Here are the most important highlights from Saturday’s press conference, you can view it in it’s entirety at the bottom of page (courtesy of The Hill )

• • • The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state increased to 180,458, from 170,812. There were 18,654 patients in hospitals, up from 18,569 on Friday, and there were 5,009 patients in intensive care, up from 4,908.
    • The state death toll rose to 8,627, up from 7,844 the day before,  783 new deaths
    • Hospitalizations, including the three-day average of new virus patients being admitted to hospitals, were down, as were intubations — considered a sign of the severity of the health crisis.
    • “The curve of the increase is continuing to flatten. The number of hospitalizations appears to have hit an apex and the apex appears to be a plateau.”
    • Cuomo said the death rate in the state was “stabilizing” but was clear that this is still a terrible outbreak: the death rate was stabilizing “at a horrific rate”, he said, causing ‘incredible loss and pain’.
    • “Re-opening is both a public health question and an economic question, and I’m unwilling to divorce the two,” Cuomo says. “There is no economic answer that does not attend to public health. In my opinion, you can’t ask the people of this state and this country to choose between lives lost and dollars gained, No one is going to make that quid pro quo. I understand the need to bring back the economy as quickly as possible, I understand people need to work. I also know we need to save lives and we have. One cannot be at the expense of the other”
    • “The worst thing that can happen is we make a misstep and we let our emotions get ahead of logic and fact and we go through this again.”
    • “There’s no doubt I have worked hand in glove with the president here,” says Cuomo, who stresses the need to keep politics out of any decision to re-open. “[Trump] has really responded to New York’s needs”
    • “We’ve had hot spots, but we attacked them aggressively and we believe that we have stabilized the situation upstate,” the governor said.
    • Cuoms talked about how many of the models which predicted far more deaths than what have been realized so far, emphasizing that it’s far too soon to tell when everything will be over and when things can go back to normal.
    • On Friday Cuomo went on Rudy Giuliani’s radio show on WABC 770 and discussed the same topic. You can listen to that interview here:
  • When asked about running for president Cuomo made some striking remarks“There is no politics here. I have no political agenda, period. I’m not running for president, I’m not running vice-president. I’m not running anywhere. I’m not going to Washington. I’m staying right here. I said to the people of this state, unequivocally, when I was running for governor, I will serve as your governor. Well they all say that, and then they do something different. I’m not that person. I am going to do what i said I was going to do.”
  • When asked about Mayor de Blasio’s announcement on closing schools , Cuomo responded : “there has been no decision on (closing New York City) s” That’s his opinion. He didn’t close them and he can’t open them. It happened on a metropolitan-wide basis and we’ll act on a metropolitan basis, coordinating with Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester (counties).”