'd have like in the afternoon, so it was confusing but it was like a late lunch they called dinner. And it was spaghetti, and meatballs, and sausages, and my family would all get together and it was a beautiful time. I didn't really appreciate it as a kid, but it was just beautiful. They all came together, and the grandparents were there, and they would start to eat at two o'clock and it was like a marathon session. The food was really just the attraction to get people together. You know, everybody talks about how the Italians love the food. That's true, but really they love bringing the family together and the food was the way that people came together, and then you sat at the table and it was just a two, three-hour affair. My mother and father did it also, not to the same extent my grandparents did it, but we had that same Sunday dinner around the table. I tried to continue it as a father with my kids. I was divorced and so I'm not really the best cook to say the least, but we would have on Sundays I would actually go to the Italian specialty store and I would buy the meatballs, and buy the sausages, and buy the sauce, but I would put it in a pot and I would put it on the stove because part of it was that sauce would sit there all day and it would just simmer, you know, and you would smell it all through the house. And then, I'd make them sit down and we would have spaghetti and meatballs and sausage on Sundays.
My daughter Cara is in the back, they would never eat the sausage and the meatball. They would pick at the pasta because, see, they knew I didn't know how to cook so they knew that meatball and sausage was inherently suspect, and I never said that I bought it in the specialty store because that would've ruined the whole tradition anyway. So, they wouldn't eat it and we'd go for Chinese food afterwards. But that convening was something special and today we're going to have our family dinner. We're missing one daughter, Mariah. We're going to get Mariah on Skype and Grandma is going to be on the telephone, and we're going to sit around the table and we're going to have that kind of coming together. It's a little different: Skype and telephones. But you know what? With everything going on, family, we're here, we're together, we're healthy — that's 98 percent of it. So, find ways to make a little joy.
Also for New Yorkers, I know we feel under attack. I had a lot of phone calls yesterday when the President first suggested some form of quarantine. "What does that mean, quarantine? Am I going to be allowed to leave the house? My parents who are supposed to be coming back, and this one's here and this one's here." I know we feel under attack. "The Rhode Island -- you can't drive into Rhode Island. We'll pull you over with the police." Yes, New York is the epicenter and these are different times, and many people are frightened. Some of the reactions you get from individuals, even from governments, are frightening and suggesting that they'll take abrupt actions against New York. But look, this is New York and we are going to make it through this. We have made it through far greater things. We are going to be okay. We specialize in stamina, and strength, and stability, and that's just what we're doing now. We are strong. We have endurance and we have stability. And we know what we're doing. We have a plan. We're executing the plan. Anything, any obstacle that we come across we will manage that obstacle, and we have. I can't sit here and say to anyone you're not going to see people pass away. You will. That is the nature of what we're dealing with, and that's beyond any of our control. But, New York is going to have what it needs and no one is going to attack New York unfairly and no one is going to deprive New York of what it needs. That's why I'm here, that's why we have a state full of very talented, professional people. So a deep breath on all of that. And we are doing exactly what we need to do. There is no state in the nation in the nation that is better prepared or better mobilized than what we're doing. I feel that deeply and having studied everything that every other state has done. Federal officials have even remarked to me that they're surprised how quickly a state as big and complicated as New York has actually mobilized. So, feel good about that.
There are two great New York expressions that I use all the time. Anything I build in New York always has two expressions on it. One, "excelsior." It says it all. Ever upwards. Ever upwards. Aspirational. We can be better, we will be better. We're going aim higher, we're going to improve ourselves. Excelsior. State motto, it's on the seal behind me. Excelsior. And the other, "e pluribus Unum," out of many, one. Unity, unity. You put those two things together, it says it all. Aim high, do better, believe you can do better, be optimistic, and the way you get there is through unity and togetherness and cooperation. Through mutuality and community. Those two expressions. I say to my daughters, if you remember nothing else when I'm gone, if you walk up to the box and have nothing else to remember, excelsior - you can be better, it will be better, we can make it better - e pluribus Unum - we make it better together. That's it and that's what we're doing.
March 30, 2020.
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Is a Guest on MSNBC's Morning Joe. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-msnbcs-morning-joe-0
Governor Cuomo: "My plea is, and pardon me if I'm a little emotional, but I'm living with this 24 hours a day and I'm seeing people die all around me. The science people, the government professionals have to stand up and look the President in the eye and say this is not a political exercise. This is not press relations. It's not optics. The tsunami is coming. We know it is. Now is the time to gather supplies, do the preparations because it's too late the day before. If you have not done the work before the storm hits, it's too late to do it once the storm hits. And the storm is coming."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on MSNBC's Morning Joe to discuss New York's plan to combat the novel coronavirus crisis.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Joe Scarborough: Let's bring in right now the Governor of New York, Governor Cuomo. Governor, thank you so much for being with us. Let's just throw it open to you and tell us what does New York State need? What does New York City need right now?
Mika Brzezinski: And any new numbers you might have.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, well, thank you Joe, thank you Mika. Thank you very much for your coverage. It's really great and it's important to get straight information to the people of this country now and you are doing that extraordinarily well. We don't have the numbers from last night yet, we're putting them together, but they're going to be up. The number of deaths, my guess, is going to be over 1,000. You're exactly right that New York is the canary in the coal mine. You're going to see this moving across the country. Anyone who wants to say this is New York alone, that's a political, partisan, divisive view and it's exactly wrong. And I hope the president gets -- I heard your clip about the 4,000 ventilators. What they still don't get is how to run a government, how to plan an operation. This virus has been ahead of us from day one. We've been playing catch up from day one. That we're doing in New York is we know the apex is still two, three, four weeks away depending on whose projection model you use. Prepare for the apex. Have the materials for the apex. That's when the system is going to collapse. So he's right, they sent 4,000 ventilators. I'm not using them today because I don't need them today. I need to assemble them in a stockpile. A stockpile, by definition, is to be used at the high point.
Joe Scarborough: Right. And of course, Governor, we're not speculating when we say you're going to need those ventilators and many more. And, believe me, I live in a state other than New York, so I don't want New York to get all the ventilators. But guess what? You can look at the numbers. You can look at the data and see that you all are going to need more ventilators. You're going to need more equipment. So what plea do you today, what plea do you have for this President and also those around that keep telling this warehouse story over and over again? When they could go to Dr. Fauci and say, "Oh, it's going to get a hell of a lot worse in New York City and New York State over the next couple of weeks. What plea do you have for President Trump?
Governor Cuomo: Joe, my plea is, and pardon me if I'm a little emotional, but I'mliving with this 24 hours a day and I'm seeing people die all around me. The science people, the government professionals have to stand up and look the President in the eye and say this is not a political exercise. This is not press relations. It's not optics. The tsunami is coming. We know it is. Now is the time to gather supplies, do the preparations because it's too late the day before. If you have not done the work before the storm hits, it's too late to do it once the storm hits. And the storm is coming. Stop the politics. Listen to the scientists and the pros and plan because otherwise, Joe, Mika, people will die who don't need to die. That's the bottom line.
Joe Scarborough: And there is, Mika, there's a biblical parallel here that the President's supporters, a lot of evangelicals read this story of Joseph and the Pharaoh. They planned for seven years of famine. Well, that famine, that medical crisis is in New York City right now and it's only going to get worse over the next 7 to 14 days.
Mika Brzezinski: Governor, did you get hope from the President's setting a new timeline and no longer talking about Easter being this big reopening day?
Governor Cuomo: I don't know. Easter was never real. So many things he says that are not real that, frankly, I don't have the luxury of trying to decipher every message, right? I'm living day by day. I see the storm coming. I can see the forecast. I follow projections. I follow science. I follow data. I don't have instinct. I don't have a gut. It's not about emotion. The storm hits, according to McKinsey and Cornell and the Gates Foundation, the storm hits in two weeks, three weeks. This is what I'm going to need if you don't want to see a total collapse, and let's focus on getting that. Everything else is baloney to me. I can't decipher the daily mumblings of the President.
Joe Scarborough: Governor, I lived in upstate New York for five years. I know the state very well. And it's interesting, I still have friends that live in upstate New York that still have a trace of skepticism in their voices. They're big supporters of President Trump and they're still a bit skeptical. I don't know how they'll be this morning after hearing his press conference yesterday and hearing 2.2 million. But do you have the same problem with disconnect with people in upstate New York or do you think even conservatives in upstate New York who support Donald Trump now understand the science is daunting, not just for the city but for them as well?
Governor Cuomo: You know, some people want to hold on to their ideological beliefs and they're going to cling on to their misperceptions as long as possible, but the march of science and data is irrefutable. And the numbers will increase, and the numbers are spreading every day. It's more and more clear and at one point you can't disbelieve the forecaster, and it's going to rain when you're drenched - and people will be drenched, Joe.
Joe Scarborough: Well, Governor, we want to thank you on behalf of people in New York and all across the country for your leadership. I know your constituents are going through hell right now and it's only going to get worse over the next few weeks. But there is good news on the other side.
Mika Brzezinski: Thank you for being an example for the nation. That does it for us this morning.
March 30, 2020.
Video, Auido, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Receives Briefing upon Arrival of the USNS Comfort in New York City. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-auido-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-receives-briefing-upon-arrival-usns-comfort
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo received a briefing upon the arrival of the USNS Comfort at Pier 88 in New York City.
The USNS Comfort arrived in New York harbor today. The 1,000-bed hospital ship has 12 fully-equipped operating rooms and will significantly increase New York's hospital surge capacity.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here
PHOTOS of the Governor at the USNS Comfort are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Okay, well there she is. I want to thank Rear Admiral Mustin who is here. I want to thank the United States Navy. They really acted expeditiously in bringing this ship here. I want to thank the Army that is going to help staff the ship. I want to thank the President of the United States, President Trump, who mobilized this effort and he did with all rapid speed.
This will be 1,000 beds for New York hospitals. It won't treat COVID-19 patients but it will be a relief valve for hospitals that are struggling now, that are over capacity all across the City. So, the 1,000 beds will come in very handy. These 1,000 beds will be complemented with 2,500 beds that we are doing in the Javits Center. I know the field hospitals that were assembled by the U.S Army. Again, those won't be for COVID-19 patients but they will be for a relief valve for the hospitals. So, we are doing this ship - 1,000 beds. Javits - 2,500 beds. About 3,500 beds to relieve the stress that our hospital system is facing.
That is going to be welcome news and I want to thank all of the people that worked so hard to do this. This is a major enterprise. The Javits Center, what is going on there is truly extraordinary. Everybody is working together to get that facility up and running. It has been transformed in just a week. And it really is a great, great partnership and frankly it's inspiring to see everyone working together for one cause.
