Cuomo said on Friday, with the state recording 422 more deaths, the smallest number since April 1. The official state death toll now stands at 16,162.
“All evidence suggests we are on the downside of the curve”
The number of virus patients in hospitals has fallen sharply, too, by more than 3,000 people since last Friday, according to statistics he cited. Net change in hospitalizations is down, net change in intubations is down
“How fast is the decline and how low will it go?” Cuomo stressed not to jump into re-opening New York He noted about a possible “second wave”
He also pointed out that strains of the coronavirus that first infected his state’s residents came from Europe, not China, and that the restrictions on travelers to the US from China announced by Donald Trump on January 31 and implemented on February 2 came too late to halt the spread of Covid-19. Over 2.2 million people landed in NY and NJ airports from January 1st until the shutdown
“We closed the front door with the China travel ban, which was right, but we left the back door open,” Cuomo told a daily briefing.
“An outbreak anywhere, is an outbreak everywhere”
The governor once again raised the question of whose job it was to warn the US about the outbreak, and noted that Trump has put that blame on the World Health Organization. “He’s right to ask the question because this was too little too late,” Cuomo said of the president. “And let’s find out what happened so it doesn’t happen again.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned Friday that another global pandemic “will happen again,” as he reflected on lessons learned from the deadly coronavirus crisis that’s still plaguing the state. “It will happen again. Bank on it,” Cuomo told reporters during his daily Albany press briefing. The governor added, “Let’s not put our heads in the sand and think this is the only pandemic we’ll ever have.”
Cuomo discussed Federal aid to the state and criticized Senator McConnell and challenged him to pass a bill allowing states to go bankrupt
“We still have elections in the midst of all this chaos. We have seen elections held where we had people on lines for a long period of time. It makes no sense to me to tell people you have to put your life at risk, violate social distancing to come out to vote. So, we passed an executive order that said you can vote by absentee. Today, I’m asking the Board of Elections to send every New York voter what’s called a – automatically receives a postage paid application for a ballot. If you want to vote, we should send you a ballot so you can vote, so you don’t have to come out and get in a line.”
