Mr. Cuomo said on Monday that 337 more people had died of the virus in New York State, while NJ saw an additional 106 deaths
The one-day tolls were less than half of what the two states reported at their peaks.
The shutdown order will be extended beyond May 15 in many parts of the state, Mr. Cuomo said on Monday.
He said the state is still seeing 1,000 new cases per day.
“I will extend them in many parts of the state but in some parts of the state, in some regions, you could make the case that we should unpause on May 15,” Cuomo said at his daily briefing from Albany. “But you have to be smart about it. … There is no light switch.”
Cuomo said decisions will be made and monitored based on rates of hospitalizations, antibody testing, diagnostic testing and data on infection rates. Regional officials need to be prepared to make sure there are enough workers to trace the contacts of infected people, enough places to isolate infected people and enough hospital capacity, AP summarized
He issued a warning to his colleagues who will be overseeing the reopening in the coming weeks: “If you are not smart you will see that infection rate go right back to where it was, right where we were 58 days ago.”
He described the reopening as turning a valve. How much to turn the dials will be based on four factors: hospitalization rate, antibody testing, diagnostic testing, rate of transmission.
Preliminary results from an antibody survey of New York residents found that 14.9% of the state is positive for Covid-19 antibody. The sample size of the survey was 7,500. Cuomo said the state will test 1,000 NYPD officers and 1,000 FDNY workers for antibodies. He said this is part of the state’s effort to prepare for the virus to return later this year. “Anticipate an issue in the future,” he said, noting that he spoke to Trump this morning.
In a radio interview on WAMC later in the day, Mr. Cuomo said he hoped to decide this week whether New York schools would reopen before the end of the school year. He said he would coordinate with Mr. Murphy and Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut on the decision, as well as on whether summer school would be held in the three states, NY Times pointed out
With over a million New Yorkers out of work because of the virus and the related shutdown, food banks across the state are experiencing huge jumps in demand — as much as 40 percent upstate, 100 percent in New York City and 200 percent in Westchester County, Mr. Cuomo said. He said the state would provide food banks with $25 million in emergency aid.
He also noted that some dairy cooperatives upstate were dumping milk because the market could not consume it.“This is just total waste to me,” the governor said. “We have people downstate who need food. We have farmers upstate who can’t sell their product. We have to put those two things together.” To that end, he said, the state would start an initiative to buy products from upstate farms and direct them to food banks.
We have to use this moment to reimagine and be smart and grow,” Cuomo said. “This is one of these moments if you look back in history sometimes it takes a crisis to wake people up.”He closed by praising the leadership of Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat in a conservative state who he said “stood up” to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “It takes guts. You don’t get that from a typical politician,” Cuomo said. “So thank you, Governor.”