We're speaking with a number of my colleagues, governors all across the nation, Democrats and Republicans, have sent the same message to all of you. What you see happening in New York is not unique. Yes, we're more dense. Yes, we're bigger than most places. But, this virus spreads among Americans. This virus does not discriminate. It doesn't discriminate by age. It doesn't discriminate by party. It affects all Americans, and what you're seeing in New York is going to spread across this country.
New York is just the canary in the coal mine. And I've said to them, prepare soon, prepare early, get your preparations in place. I don't think that any American is immune from this virus. Because no American is immune from this virus. And if there's ever a time that we need to work together it is today. The President's right. This is a war. And what does this nation do when it's at war? It comes together. And it acts as one. And that's what we need to do today. New Yorkers, thank this nation for the help they're giving New Yorkers today, and we will reciprocate the favor. And what we're learning here, and the training that's going on here, is going to benefit the places all across this nation in the coming weeks and the coming months.
But again, thank you. Thank you to the Army, thank you to the Navy, thank you to the Coast Guard, and all of the people who were a part of this great operation. Thank you.
March 30, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Statewide Public-private Hospital Plan to Fight COVID-19. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-statewide-public-private-hospital-plan
State Department of Health Will Work With Statewide Healthcare Systems to Create a Command Center to Share Information About Supplies Among Hospitals
Announces First 1,000-Bed Temporary Hospital at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Open and Accepting First Patients Today
Confirms 6,984 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 66,497; New Cases in 43 Counties
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a statewide public-private hospital plan to fight COVID-19. As part of the plan, public and private hospitals from across the state have agreed to implement a new balanced approach to fighting the virus where hospitals that are beginning to reach or exceed capacity can transfer patients to other hospitals that are not as full.
The hospital systems across the state have also agreed to share supplies, staff and other resources as needed. The State Department of Health will work with the statewide healthcare system to create a command center to share information between hospitals about the supplies each hospital has in stock and the supplies each hospital is ordering. This central inventory system will help ensure purchasing and distribution of supplies is done strategically and efficiently.
The Governor also announced that the first 1,000-bed temporary hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is open and accepting patients today. The temporary hospital site was constructed in one week.
We need more healthcare professionals, we need more supplies, we need more capacity and we need it now.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
"As the numbers continue to increase, the situation is becoming painfully clear that the front line battle of this virus will be fought in our healthcare system," Governor Cuomo said. "We need more healthcare professionals, we need more supplies, we need more capacity and we need it now. The entire country has been playing catch up with this virus since day one, but in New York we have been trying to plan forward and get ahead of the problem. We are continuing to stockpile supplies in preparation for the apex of the curve, and we have reached an agreement with the statewide healthcare system to coordinate and work together as one entity to balance the load of patients and share staff and resources."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 6,984 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 66,497 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 66,497 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
217
12
Allegany
7
1
Broome
35
6
Cattaraugus
6
2
Cayuga
3
1
Chautauqua
5
0
Chemung
15
0
Chenango
17
2
Clinton
17
4
Columbia
26
3
Cortland
8
2
Delaware
11
3
Dutchess
392
72
Erie
376
18
Essex
4
0
Franklin
6
0
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
9
0
Greene
10
3
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
12
2
Jefferson
11
4
Lewis
2
0
Livingston
12
2
Madison
34
10
Monroe
242
23
Montgomery
6
0
Nassau
7,344
899
Niagara
41
3
NYC
37,453
3,685
Oneida
34
8
Onondaga
180
28
Ontario
20
2
Orange
1,435
188
Orleans
4
1
Oswego
14
6
Otsego
17
7
Putnam
167
23
Rensselaer
40
1
Rockland
2,511
302
Saratoga
105
3
Schenectady
80
4
Schoharie
6
1
Schuyler
2
1
St. Lawrence
13
1
Steuben
19
2
Suffolk
5,791
768
Sullivan
101
13
Tioga
4
0
Tompkins
66
14
Ulster
190
44
Warren
18
0
Washington
7
0
Wayne
15
3
Westchester
9,326
807
Wyoming
8
0
March 30, 2020.
Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Directs One World Trade Center to be Lit Red, White and Blue. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-covid-19-pandemic-governor-andrew-m-cuomo-directs-one-world-trade-center-be-lit-red-white
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today directed the lights of One World Trade Center's 408-foot spire be lit red, white and blue this evening in recognition of the ongoing nationwide effort to combat COVID-19.
"We are dealing with a deadly serious situation right now, and it is more important than politics and more important than partisanship. This is a war and if there is division at this time, the virus will defeat us.
"This virus doesn't discriminate — it attacks everyone, and it attacks everywhere. There are no red states, and there are no blue states, and there are no red casualties, and there are no blue casualties. It is red, white and blue. If there was ever a moment for unity, this is it.
"I am directing the World Trade Center spire to be lit red, white and blue tonight as a symbol of our commonality — we are all Americans and we will fight this war and get through this difficult time together."
State Department of Health Will Work With Statewide Healthcare Systems to Create a Command Center to Share Information About Supplies Among Hospitals
Announces First 1,000-Bed Temporary Hospital at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Open and Accepting First Patients Today
Governor Cuomo: "We brought the healthcare system from across the State of New York together to come up with one coordinated plan. Not private hospitals and public hospitals, not New York City hospitals and Long Island hospitals or Westchester hospitals, upstate hospitals, not big hospitals and small hospitals, the entire healthcare system convened, coordinated, working as one for the first time in decades. No one can ever remember the way we have deployed and coordinated like this. Why? Because this is a statewide battle. And we want to make sure that we are all coordinated and we are all working together. That is exactly what we have accomplished."
Cuomo: "The frontline battle is in the health care system. The frontline battle is going to be hospitals across the city, across the state, and across this nation. That is where this battle is fought. It is that simple... don't let the hospital system get overwhelmed. The soldiers in this fight are the health care professionals. It's the doctors, it's the nurses, it's the people working in the hospitals, it's the aides. They are the soldiers who are fighting this battle for us."
Cuomo: "New York, yes, we have it now intensely. There will be a curve. New York at one point will be on the other side of the curve and then there will be an intense issue somewhere else in the nation. And the New York way is to be helpful. Help New York, we're the ones who are hit now. That's today, but tomorrow it's going to be somewhere else, whether it's Detroit, whether it's New Orleans, it will work it's way across the country. And this is the time to help one another."
Cuomo: "This is a deadly, serious situation. And, frankly, it is more important than politics, and it is more important than partisanship. And if there is division at this time, the virus will defeat us. If there was ever a moment for unity - this, my friends, is the moment. In this situation, there are no red states, and there are no blue states, and there are no red casualties, and there are no blue casualties. It is red, white and blue."
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a statewide public-private hospital plan to fight COVID-19. As part of the plan, public and private hospitals from across the state have agreed to implement a new balanced approach to fighting the virus where hospitals that are beginning to reach or exceed capacity can transfer patients to other hospitals that are not as full.
The hospital systems across the state have also agreed to share supplies, staff and other resources as needed. The State Department of Health will work with the statewide healthcare system to create a command center to share information between hospitals about the supplies each hospital has in stock and the supplies each hospital is ordering. This central inventory system will help ensure purchasing and distribution of supplies is done strategically and efficiently.
The Governor also announced that the first 1,000-bed temporary hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is open and accepting patients today. The temporary hospital site was constructed in one week.
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.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Let me thank them all very much for being here. We just had a great meeting, which I'll refer to in a moment. Let me also wish everyone a happy National Doctors Day. This is a day that doctors are truly busy and truly stepping up to their oath and their passion, and literally saving lives. So, we honor the doctors in the State of New York today. Let me also than the people from the Javits Center. Alan Steel, who is the director here. The Javits center has done many magnificent exhibitions and transformations, and they never cease to amaze me. But this is a transformation that I don't think anyone could ever anticipate. 2,500 beds as an emergency hospital. It is a partnership between state and federal government. I want to thank the federal government very much for what they have done. The Army Corps of Engineers did a fantastic job moving in here and getting everything set up as quickly as possible. Itwill become operational today - receiving the first few patients. We will start to run the facility and then we will take it from there.
Let me go through a couple of facts to give you an update on where we are today, and then we will take your questions. In terms of the number of cases, you see the curve continues to go up - 7,195. You see the number of people tested continues to go up. This state is testing more people than any state in the United States - more per capita than China or South Korea. That is a good thing. We want to test. We want to find the positives. And we want to find the positives so we can isolate and stop the transmission. We tested 14,000 people yesterday. The number of cases continues to go up - 6,984. Total number of cases is 66,000 and those numbers are daunting to be sure.
You see it is continuing to move across the State of New York. There is only one county now that does not have a COVID case. Anyone who says the situation is a New York City only situation is in a state of denial. You see this virus move across the state. You see virus move across this nation. There is no American who is immune to this virus. I don't care if you live in Kansas. I don't care if you live in Texas. There is no American that is immune. What is happening to New York is not an anomaly. There is nothing about a New Yorker's immune system that is any different than any other American's immune system. So, in many ways New York is just a canary in the coal mine. What you see us going through here, you will see happening all across this country.
So, part of what we doing here is not only serving New Yorkers, but we believe we are dealing with this pandemic at a level of intensity and density that no one has seen before, and hopefully we will learn lessons here that we can share with people across this nation. In terms of the overall numbers, 66,000 tested positive. 9,500 people are currently hospitalized. 2,000 ICU patients. 4,000 patients are discharged, that is an increase of 632. You don't often focus on this line when we have these conversations. But people go into the hospital and people leave the hospital, and that is important to remember.
We have dealt with some really deadly viruses before. We dealt with the Ebola virus and that is not what this is. Most people will get sick. Most people will get sick and stay home and have some symptoms. That's 80%. 20% will get sick and need hospitalization. They'll feel better and they'll leave. It tends to be those who are acutely ill, have an underlying illness, who have the most problems.
The most impacted states, New York is at 66,000, New Jersey is next with 13,000,California is at 6,000. So, we have ten times the problem that California is dealing with. 1,218 death in the State of New York. Total of 148,000 cases. 1,218 deaths,that is a lot of loss. That is a lot of pain. That is a lot of tears. That is a lot of grief that people all across the state are feeling. 1,200 is up from 965 deaths. Yesterday, what you are seeing is people who have been on ventilators for a long period of time. The longer you are on a ventilator, the less likely you will ever come off that ventilator. And as we have now some period of time when people first entered the hospital and were first intubated, we are seeing that death number go up as the length of time on the ventilator increases.
