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Governor Andrew Cuomo gave an update from Albany Thursday morning, again reiterating no plans for the city to be shut down as the state continues to combat the spread of coronavirus. The trains will continue to run and there will no “shelter in place”.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced nearly 2,000 new cases overnight, and then New York City’s case count went up another 50 percent within a matter of hours.

Some other highlights

• Cuomo says he spoke with President Donald Trump and noted the federal government is now mobilized in its response.
• As part of the statewide effort to contain the spread, Governor Cuomo is ordering businesses to have no more than 25 percent of their employees working on site.
• Cuomo says having 75 percent of the workforce either staying at home or working from home will help social distancing efforts.
• Governor Cuomo says the state has about 50,000 hospital beds.
• He says the need now is to find room for more hospital beds, the amount of protective equipment for health care workers and, more importantly, ventilators.
•  The  Governor confirmed 1,769 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 4,152 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 4,152 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the hospitalization rate is 19%
• According to the Governor’s home page:  Cuomo announced new measures to free up staff and speed up the admission and discharge process at hospitals for 90 days. The Department of Financial Services will issue a directive to health insurers allowing scheduled surgeries and admissions without insurer preapproval and allowing inpatient hospital services without insurer approval. Under the measure, insurers will pay inpatient hospital services and emergency services without waiting to review for medical necessity. It will also allow the discharge of patients to a rehabilitation center or nursing after an inpatient hospital stay without insurer preapproval, and encourage self-funded plans to adopt these same provisions.

The entire update from Governor Andrew Cuomo