To keep it in perspective, the Johns Hopkins numbers are still instructive. We have been studying this since China. So, 732,000 cases and 34,000 deaths worldwide. Total hospitalized, we are still looking for a pattern on these cases that are coming in. We are still looking for a pattern in the data. The number goes up. The number goes down. There is no doubt that the number is still increasing. There is also no doubt that the rate has slowed. We had a doubling of cases every two days, then a doubling every three days, then a doubling every four days, then every five days. We now have a doubling of cases every six days. So, while the overall number is going up, the rate of doubling is actually down. The daily intubation rate is way up. Again, sometimes it is just an anomaly. There is no clear pattern as you can see from those past several nights. Discharge rate, again that by and large is going up. People come into the hospital, stay for a period of time, number of days, and then they move on.
But the big picture is the situation is painfully clear now. There is no question what we are dealing with. There is no question as to the consequences. There is no question as to the grief and loss of life. And there is no question about what we must do. There are only two missions. There are only two operations that we need to perform. First, the public has to be responsible. Stay at home, when I issued the stay-at-home order, it wasn't "it would be nice if you did." It is a mandate. Stay at home. If you are a non-essential worker, stay at home. if you leave the house, you are exposing yourself to danger. If you leave the house, you are exposing yourself to danger. If you leave the house, you are exposing others to danger. You could get infected, go home and infect whoever is at home. So, stay at home. I know the isolation can be boring and oppressive. It is better than the alternative. Life is options, right? Stay at home, that is the best option. If you are out, no proximity, six feet distancing. You don't want proximity to other people and you want to stay away from places that are dense.
Still, in New York City, you have too many places with too much density. I don't know how many different ways to make the same point. New York City parks, we made the point there is too much density. If you want to go to the park, go to the park, but not in a dense area, not in playgrounds where you are playing basketball with other people. I have said that New York City is trying to reduce the density in those playgrounds. Thus far, they have not been successful. If that continues, we will take a mandatory action to close down playgrounds, as harsh as that sounds, but it can actually save peoples' lives. That is mission one.
Mission two, and this will be more and more clear as we go on. The frontline battle is in the health care system. The frontline battle is going to be hospitals across the city, across the state, and across this nation. That is where this battle is fought. It is that simple. You know exactly where it's coming. You know exactly where the enemy is going to attack. They're going to infect a large number of people. That number of people descend on the health care system. The health care system can't deal with that number of people. You overwhelm the health care system. That's what's happening.
First step was flatten the curve, reduce density, keep people home. We've done everything we can possibly do there. Second step is, don't let the hospital system get overwhelmed. The soldiers in this fight are the health care professionals. It's the doctors, it's the nurses, it's the people working in the hospitals, it's the aides. They are the soldiers who are fighting this battle for us.
You know the expression, save our troops. Troops, quote, unquote - in this battle the troops are health care professionals. Those are the troops who are fighting this battle for us. We need to recruit more health care workers. We need to share health care professionals within this state and within this country. As Governor of New York, I am asking health care professionals across the country, if you don't have a health care crisis in your community, please come help us in New York now. We need relief. We need relief for nurses who are working 12-hour shifts one after the other after the other. We need relief for doctors. We need relief for attendants. If you're not busy, come help us please. We will return the favor. We will return the favor.
New York, yes, we have it now intensely. There will be a curve. New York at one point will be on the other side of the curve and then there will be an intense issue somewhere else in the nation. And the New York way is to be helpful. Help New York, we're the ones who are hit now. That's today, but tomorrow it's going to be somewhere else, whether it's Detroit, whether it's New Orleans, it will work it's way across the country. And this is the time to help one another.
We need supplies desperately and we're working on that. We just had a very good meeting where we discussed supplies. I want to thank Michael Evans from Ali Baba who is here with us today. I want to thank Elizabeth Jennings who is here with us today. They are helping us source supplies, because we're in a situation where you have 50 states all competing for supplies. The federal government is now also competing for supplies. Private hospitals are also competing for supplies. So we've created a situation where you literally have hundreds of entities looking to buy the same exact materials, basically from the same place which is China, ironically enough. We're fighting amongst ourselves. We're competing amongst ourselves.
When we started buying ventilators, they were under $20,000. The ventilators are now over $50,000 if you can find them. The ventilators didn't change that much in two weeks. The prices went up because literally we are driving the prices up. But we need to give our front line, our health care professionals, the supplies they need and we need to do it now. Our rule here in New York has been plan forward, to get ahead of the problem. The old expression is don't fight the last battle. This virus has been ahead of us since day one. We have been playing catch-up from day one. You never win playing catch up. Get ahead of the problem. Don't fight today's fight. Plan for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks from now when you're going to have the apex, and make sure that we are in a position to win the battle when the battle is truly drawn, which is going to be at the apex. That's why we are preparing stockpiles now. We're building a stockpile. The word stockpile, by definition, means not for immediate use. It means you are preparing for a battle to come. And you have to have the equipment, and you have to have it now.
I have done disaster work all across the nation. I can tell you this, if you wait to prepare for the storm to hit, it is too late, my friends. You have to prepare before the storm hits. And in this case, the storm is when you hit that high point, when you hit that apex. How do you know when you're going to get there? You don't. There is no crystal ball, but there is science, and there is data, and there are health professionals who have studied this virus and its progress since China. We now have months of data. Listen to the scientists. Listen to the healthcare professionals. Follow the data, and that is what we're doing here in New York.
We just had a great meeting where we brought the healthcare system from across the state of New York together to come up with one coordinated plan. Not private hospitals and public hospitals, not New York City hospitals and Long Island hospitals or Westchester hospitals, Upstate hospitals, not big hospitals and small hospitals, the entire healthcare system convened, coordinated, working as one for the first time in decades. No one can ever remember the way we have deployed and coordinated like this. Why? Because this is a statewide battle. And we want to make sure that we are all coordinated and we are all working together. That is exactly what we have accomplished at this meeting.
No politics. No partisanship. No division. There is no time for that, not in this state, not in this nation. This is a deadly, serious situation. And, frankly, it is more important than politics, and it is more important than partisanship. And if there is division at this time, the virus will defeat us. If there was ever a moment for unity - this, my friends, is the moment. In this situation, there are no red states, and there are no blue states, and there are no red casualties, and there are no blue casualties. It is red, white and blue. This virus doesn't discriminate. It attacks everyone, and it attacks everywhere. The president said this is a war. I agree with that. This is a war. Then let's act that way, and let's act that way now. And let's show a commonality in a mutuality and a unity that this country has not seen in decades, because the lord knows we need it today more than ever before.
March 30, 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-2
Governor Cuomo: "If the President is helping the State of New York I will be the first person to say so. If we have a difference I will be the first person to say so and the President has been very helpful. The Comfort has been helpful. The Javits Center, 2,500 beds ... the Army Corps of Engineers did a phenomenal job. One week they came into the JavitsCenter and built an entire field hospital and they're staffing it. So those two facilities alone right there, you're talking about a great relief valve."
Cuomo: "You're going to have a hospital system deluged with people and we'll have probably twice the capacity that the health care system was designed for and that's why you'll see the doctors, the nurses, the staff - that's why they're under such stress."
Cuomo: "This this will go on for weeks and you have people showing up into really dangerous situations. They don't know if they're going to contract the virus, if they're going to bring it home. Many people are dying and this is going to go on for weeks. So that's a whole new stress on a staff."
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.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Chris Cuomo: We have the governor of the State of New York, my brother, Andrew Cuomo. Governor, thank you for joining us.
Governor Cuomo: Good to be with you, Christopher.
Chris Cuomo: The good news, huge navy ship came in today. The President said we delivered on that. It got here sooner. What is the significance because you've said that some of the reporting about the ship is right, some of it's wrong. What's the reality of what this event means?
Governor Cuomo: The reality is President Trump sent the U.S. Navy Ship Comfort to New York. It's in New York Harbor and the Comfort and a federalfacility that we built at the Javits State Convention Center, those two facilities, 2,500 beds in Javits and 1,000 beds at the ship, will serve as basically a relief valve for the hospitals. They won't do COVID patients themselves but they'll be a relief valve for the hospital system and that's the whole battle is the capacity of the hospital system. It will be a relief valve to relieve some of those patients so the hospitals can focus on the COVID patients.
Chris Cuomo: So, simple question, has the President been stepping up? Are they keeping their word on the federal level?
Governor Cuomo: Look, I said to the President privately, I've said it publicly, we need to work together in partnership. This is the essence of federal-state relations, right? This is how we deal with these types of situations. If the President is helping the State of New York I will be the first person to say so. If we have a difference I will be the first person to say so and the President has been very helpful. The Comfort has been helpful. The Javits Center, 2,500 beds - I'll tell you, Chris, the Army Corps of Engineers did a phenomenal job. One week they came into the Javits Center and built an entire field hospital and they're staffing it. So those two facilities alone right there, you're talking about a great relief valve. Now we still have problems and we have issues, right? Your opening point was right. There's two missions. Number one, stay home. Reduce the infection rate. Don't go out. You're exposing yourself to danger. You could get infected. You could infect someone else. Second, this is going to be a battle at the hospitals, at the public health system. You're going to have a hospital system deluged with people and we'll have probably twice the capacity that the health care system was designed for and that's why you'll see the doctors, the nurses, the staff - that's why they're under such stress.
Chris Cuomo: You'll have twice the patients that the capacity was designed for, meaning you will not have the beds and the ventilators and the staff to accommodate, you believe, by a factor of two?
Governor Cuomo: Well, once you go to over-capacity it's all of the above, right? Actually the beds are the easiest thing to find. You wouldn't think of it but it's easiest to find the beds. It's the equipment because now you have every state trying to buy the same equipment, and you have countries all across the globe, the PPE, the ventilators, et cetera, and it's the staff. The staff is getting exhausted. I had one nurse say to me more than physically exhausted, I'm emotionally exhausted. This is weeks and this will go on for weeks and you have people showing up into really dangerous situations. They don't know if they're going to contract the virus, if they're going to bring it home. Many people are dying and this is going to go on for weeks. So that's a whole new stress on a staff.
Chris Cuomo: And the worst is yet to come. PPE will be a big deal. As somemay know or may not know, the Governor put out a call that if this isn't happening in a bad way in your community or even in your state, come help us. And that is really a clarion call for the need to be calling out anybody who can come to help. It will be interesting to see who responds. The President said something today that I want your take on. The answer you've given so far, you said you don't know what he means. I want you to think about it a little bit more. Let's play the sound about what the president suggested might be happening with some of the equipment we are all desperate to find for our health care professionals.
Clip of President Trump: New York hospital, it's packed all the time. How do you go from 10 to 20 to 300,000 - 10,000 to 20,000 masks to 300,000, even though this is different? Something is going on. And you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000? And we have that in a lot of different places. So somebody should probably look into that.
Chris Cuomo: Now you said, I don't know what he means. You know what he means. He's saying that somebody is stealing this PPE stuff, or that something is being done with it that is wrong which is the implication is I'm doing the right thing. I'm getting them the right things in New York. I don't know what they're doing with them. That's the implication. What's your response?
Governor Cuomo: My response is, first of all, if I say I don't know what he means you can't tell me that, yes, I do know what he means. You might think—
Chris Cuomo: What do you think he could mean other than that?
Governor Cuomo: I don't know. It's a very vague thing. It went out the back door. I don't know what that means.
Chris Cuomo: What is it a stray cat? It didn't go out the back door. He is saying somebody is taking it.
Governor Cuomo: Maybe that's what he means but I don't know. It's a very vague reference. You should ask the President. But look, the exponential increase in the PPE is real, right? In the hospitals now there's COVID PPE, non-COVID PPE. Everybody is wearing COVID PPE because you don't know who has COVID and who doesn't have COVID. Every time they see a patient they have to change their PPE. So, yes, the burn rate of the PPE is much, much higher. So I think when the President says it's an incredible increase, I think he's right. If you are right by what you thought he meant when he said out the back door, as if it is being stolen or misused, if that's what he meant, then he should say that, ask for an investigation and that's how you handle that. If that's what he meant, which is what you think he meant.
Chris Cuomo: I don't know what else he could mean. But your point is taken, which is it's about the burn rate. He may not understand the facts yet. He may not want to accept it. It's a way of hedging against the need, as great as it is. But this is something that this President does. He's done it to you a few times. You know, he goes back and forth about whether or not you're good or bad. Right now, you're good. Poll numbers came out, he's very responsive to poll numbers, and they say you're popular now because of how you're doing this.So he weaponizes it and says you know what he should do, he should run for President, this guy, Cuomo. He'd be better than Biden, this guy Cuomo. But I'd beat him, too. Let me ask you something. With all of this adulation that you're getting for doing your job, are you thinking about running for President? Tell the audience.
Governor Cuomo: No. No.
Chris Cuomo: No, you won't answer?
Governor Cuomo: No. I answered. The answer is no.
Chris Cuomo: No, you're not thinking about it?
Governor Cuomo: I answered the question, sometimes it's one word. I said no.
Chris Cuomo: Have you thought about it?
Governor Cuomo: No.
Chris Cuomo: Are you open to thinking about it?
Governor Cuomo: No.
Chris Cuomo: Might you think about it at some point?
Governor Cuomo: No. No.
Chris Cuomo: No, you won't answer?
Governor Cuomo: No, I answered. The answer is no. No is sometimes one word. I said no.
Chris Cuomo: Have you thought about it?
Governor Cuomo: No.
Chris Cuomo: Are you open to thinking about it?
Governor Cuomo: No.
Chris Cuomo: Might you think about it at some point?
Governor Cuomo: No.
Chris Cuomo: How can you know what you might think about at some point right now?
Governor Cuomo: Because I know what I might think about and what I won't think about. I won't think about it. But you're a great interviewer by the way.
Chris Cuomo: Appreciate it. Learned from the best.
Governor Cuomo: Thank you.
Chris Cuomo: The point is this: what do you think about him trying to play you against Biden? That's what's going on here. He's trying to say Joe Biden is weak, look even Cuomo is stronger than he is and he's not even running. What's your response?
Governor Cuomo: Again, that's your interpretation of what you think the President was saying. I know Joe Biden many, many years. I worked with him when he was Vice President. He has been a tremendous asset to the State of New York when he was Vice president with President Obama. So I worked with him on a professional level, I know him very well personally. I can't say enough good things about Joe Biden. So I think he's a great public servant. I think he has been extraordinary on a number of levels. I think he's a good man. I think he has a good heart, I think he has a good soul. I think he's well-meaning. He's knowledgeable as heck. He has wisdom and I think he's a leader. At one point, Chris, it comes down to a simple concept. It's about leadership. The experience, the wisdom, the capacity to do the job. Not just think about it, not just talk about it, not just tweet about it - do the job. And Joe Biden is a guy who does the job for real Americans. We grew up, we're middle class New Yorkers. We relate to him that way. He relates to people all acrossthe country that way. His sense of connectivity, his sense of capacity, you put all that together and he's the real deal.
Chris Cuomo: Well, we'll see. He's got to get through his primary. There's a long race to go. We'll see how this plays for the President. Two quick things: One, what do you still need in terms of the urgency? Where are you on ventilators? Where are you on PPE? Where are you in terms of being up to where you need to be because of what you think is coming? In context, TonyFauci telling America today the sober reality that we could lose 6 digits in terms of the death toll in this country because of this disease. At least 100,000. What do you still need?
Governor Cuomo: Well if Tony Fauci is looking at the numbers right, and that's why I respect him and that's why I like to talk to him. Everybody has a theory, everybody has an idea, including you. I like to talk to Fauci, he has numbers, he has facts. We in New York, you'll have different curves in different places around the country and the virus moves faster in some areas. It moves very fast in New York because we're a very dense area. We're very intense, we're on top of one another so the virus moves fast. We are still on our way up the mountain of the curve, we haven't hit the curve. One of the things we're doing now, I brought all the hospitals across the state together - first time ever. And I said, look, we're no longer New York City hospitals, Long Island hospitals, public hospitals, private hospitals, upstate hospitals - we're one hospital system and we're going to operate that way. And we're going to share equipment, we're going to share staff, we're going to share resources. All the fiefdoms are broken down. We're going to have to make that entire health care system work because we're still on our way up the mountain. The apex is anywhere from 6 days to 21 days away depending on who you listen to. The apex can either be one and a half times the capacity of the hospital system or three times the capacity of the hospital system, depending on which projection you reach. I want to prepare for that apex because this virus has been ahead of us every step of the way, Christopher. We have never gotten ahead of this virus and you never win fighting the last battle. And we have to get ahead of it and the next encounter when we meet the enemy is on the top of the mountain at that apex and that's what we have to be ready for.
Chris Cuomo: Understood. Now, you've been really giving people a lot of comfort about recognizing the difficulties of staying at home, making an effortobviously to be home. You've got your kids up there, you're keeping them close. You said something about yourself. You said, I'm not really good at cooking, and I've had to learn, do stuff with the kids. I don't know why you take your shot at that, I mean, just cause you don't cook. Mom shares her secrets about how to make sauce, very few people, you shouldn't criticize yourself that you're not one of the people that mom saw as worthy to teach how to cook and make tomato sauce.
Governor Cuomo: Well, look, I'm sure she would have, it's just that you spent so much more time in the kitchen, Chris, than I did. You were just available toher. You had that always like mom's little helper in the kitchen. I really respect that. So, I think it's because you were there and always underfoot.
Chris Cuomo: I don't see it that way. I don't see it that way.
Governor Cuomo: You spent years in the kitchen when you think of it.
Chris Cuomo: I don't see it that way. I didn't spend years.
Governor Cuomo: I didn't mean to offend you. I didn't mean to offend you.
Chris Cuomo: I think you did. That's okay, there's no offense taken. But what I'm saying is -
Governor Cuomo: Please, you helped mom in the kitchen, it was a beautiful thing. I had to do work.
Chris Cuomo: I didn't help mom in the kitchen. You're saying something different. She taught me things she chose not to teach you, is what I'm trying to say. You don't have to play the sound but - hold on one second.
Governor Cuomo: Can I ask you a question? Where are you? Where are you?
Chris Cuomo: Where am I? I'm in the process of making a point is where I am. I'm in my basement.
Governor Cuomo: But where are you physically?
Chris Cuomo: I'm in my basement.
Governor Cuomo: Oh, you're in your basement.
Chris Cuomo: That's where I am.
Governor Cuomo: You spent a lot of time there, right? Christina says she sends you there a lot. So kitchen and basement, that's where you've spent your life.
Chris Cuomo: Here is what I'm trying to say. I'm in the basement because this is where I have the ability to do this. Right now I need to be working at home. That's why I'm here. But mom, you don't have to play the sound, but last night I was doing what I do for my family which is make my mother's sauce. She taught me how to make the sauce, which is something that is very coveted. And she said I can only teach he, not she, he who will carry it on best. And you will see the b-roll of me cooking, my mother called me and said, and I was listening to one of her favorite songs, Andrea Bocelli, and you'll see I had a picture of her behind me as I always do when I'm cooking in the kitchen, a picture of my mother to remember our bond and how I care for her that she taught me how to make the sauce. She didn't teach anybody else. And she called me and said, is Andrew there? I said, no, mom, I'm all alone here out on the island with my family. And she said, where is he? And I said he's up in Albany in the house with the big gates and the attack dog. And she said, oh, that's too bad. And I said, it's okay, mom. I love him and I'll make sauce for him, too. And she started to cry, and then I said goodbye. That's what happened.
Governor Cuomo: You've always been good at manipulation. You've always been the meatball of the family. Look, some of us have to work, right? I don't have the luxury of working one hour a day. God bless you. I'm happy for you.
Chris Cuomo: First of all, it's a full-time job.
Governor Cuomo: Most of us work more than an hour a day.
Chris Cuomo: You certainly have been working a lot. And I'll tell you what, be careful, not just cause you look like you've been burning a lot of hours, but you show up in a lot of places and I know it gives comfort to people. But if you get sick, God forbid, there's only one of you right now. And if you get sick, it's a problem. So I know you like to run around with your ill-fitting jacket, but just remember that you have to stay healthy. I need you, big brother, because I love you, and you're the center of the family, but you're the center of the state right now, also.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, but I have to do my job and mama didn't raise an armchair general in me anyway. I'm not going to sit in my basement. I say to the National Guard every time before I go out there. I'll never ask you to go anywhere that I won't go. I'll never ask you to do anything that I won't do. So, I need to be out there doing my job. You stay where you are in the basement. I think it's very nice. I love you. Be safe. Call me some time.
Chris Cuomo: I have to be honest, this basement puts me in a bad position, and I am sitting in an armchair right now. Those are two terrible facts. But you're doing the right thing, talking to the audience, being open with the media. I know you're working your tail off for everybody. I love you. I respect you. Stay safe. I'll talk to you soon. I'll send you some sauce.
Governor Cuomo: Love you, brother.
Chris Cuomo: Mom's secret sauce.
Governor Cuomo: Thanks, thanks. I know. Meatball.
Chris Cuomo: I heard it. It's a term of endearment in Italian circles, to be the meatball. Please hang up on him now. Thank you very much. He has a lot of work to do.
March 31, 2020.
Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces New Hospital Network Central Coordinating Team. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-new-hospital-network-central
Central Coordinating Team Will Help Implement Statewide Public-Private Hospital Plan to Share Information, Supplies, Staff and Patients Among Hospitals Across the State
New Online Portal Will Launch Today to Connect Hospitals to Volunteer Healthcare Workers and Help Prioritize Deployment to Hospitals with the Greatest Need
Confirms 9,298 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 75,795; New Cases in 44 Counties
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a new hospital network Central Coordinating Team that will help facilitate a more coordinated and strategic approach among the state's healthcare system in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coordinating team will help implement the statewide public-private hospital plan, which the Governor announced yesterday, to share information, supplies, staff and patients among hospitals across the State. The team will be responsible for organizing upstate to downstate staffing; assisting Elmhurst Hospital and other stressed hospitals; setting patient thresholds for hospitals; organizing patient transfers to other hospitals and the USNS Comfort; coordinating State-City stockpiles and individual hospital stockpiles; and facilitating staffing recruitment.
The team will be led by the State Department of Health and includes the Westchester, New York City and Long Island healthcare systems, the Greater New York Hospital Association and the Healthcare Association of New York State. The team will also work with FEMA and the federal government.
This virus does not discriminate — no one is immune to it — and people must continue to be cautious.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor Cuomo also announced the State is launching an online portal that will help connect hospitals and healthcare facilities across the state with the nearly 80,000 healthcare workers who have volunteered to work on a temporary basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The portal will prioritize the deployment of workers to hospitals with the greatest need; volunteers are expected to be deployed as early as this Thursday.
"As we continue to battle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have two missions - preparing our hospital system so it is not overwhelmed when the apex of the curve hits and ensuring people stay home so they don't get the virus in the first place," Governor Cuomo said. "We are following the mathematical projections of the experts and preparing for the main battle at the apex by procuring as much equipment as we can, increasing our hospital capacity and supporting hospital staff. We met with the entire state hospital system for the first time ever and established an unprecedented new approach to work cooperatively as one unified, statewide healthcare system to defeat this virus. This virus does not discriminate — no one is immune to it — and people must continue to be cautious, think of others and not leave their homes unless absolutely necessary."
Finally, the Governor confirmed 9,298 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 75,795 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 75,795 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
226
9
Allegany
7
0
Broome
38
3
Cattaraugus
6
0
Cayuga
3
0
Chautauqua
6
1
Chemung
20
5
Chenango
19
2
Clinton
21
4
Columbia
30
4
Cortland
8
0
Delaware
16
5
Dutchess
484
92
Erie
438
62
Essex
4
0
Franklin
9
3
Fulton
1
0
Genesee
10
1
Greene
16
6
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
12
0
Jefferson
12
1
Lewis
2
0
Livingston
13
1
Madison
41
7
Monroe
292
50
Montgomery
7
1
Nassau
8,544
1,200
Niagara
42
1
NYC
43,139
5,686
Oneida
40
6
Onondaga
194
14
Ontario
22
2
Orange
1,556
121
Orleans
6
2
Oswego
15
1
Otsego
18
1
Putnam
186
19
Rensselaer
41
1
Rockland
2,863
352
Saratoga
108
3
Schenectady
85
5
Schoharie
6
0
Schuyler
2
0
Seneca
2
2
St. Lawrence
30
17
Steuben
24
5
Suffolk
6,713
922
Sullivan
109
8
Tioga
7
3
Tompkins
66
0
Ulster
211
21
Warren
18
0
Washington
10
3
Wayne
19
4
Westchester
9,967
641
Wyoming
9
1
March 31, 2020.
Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces New Hospital Network Central Coordinating Team. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-amid-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-new
Central Coordinating Team Will Help Implement Statewide Public-Private Hospital Plan to Share Information, Supplies, Staff and Patients Among Hospitals Across the State
New Online Portal Will Launch Today to Connect Hospitals to Volunteer Healthcare Workers and Help Prioritize Deployment to Hospitals with the Greatest Need
Confirms 9,298 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 75,795; New Cases in 44 Counties
Governor Cuomo: "We set two missions. One was hospitals. Second was individual responsibility. The individual responsibility is about discipline. It's about selflessness and being informed. The basic point is stay at home. Stay at home. I know it's hard to stay at home and I know everyone thinks, you know, I can go out, I can be smart, and I won't get infected because it's me. I'm a superhero. It's not going to be me. That is not true."
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a new hospital network Central Coordinating Team that will help facilitate a more coordinated and strategic approach among the state's healthcare system in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coordinating team will help implement the statewide public-private hospital plan, which the Governor announced yesterday, to share information, supplies, staff and patients among hospitals across the State. The team will be responsible for organizing upstate to downstate staffing; assisting Elmhurst Hospital and other stressed hospitals; setting patient thresholds for hospitals; organizing patient transfers to other hospitals and the USNS Comfort; coordinating State-City stockpiles and individual hospital stockpiles; and facilitating staffing recruitment.
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.
PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning to all. Still is morning, just a long one. Let me go through where we are today on the numbers. Give these people an update. The number of cases still going up. We're all in search of the apex and the other side of the mountain. But we are still headed up the mountain. Number of people tested last night was a near record amount. We tested over 18,000 people. We're testing more people than any state in the country and I'm very proud of that. More per capita than China and South Korea.
Total number of people tested, 200,000. Population of 19 million, is not going to give you a random sample, but it's been helping us track down on the positive cases. Number of positive cases, 9,298. Total cases 75,000 cases. You see the predominance in New York City, then Westchester, then Nassau, then Suffolk, then Rockland. So you can see it's that area of density. It spreads out from that area of density. The march of coronavirus across the State of New York continues. We're down to just two counties that don't have a case. The overall numbers, 75,000 have tested positive. Ten thousand people in our hospitals, 2,700 ICU patients. Good news, 4,900 - almost 5,000 - discharged. That's up 771. So people come in, they get treated, they go home.
New York is at 75,000 cases. Next state is 16,000. California is at 7,000. So you can see New York, there's a magnitude of difference more than any other state. Fifteen-hundred fifty deaths. That's up from 1,218 yesterday. Again, we're studying the charts. We're trying to study the data, follow the data. The data is uneven. It bounces. Numbers often bounce in any model. There are variables in this model. The hospitals are reporting it, so what every hospital reported, were they busy, are they combining a couple of days in one? It's an imperfect reporting mechanism.
You see the basic line is still up. What the statisticians will tell you is you basically draw the straight line that columns indicate and you see that we're still going up which is what we see on the overall trajectory, that we're still going up. Number of intubations was down, not much, but it was down and that's a good sign. You also see the number of discharges going up and that's consistent. The longer people are in, they either get treated and leave or they get put on a ventilator and the longer you're on a ventilator, the less likelihood you will come off the ventilator. That is the blunt truth of this situation.
We have two missions overall that we are pursuing. One is the front line of this battle is our hospital system. That's where this is going to come down to. The second is social responsibility. Stay at home. Don't get infected in the first place. Don't get infected in the first place because it goes back to you're creating a burden on our health care system that our health care system cannot handle. We're talking about exceeding the capacity of our hospital system by some estimates, 2 times. So what does this come down to besides all the other issues? It comes down to not overwhelming the hospital system because those people who need acute care may not be able to get the acute care. So it's all about the hospital system. That is the front line.
What we're doing is we are following the mathematical projections of the experts. We're speaking to all the health care professionals, all the health care providers. World Health Organization, National Institute of Health, Dr. Fauci, CDC, FDA - the whole alphabet soup of health care experts and the mathematicians who then have different models. We talk about five different models and compared the models and tried to find the median through the models. That's how we plan everything. Follow the data, follow the science. People ask me, "What do you think, what do you think?" I don't think about this. What do I know? I'm not an expert. I'm not opining. I talk to experts and I follow people who know.
But for the hospitals procure equipment, identify the beds, support the staff, that's what it's been all about. Of those priorities number one is support the staff. They are the front line and they need relief. They are physically exhausted even more they are more emotionally exhausted. This is unlike any other disasters. Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods - they happen, they are fast, they're over, you start rebuilding. This is different. This is ongoing and the duration itself is debilitating and exhausting and depressing. I'm speaking to healthcare professionals who say, "Look, more than physically tired I'm emotionally tired seeing the pain and death that they are dealing with every day."
In general, I am tired of being behind this virus. We've been behind this virus from day one. The virus was in China. We knew it was in China. Unless we assume there's some immune system variation with Asian people, it was coming here and we have been behind it from day one since it got here and we've been playing catch-up. You don't win playing catch-up. We have to get ahead of it. The second rule is never underestimate your opponent, and we underestimated this virus. It's more powerful, it's more dangerous than we expected, and the third point is plan forward. Get ahead of it. Get ahead of it, fight the fight today, yes, but anticipate the next battle and plan for the next battle.
And the main battle is at the apex. We're still going up the mountain. The main battle is on the top of the mountain. That's where the main battle is going to be. The apex of the curve and then we come down the other side of the mountain. We are planning now for the battle at the top of the mountain. That's what we are doing. Get a staffing plan ready now for the battle at the top of the mountain. Equipment stockpile now - we're gathering equipment that we don't need today because today is not the day of the battle. The battle is when we hit the apex, depending on who you believe, 14 days to 30 days from today.
And also we need a social acceptance of the time expectation. We're all anxious. We're all tired, we're all fatigued. It's been all bad news for a long time. Our whole lifestyle has been disrupted. Everybody knows wants to know one thing, when is it over, nobody knows. Well, President said by Easter; this one said by this - nobody knows. You can have a hypothesis, you can have a projection, you can have an opinion but nobody knows, but I can say this, it is not going to be soon. If our apex is 14 to 21 days, that's our apex. You then have to come down the other side of the mountain once you hit the apex, so calibrate yourself and your expectations so you're not disappointed every morning you get up.
Yesterday we met with the entire state hospital system, Dr. Zucker and our team - first time they were all in one place. And we said to the hospital system, "Look," what I just said to you, "We are dealing with a war, we are dealing with war we've never dealt with before. We need a totally different mindset. We can't do business the way we have always done business - we need unprecedented sense of cooperation, flexibility, communication and speed." And that's what we talked through yesterday, and we have to do it now. The healthcare system is one of those balkanized systems - it's like our state education system, it's like our criminal justice system. It's in place. It's fragmented. They have their own identities, their own associations, it's regionally organized. That all has to change.
We don't have the ability to meet the capacity of our healthcare system as an entirety. That assumes the healthcare system is working as an entirety. That's not how the healthcare system is organized now. We have New York City hospitals, and then we have Long Island hospitals, and then we have Westchester hospitals, and then we have upstate hospitals -- that has to go. Even in New York City you have two basic hospital systems in New York City: you have the private hospitals, voluntary hospitals, about 160 of them, which are some of the finest healthcare institutions in the United States of America. You know, this is Mount Sinai, Columbia Presbyterian, et cetera. Some of their members are also upstate, but they're the large, private institutions. Greater New York Hospital Association, Ken Raske runs that association of 160.
You then have in New York City the public hospitals, the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation. They are eleven public hospitals. They are a universe, and then you have the private hospitals as a separate universe. The eleven public hospitals are the hospitals that in many ways have always been under greater stress and greater need. We have to get those two systems, the private system and the public system in New York City, working together in a way they never did before. The distinction of private-public, that has to go out the window. We are one healthcare system. On top of that, it can't be the downstate hospitals, and the upstate hospitals, and the Long Island hospitals. When we talk about capacity of beds, when I say we now have 75,000 beds, that's a statewide number. That means those beds have to be available to the people in New York City or Nassau even if those beds are up in Albany.
So, combining that whole system, and you're no longer just the Western New York hospitals, or the Central New York hospitals; it's one coordinate system. It's much easier said than done, but we have to do it. On top of that, you have to overlay the new federal beds that came in that are an entirely new component. We have Javits Center -- 2,500 beds. We have the USNS Comfort -- 1,000 beds. We're planning other federal facilities. These all have to be coordinated on top of the existing hospital network. So, you see the organizational situation that we're dealing with. And let's be honest and let's learn from the past, we know where we have to focus. We know where we're going to have problems in the next hospitals because the hospitals that have the least capacity that have already been stressed are the hospitals that are not going to be able to handle the additional load. That is a fact. You know which hospitals are struggling. We do reports all the time about the financial capacity of hospitals and what hospital are in stronger versus weaker position.
The hospitals that are in a weaker position are the hospitals that are going to suffer when they then carry an added burden. That was Elmhurst hospital. It happened to be a public hospital. It happened to be a public hospital in a place of density. It happened to get overwhelmed and that's what then you saw the burden on the staff. You saw the emotion. You saw the stress. That can't happen, and that's what we talked about yesterday. And people said, "Well, Elmhurst isn't my responsibility. Elmhurst is a public hospital; the City runs it. I don't run it. It's New York City, its' not a private hospital." I don't care which link breaks in the chain. The chain is still broken. It doesn't matter which hospital, which link. Any link breaks, the chain breaks. The healthcare system is a chain; it breaks anywhere, it breaks everywhere.
That has to be our mentality. We laid out a full plan on how to do facility development, how to move people among hospitals so nobody gets overloaded, shifting patients, shifting staff, shifting supplies. None of us have enough supplies. Okay, then let's pool our supplies and let's put them out for the people who need them. Just because one hospital happened to have found a vendor from China who delivered 5 million masks, let's share those masks. And we talked about that yesterday.
We also talked again at length about ventilators which everybody knows is a key piece of equipment, identifying all the ventilators in the state, who has them, who has them in a stockpile, who ordered them, who expects them to come in and we'll have one stockpile of ventilators that we can distribute for everyone who needs them. We also talked about splitting of ventilators because that's a technology that does exist. It's been used before. It's not ideal. You take one ventilator and it's used for two patients.
The federal government is a partner in this obviously. I spoke to the President again yesterday about this situation. I spoke to the Vice President. I spoke to Jared Kushner. The White House has been very helpful. We have to get the federal agencies on the ground to understand how this operates, especially FEMA, because we have to be coordinated and people have to know what they're doing and this is no time for anyone to be learning on the job. And we're going to be working through that today. PPE, same thing. We want to know what everybody has. One stockpile, we'll distribute it fairly.
Testing, how do we get, when does this end? This ends when we get a fast track test, an at home test, 15-minute test, and people can find out when they can go back to work because they're negative. We're working on additional testing. As I said, the department of health has a new test, but that's when this ends.
We're also working on the new medications. We're leading the country in many of these developments. We have saliva testing. We're working on the antibody testing and plasma testing at the same time.
We put together an essential coordinating team. It's going to be led by the Department of Health. Westchester is on it and Greater New York, New York City is on it, Long Island is on it. If the federal government is going to participate they have to be part of this team because we have to know what we're doing and I don't want FEMA coming in and blowing the coordination of what everyone is trying to do.
The coordinating team is going to organize upstate-downstate transfers, set patient loads for hospitals, so if one hospital gets up near an overload capacity, let's call it, those hospitals start to send patients to other hospitals before they get up to their max. Within the New York City public hospital system, within the Greater New York private system, and then among the different systems. Different mentality. But we have to do it.
We set two missions. One was hospitals. Second was individual responsibility. The individual responsibility is about discipline. It's about selflessness and being informed. The basic point is stay at home. Stay at home. I know it's hard to stay at home and I know everyone thinks, you know, I can go out, I can be smart, and I won't get infected because it's me. I'm a superhero. It's not going to be me. That is not true.
And it's not just about you. It's not just about your health and your life that you're playing with here, my friend. You can infect other people. So I've been trying to communicate this many different ways for many days. We still see people coming out who don't need to be out. Even for essential workers, people have to be careful. And again, I've been trying to communicate that. Everyone, everyone is subject to this virus. It is the great equalizer. I don't care how smart, how rich, how powerful you think you are. I don't care how young, how old. This virus is the great equalizer.
My brother Chris is positive for coronavirus - found out this morning. Now, he is going to be fine. He's young, in good shape, strong, not as strong as he thinks, but he will be fine. But there's a lesson in this. He's an essential worker. Member of the press. So, he has been out there. The chance you get infected is very high. I spoke to him this morning and he's going to be quarantined in his basement at home. He's just worried about his daughter and his kids. He hopes he didn't get them infected.
You don't really know Chris. You see Chris. He has a show at nine o'clock on CNN. But you just see one dimension, right? You see a person in his job and in his job he's combative and argumentative and pushing people - but that's his job. That's really not who he is. He is a really sweet, beautiful guy and he's my best friend. My father was always working, so it was always just me and Chris. He's a lawyer, also, Chris. He is a lawyer because growing up the decision point came to what do you want to do after college? And my father was very strong personality, and my father basically suggested forcefully to Chris that he should be a lawyer. It was a different time and a different place, you know? Now, my daughters, Cara, who's here, they all follow their individual stars. This is their destiny, which is right. If you had said to my father, I want to follow my individual star, he would say, you're going to follow your individual star right out that door, you know? That's what he would have said.
So, Chris went to law school but he never really had a desire to practice law. He calls me when he is about 26, he is at a law firm and he said, you know, I don't want to be a lawyer. I said I know but you are now a lawyer. You are. He said, but I don't want to be a lawyer. He said I want to be a journalist. I said you want to be a journalist? I said, too late. You're a lawyer. You have to pay law school bills. You didn't go to journalism school. It is too late. No, no, I think I can do it. God bless him. He quit the law firm, went to work for Fox TV, which is a whole separate conversation in the house, and then worked his way up. He's at CNN. He does a beautiful job, but a sweet guy and now he is quarantined in the basement but he's funny as heck. He said to me even the dogs won't come down stairs, he says. But he is concerned about his wife and his kids.
But the reason I raise this is he's smart. He's social distancing, yes. But you wind up exposing yourself. People wind up exposing you and then they find out they're positive a couple of days later. And I had a situation with Christopher two weeks ago that I even mentioned my mother was at his house. And I said, that is a mistake. Now, my mother is in a different situation. She is older and she's healthy, but I said you can't have Mom at the house. And he said, no, no, no, Mom is lonely. She wants to be at the house. I feel bad. She is cooped up in the apartment. I said, yeah, I feel bad she is cooped up in the apartment too. But you expose her to a lot of things. You have the kids there, your wife there. You're coming and going. Your wife is coming and going and you could expose mom to the virus. And love is sometimes a little - needs to be a little smarter than just reactive. And we had a whole discussion. And truth, now, he is informed. I'm informed. Was that dangerous? Was that not dangerous? I went back to Dr. Zucker and I said look, we have to tell people, what are the rules? How does this work? That's when I came up with Matilda's Law, and I said I named it for my mother. And it was very clear about people who are older and what they should be exposed to. My brother, it was two weeks ago, if my brother still had my mother at his house, again out of love and comfort, and my mother wanted to be at eth house anyway, by the way, she didn't want to be sitting at home in an apartment. So she would have been doing what she wanted to do, he would have been doing what he wanted to do. It would have seemed great and harmless, but now we'd have a much different situation. Because if he was exposed, chances are, she may very well have been exposed, and then we would be looking at a different situation than just my brother sitting in his basement for two weeks. So think about that, right. My brother's smart. He was acting out of love. Luckily we caught it early enough.
But it's my family, it's your family, it's all of our families. And this virus is that insidious. And we have to keep that in mind. Keep in mind Matilda's Law. Remember who is vulnerable here. And protect them. You want to go out and act stupid for yourself, that's one thing. But your stupid actions don't just affect you. You come home, you can infect someone else, and you can cause a serious illness or even death for them, by your actions. And people have to really get this, and internalize it, because it can happen to anyone. Two weeks with my mother and Christopher, today is a very different situation.
Last point, there is nothing that I have said different since I started these briefings. And there's nothing we have learned that is different since I started these briefings. We know what to do. We just have to do it. It is individual discipline to stay at home. That's what it is, it's discipline. No social distancing. It's discipline. Well, I'm bored. I know. I'm bored. It's discipline. Making this healthcare system work, that's government skill, that's government performance. That's saying to that healthcare system, I don't care how it worked yesterday, I don't care whose turf this is, I don't care whose ego is involved, I'm sorry, we have to find a way to work, a better way. Time to say to that federal government and to FEMA and HHS, you have to learn how to do your job, and you have to learn how to do it quickly. Because time is not our friend. It's about a social stamina. This is not one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks, okay? This is not going to be an Easter surprise. Understand that and have the stamina to deal with it. And it's unity.
Let's help one another. New York needs help now. Yesterday I asked for healthcare workers from across the country to come here because we need help. We will pay you, and more importantly, we will return the favor. This is going to be a rolling wave across the country. New York, then it'll be Detroit, then it'll be New Orleans, then it will be California. If we were smart as a nation, come help us in New York. Get the equipment. Get the training. Get the experience. And then let's all go help the next place, and then the next place, and then the next place. That would be a smart national way of doing this. And showing that unity. And, unity meaning, we're not, I know this is a political year, and everything is a political backdrop, and Democrats want to criticize Republicans, Republicans want to criticize Democrats. Not now. Not now. There are no red states, there are no blue states. The virus doesn't attack and kill red Americans or blue Americans. It attacks all Americans. And keep that in mind, because there is, there is a unifying wisdom in that.
March 31, 2020.
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on WAMC Northeast Public Radio with Alan Chartock. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-wamc-northeast-public-radio-alan-chartock-1
Governor Cuomo: "[Chris] is strong, he's in good shape, he has no underlying illness, he'll be fine. But it's just frightening for everyone. It's disruptive and now he's going to be quarantined in his basement for 2 weeks. Which is like a semi-imprisonment in your own house. He's got the kids upstairs. It's all jarring. It's all disruptive. It's all so disconcerting. How the hell did we get here so fast and it's everywhere? I talked about it in the press conference because I want people to stay home. I say it until I'm blue in the face. People just have this attitude that it doesn't apply to them. They're immune. And no. You're not immune. And Christopher is not immune."
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Governor Cuomo: Good afternoon!
Alan Chartock: Hey, it's great to talk to you, Governor. Do you sleep at all these days? It's unbelievable how much work you're doing. I watch, I listen to every word. We play it on WAMC. I listened to every word this morning. I was on my 4-mile walk and I said, "This is all very interesting. You're handling this all very well." And then you told the news of Christopher and I almost fell off my feet. Could you go over that with us again? How did you find out that he had tested positive for the virus?
Governor Cuomo: I'll tell you the truth, doctor. Happy Doctor's Day, by the way, yesterday. It was National Doctor's Day.
Alan Chartock: Not PhD day, go ahead.
Governor Cuomo: There's almost not a morning that I don't wake up to some really disturbing situation. I did his show with him last night. He's on CNN and I did his show, we talked substance, we also tried to lighten it up a little bit because that's our natural way to begin with. We like to tease and have some fun because it's just the way we interact and I also think it's good now. Everything is so heavy news all day long. If you can make people smile a little bit to lighten it up. So I did a show with him and we had some fun. I got him pretty good. He was doing his show from the basement, in a suit with the handkerchief and the whole thing and we had some fun back and forth.
He tried to set me up. He had a tape of him making sauce, Italian sauce, and he has my mother on the cell phone and he's taping it and my mother doesn't know he's taping it. He's trying to get my mother to say she loves him more than me. And he plays the tape on air to set me up on who mom loves more, which is a running joke between us. But we do the show, it's all nice and he calls me this morning and he tells me first thing this morning. Look, he is - we know the data, follow the data, follow the data. He is strong, he's in good shape, he has no underlying illness, he'll be fine.
But it's just frightening for everyone. It's disruptive and now he's going to be quarantined in his basement for 2 weeks. Which is like a semi-imprisonment in your own house. He's got the kids upstairs. It's all jarring. It's all disruptive. It's all so disconcerting. How the hell did we get here so fast and it's everywhere? I talked about it in the press conference because I want people to stay home. I say it until I'm blue in the face. People just have this attitude that it doesn't apply to them. They're immune. And no. You're not immune. And Christopher is not immune. Luckily, my mother was at his house and if she was still at the house, then we'd have a different problem.
When I did Matilda's Law, I never really explained this, but I had a back and forth with Chris on whether or not my mother should be at his house. He didn't want to leave her at the apartment alone, right. Nobody wants to leave their parent, an elderly person, in the apartment alone. We went back and forth. I said, "You're not doing her any favors. You have kids, they're coming in and out. They go on a playdate, they come back." But luckily she wasn't there and that's when I did Matilda's Law to make it clear to people you're not helping a loved one doing this.
But yes, he's going to be quarantined for two weeks. I talked to him, he said even the dog won't come down the stairs. But you know he's so misunderstood, Chris. They see people through the dimension of their job and he's on CNN every night and he's feisty, he's arguing. He's pushing back, tough, he's combative. He is the most genuinely sweet, sensitive, really loving guy. He's just a beautiful human being, and my father used to just delight in his sweetness. He's big and people think he's tough because he's big and he works out all the time. But he's just a really sweet, loving, beautiful person, and they don't see that part of him, and this kills him. They say you can't touch your kid for two weeks, you know. Maybe you infected your kids. Maybe you infected your wife. Just on a very human level it's just miserable. It's just miserable.
Alan Chartock: Does he have symptoms?
Governor Cuomo: Yeah. He has a fever, he has shortness of breath, he has the chills. The shortness of breath is frightening to people. I was talking to a doctor the other day. He says a lot of people, the shortness of breath brings on an anxiety attack. When you can't get a full breath, that can panic you and then once you panic now you have an anxiety attack and now you're really off to the races. He has and we were talking about that this morning, with Chris, and I said, "Yeah that's what it is," but only being able to take a shallow breath is very troubling. And so he has that and he has a fever. And he was with people who tested positive afterwards, so he knows he was with positive people, and this damn thing just transfers so easily. And you know it's the reason I told the story at the press conference - "only people who are older, only people who are not in shape." Christopher takes more vitamin pills per day than most people ingest in food, you know.
Alan Chartock: How about, hate to say this, how about you? You haven't been, at least according to press reports, you haven't been tested yourself. You have been spending a lot of time with a lot of people - I won't go out of my house to be honest with you. You're doing it - do you think you should test yourself?
Governor Cuomo: For me, it's simple. I don't meet the protocol for any testing, but it's also simple, and by the way my Health Commissioner has advised me not to do what I do and the State Police have advised me not to do what I do, but I do. But I don't have a choice really - it's not how I operate, right. I say to the National Guard every disaster that I've been out there with them - and I've been out there with them a lot. I now recognize them by face, when you add up the Superstorm Sandy, the snowstorms. I say to them at the first meeting I will never ask you to go anywhere that I won't go, and I'll never ask you to do anything that I won't do myself, whether it's shoveling seven feet of snow in Buffalo, or bailing out a basement on the South Shore of Long Island. So, that's how I have to do my job. If I get sick and I wind up having to stay quarantined in my office, well that's where I would be if I followed their advice in the first place, right, except I'd be sick. But, I can't do it any other way, Alan.
Alan Chartock: Yeah. Look, Governor, let's say that you develop the symptoms, let's say that you get tested, let' say you have the thing, could you do what you're doing now? Is there a Plan B? Would you do it from your house, from the mansion and say, "Okay, nobody can touch me but I'm going to do my job"? How would you handle it?
Governor Cuomo: Yes, that's what I could do. I could go to some room and sit there, and look, Chris is still doing his show from his basement.
Alan Chartock: Oh is he? No kidding.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah. So, I could -- there's a lot of these Governors, they all stay in their office and they just do it by live video. I could do that. You know, it depends on how sick you get, right? You have a high fever, you know, maybe you're down for a few hours. But yeah, then I would just basically do the job like that. But unless you make me do it like that -- also, I have a problem with the concept police are going out there every day, nurses are going out there every day, nurses are going to these testing drive-throughsevery day, doctors are showing up every day. I'm the Governor of the State, I'm going to say, "I have to stay home. I'm afraid."
Alan Chartock: Oh no. I get that, but I'm only asking this important question: if you develop the fever, if you develop the symptoms because you certainly were articulate. I listened to every bit of it on radio this morning, you were unbelievable. If you develop the symptoms and you've also told everybody to not be irresponsible about it, then you have to make a change, right? I mean that's the whole point.
Governor Cuomo: Yes. Be as responsible as you can be. The police officer still has to go out there and pull you over, still has to walk through a door way to help a domestic violence victim, so be as responsible as you can be in the job. I'm being as responsible as I can be in my job the way I do it. I don't do it like some other Governors do it, I understand that. But, as I do I'm being as responsible as I can, and then if I get sick and have to do it at home I'll get a video and figure out how they touch the video. Give me a little button nose, Alan. Take the bags out of my eyes maybe. I could even look better on the video, maybe.
Alan Chartock: That might be hard.
Governor Cuomo: I didn't say look good, I said look better. I didn't say look good. I didn't set the bar that high.
Alan Chartock: Okay. I want to talk to you, today is supposed to be budget day. You're supposed to have the New York State budget all rounded up. Anybody giving you trouble or, you know, are they giving you a lot of leeway? I noticed you said, "let's keep it on topic this morning," meaning the coronavirus, but today's a big day. Ordinarily this would be the sort of huge celebration of a budget on-time. Is it going to be on-time? Is it not going to be on-time? Are there problems?
Governor Cuomo: Look, yes there are problems. The numbers are a problem.
Alan Chartock: Sure.
Governor Cuomo: What you're asking a legislature to do is vote on a budget where the numbers are all bad news, right?
Alan Chartock: Right.
Governor Cuomo: Normally, yeah there's bad news, but there's some good news. Legislators are not accustomed to doing a budget where it's all bad news. Now there is some policy items in there that are good news that people have been waiting for for a long time.
Alan Chartock: What are they?
Governor Cuomo: Well a lot of the policy initiatives that we have in there, the anti-terrorism legislation is in there. I haven't given up on all the policy that I went through back in January. But the numbers are the problem and the numbers are a problem.
Alan Chartock: So you haven't got the money. You haven't got the money.
Governor Cuomo: That's right.
Alan Chartock: The cuts have got to come from somewhere. I think you made a little bit of news with us when we talked before about the money coming out of potentially education. Education is the big kahuna right now. For all these years we know how the game is played. The schools ask for a lot more. Legislatures goes along and says give them a lot more. You give them a little bit more. Can't do that this time, can you?
Governor Cuomo: Can't do that. Cannot do that this time because there literally is no money and that is a tough, tough vote. It's a tough reality. But by the way, it's a tough reality and I have nothing else to say about it. When they say this is really terrible, yes, it's really terrible. The only thing I can say to them is it also reflects the reality that everybody is living. I mean our unemployment claims, I can't even get the phone system and the internet to keep pace with the number of unemployment claims so people get it. People get it and I think they will respect the honesty of it. See I argue it the other way with them. We paper over the cuts and say, well, we're expecting that the federal government is going to deliver a big chunk of cash to New York even though the federal government has never delivered anything to New York in the past four years. We expect the economy is going to bounce back in a few months. I think that would be, first of all it would be deceptive. I don't believe that. I don't think anybody believes that and the credibility of our government is look, we tell you the truth, whether it's good, bad, indifferent. That is true and I'm proud of that and they're proud of that. They've told the public the truth and this truth is an ugly painful truth.
Alan Chartock: So are you going to be late with the budget?
Governor Cuomo: I don't know. I'll tell you in about 10 hours.
Alan Chartock: And are you talking to them? I mean what happens in this thing? They can't come into a room with you, right? I mean they are in, they're in basic quarantine the two leaders. It's not going to be three men in a room. It's not even going to be two men and a woman in the room. What are you going to do?
Governor Cuomo: It's everything by telephone. This is society without intimacy. We've moved to a society without physical contact and physical presence.
Alan Chartock: Are they scared to mess with you? I just saw a poll, astounding poll, something like 71 percent approval rating in New York State. That's huge and coming up fast in the national polls. I'm not going to bother you with presidential talk because I know you don't like it. I'm not going to do it anymore even though I just wrote a column how it could all work. So let's just assume, for a second, that you have a lot behind you. They're not, the speaker isn't at 71 percent. The majority leader isn't at, the Senate isn't at 71 percent. Does that give you a little extra oomph to work with?
Governor Cuomo: I don't think so. Look, I've been at 71 percent before, right. And then I passed the gun law, which is one of my proudest accomplishments, and then I was no longer at 71 percent. No, I don't think it works for them that way, you know, their politics are different. The education aid, they're worried about the teachers' union, they're worried about their local school districts, they're worried about their local community and what they bring home to their local community. That's more their politics than statewide politics. They represent a district.
Alan Chartock: But it's got to come from somewhere. Obviously, we knew that there was a $6 billion shortfall, it was supposed to come out of the localities helping more with Medicaid. Obviously that can't happen anymore, not with this coronavirus. So where's the money coming from?
Governor Cuomo: They will acknowledge that intellectually. It's just practically, they don't want to go home and say, the cupboard is bare.
Alan Chartock: So what do they want to do?
Governor Cuomo: That's the quandary. That's the dilemma that we're in. They get that there's no money. Nobody's arguing that we have a different perception of reality. The reality is the problem. And that's what, look, Carl and Andrea, the speaker and the Senate leader, they have to look at a conference and say, I know it's all bad news. And by the way, it's all bad news.
Alan Chartock: But, I'm so sorry, I'm getting so frustrated here. Which is that obviously the three of you, and then the conferences have to come along and come up with a plan about how you're going to make up a deficit. New York State has to have a balanced budget, right. No chicanery, you've got to have a balanced budget. So the money's got to come from somewhere.
Governor Cuomo: Yes, and there is no realistic option. You could theoretically say, I believe the federal government is going to deliver $10 billion to New York State. And I believe they're going to do that in the next several months, and therefore I could $10 billion. You could say, I think the economy is going to bounce right back, because this virus is going to be over in five weeks, and then the stock market's going to go right through the roof. I don't believe any of those things are plausible. So yeah, we're just with a painful reality. and they get it. Look, Speaker Carl Heastie's a pro. Andrea Stewart-Cousins is a pro. It's just bad news, and politicians are not in a bad news business.
Alan Chartock: Yeah, but I'm sorry to be so insistent, but where's it coming from? What have you got? I mean you're the governor, you've got to make the proposal, it's your budget. Is it going to come out of education? Will it come out of education big? Will it be a cut in education? Will it be we're not giving you any extra like we do every year? You know, it can't come out of Medicaid, obviously, not with what we've got now. Where's it coming from?
Governor Cuomo: My proposal, which has never been done before but is sort of the ultimate honesty, this is where we are today, and we close a budget at this. If, if we get more money, the economy bounces back, federal government delivers a lot of money, we will increase the budget, and we'll do it quarterly. If the economy goes the other way, we'll cut the budget, and we'll do it quarterly.
Alan Chartock: That gives you a lot of power, doesn't it? I mean, now you have the power to, basically, ongoing, you don't have to come in with the big ugly, the budget, you can now say, you know every quarter you can say I am the Governor and this is what I've determined.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, no, I'd let them be part of it. As a matter of fact, I'd let them do it. Do you think they want to come back here every quarter and cut the budget?
Alan Chartock: They don't want to come back now.
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, and they certainly don't want to come back and cut a budget, that I can promise you.
Alan Chartock: Okay, so let me go Upstate a little bit. Albany Med has a lot of people who are testing positive on the staff and that's the big kahuna, that's the big, you know, place. So, you've got to balance between what's going on in New York City and what's going on Upstate. You may want to borrow some people from Upstate and send them downstate, I heard your remarks this morning. But of course this is now a matter of allocation of resources, isn't it?
Governor Cuomo: That is going to be the $64,000 question on all of this, it's going to happen nationwide. It is going to be an overwhelming of our hospital systems. That's what this is going to come down to. It's not going to be any fancier or more complex than that. Your hospitals will not be able to keep pace with the number of people coming through the door, and the first collapse is going to be the staff. The staff will get sick, the staff will be overwhelmed. I can't tell you how many nurses say to me, "Besides the physical fatigue, I'm emotionally fatigued. It's too much. The fear is too high. I'm afraid I'm going to get it. I'm afraid I'm going to bring it home. These patients are all in terrible condition." Remember, this virus is so vicious, it attacks the weakest people. So the people who get in trouble first are the people who had serious problems. That's why they're all intubated so quickly. Who had cancer, who had emphysema, who had heart disease, and then this disease hits them and now they're in serious trouble right away. You know, nobody is walking in the door anymore with a sprained ankle, with a knife wound. It's walking in the door with emphysema and overweight and 67 years old and they have to be intubated.
Alan Chartock: Well, so, let me just ask you about this budget thing one more time. Marijuana, you wanted it in the budget? Are you going to get it?
Governor Cuomo: We're not going to get there. I don't believe we get there. I don't believe we get there because in truth that is something that had to be talked through and worked through and the Legislature wasn't here. I was doing this COVID virus. That requires time to do it right, Alan, you know, that is not a yes, no. That's a how does it work, how about the police, how many licenses, who gives out the licenses, how do you do minority empowerment, how do we coordinate with Connecticut and New Jersey. And no one has really had the time to work those things through. So I don't think we get there on that.
Alan Chartock: Okay, let me go to another place. I don't know if you and I have ever talked, you know we have I think, there was a question as to whether in order to get on the ballot, a third party had to get a certain amount of signatures of the Legislature, and you went along with that or come together on that, you came up with a whole bunch of new signatures which we think are going to make the Working Families Party basically at risk. Now, somebody writes me a letter and says ask him if he is going to put that in the budget. He is allowed to put that in the budget to become law since the court of appeals of New York State said that was illegal to do it the way that it had been done. What do you got?
Governor Cuomo: I don't even remember a court of appeals decision on that. So, I would have to check.
Alan Chartock: I would have to check to. God forbid I get that wrong.
Governor Cuomo: It works for me if I get it wrong.
Alan Chartock: Well, you are not going to put it in the budget, right? I mean that's not really a budgetary item, is it?
Governor Cuomo: Yeah, again I'll check. I don't even remember the court of appeals doing anything on this topic. But I may be wrong, I have been focused on different things.
Alan Chartock: Amazon has fired a worker who led a walkout on Staten Island on Monday claiming inadequate safety standards - that is their workers' saying - and insufficient pay during the pandemic. Are you worried about this happening in other sectors that are deemed essential to the pandemic?
Governor Cuomo: Well, the firing of the worker, we have labor laws. If a labor law was violated in the firing, that is something that we will investigate. I am worried about people getting sick - essential workers getting sick. I am worried about essential workers getting scared and not wanting to show up. That I am worried about. You know the number of police officers who are getting sick is going up. And we basic social functions that have to continue, right? We have to move people. There has to be transportation. There has to be law and order. There has to be food. There has to be water. So you don't lose your mind, the internet has to work. And the more people who get sick or frightened, the harder that gets. So, I am very concerned about that.
Alan Chartock: I have to say, Governor, that we are trying to avoid a certain subject. And I know you talked to Christopher about this, and I know that you have told me about this. But there is a certain amount of demand out there that you be the candidate either for President or Vice President. I know you can get angry and I don't want to get you necessarily angry at me. But you know, if duty calls, you have talked about duty as governor, if the United States needs you why not?
Governor Cuomo: I don't get angry.
Alan Chartock: You get even.
Governor Cuomo: No, no, no. Look, in his job, in my job, if I did not fight for what I believe in Alan, if I did not fight with the legislature to pass a piece of legislation that I believe in, if I didn't fight for a budget on time, if I didn't fight to get airports built, I would be a failure. I mean they want to have it both ways. Oh, you have, he has sharp elbows. What do you think, I am playing cricket here? You think you pass marriage equality without working hard as hell. You think you pass $15 minimum wage, you think you pass every budget on time -
Alan Chartock: And how does that have to do with running for president or accepting vice president if offered? If offered, you would?
Governor Cuomo: Because I was avoiding your question and I was responding to your first half, which was I know you get angry. I chose to respond to that part of the question. So, you can't ask a question with two parts because I will pick the part that I prefer. You asked a two part question. I took part A.
Alan Chartock: So, you did. Anyway, Governor Andrew Cuomo I am going to say something which is going to get my colleagues, my friends, maybe a few of them to say you should not have said that. But I think you are doing a hell of a job and it is extraordinary. When you were on this morning, I had a lump in my throat. I know that is too much to say, but I want to thank you for what you are doing. Thank you so much for being here this afternoon. It means a great deal to all of us.
Governor Cuomo: I want to thank you for what are doing. And I want to than you Alan for the years that I have spent listening to you and learning from you even when I did not like what I heard. I learned from you. I meant it.
Alan Chartock: I appreciate that so much. Governor, we hope will see you again and thank you for making this time for us. I appreciate it.
Governor Cuomo: Be safe. Be smart please - everyone. Thank you.
March 31, 2020.
Statement from Communications Director Dani Lever in Response to White House Press Briefing. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/statement-communications-director-dani-lever-response-white-house-press-briefing
“This is not the time to debate, but the states were not slow to respond – the federal government was absent.”
