Hoe held a press conference. He announced he was imposing a mandatory, statewide requirement that no business could have more than 25 of their work force report to work outside their home. Up from 50 a day ago. From albany, this is 45 minutes. Gov. Cuomo good morning, everyone. Let me introduce everyone with us. To my far right, our health commissioner, dr. Sucker. O my right, a special guest. To my left let me make a couple of points if i can today. Again, the context perspective is probably whats most important. Coronavirus is a governmental, critical governmental situation, its a Public Health crisis. Government has to respond to it and thats what the coverage is all about. It is a war in many ways and government has to mobilize as if it is a war. The federal government is now engaged in a way they havent been. I think that is very good news. Ive worked in the federal government with cabinet secretaries, i know what the state can do, i know what the federal government can do. States dont fight wars. The federal government has the capacity to mobilize the way we need society to mobilize today. And ive had numerous conversations with the president , spoke with him again last night. He is mobilizing. Hes mobilizing the federal government. We had a number of meet wgs different federal officials yesterday. I think that is the best positive sign that the federal government is actually stepping up to the plate. Ou will see that this has been diagnosed, pardon the pun, as a Health Care Crisis from moment one. This has always been about one thing. Reducing the rate of spread so the Health Care System can manage it. Its been a question of math and projections. It is still exactly that. Can we get the spread down to a rate that the Health Care System can manage . What is going to be the issue in the Health Care System . Its going to be the number of hospital beds. Its going to be the amount of protechive equipment. And most of all its going to come down to ventilators. A piece of equipment that up until now was relatively inconsequential. But when you have respiratory illnesses and this volume of respiratory illnesses all of a sudden the number of ventilators becomes critical. Just to give you a sense of scope, we have about 5,000 or 6,000 ventilators that we can identify, we need about 30,000 ventilators. This is a nationwide problem. I was on the phone with the governors from the other states, with the National Governors association yesterday. Every state is shopping for ventilators. We are shopping for ventilators. We literally have people in China Shopping for ventilators, which is what of the largest manufacturers. So this is a major problem. Its an issue that the federal government can actually play a very constructive role with something called the federal defense procurement act where the federal government can basically Order Companies to produce certain materials, and were going to need protective equipment in hospitals. Were going to need ventilators, and that is something that estate can do but the federal government can do. Also as this has gone on, we said we are fighting a war on two fronts. Were fighting the virus and were fighting fear. And they are two totally different situations that you have to deal with. In many ways the fear is more dangerous than the virus. I started working on disasters, emergency situations when i was in my 30s. My First Experience was hurricane andrew in homestead, florida. And i felt it. I saw on the ground what happens when people panic. And the panic and the fear is as dangerous or more dangerous than the hurricane. I have seen that in flood. Ive seen it in fires. We now have misinformation and fear and panic, which is as contagious or more contagious han the virus. And we have to deal with both of them. Ive had some conversations that are just irrational with people who heretofore were totally ational. I had a conversation last night with a businessperson from new york city, who i know, who was panicked that new york city was going to be locked down, that there were going to be roadblocks, that there were going to be mandatory quarantine, be imprisoned in his house and i said where did you hear that . Well, thats what they say. Thats what im hearing. They are saying. And i would say look, i would know, right, because i would have to authorize those actions legally. Its not going to happen. Well, i hear it is going to happen. I know, but i would have to do it and im telling you im not oing it. It must have taken me 25 minutes just to slow him down to get information. When you get that emotional, that fearful, you literally dont process information the ame way. So we have to be very aware of that. Clear communication from veryone. From our friends in the media, from healthcare professionals, from all elected officials. Clear communication, consistent communication. Because misinformation, emotion, fear, panic, is truly no truly more dangerous than the virus at this position, in my opinion. Because the facts on the virus we know. We have watched it from china and south korea. We have studied it here. We know the numbers. It is exactly what we said it was their its exactly what we said it was from day one. We talked about the increase spread. We talk about them vulnerable populations, seniors, compromised immune systems, people with underlying illnesses. So we know what this virus does. We know how it communicates, and we know how to deal with it. Its not going to be easy. Its not going to be pretty, but we know the trajectory of the virus. Lets just take a deep breath and make sure we are all, were acting on facts as opposed to acting on fear. When you act on fear, then youre in a dangerous place. The facts we can handle. Let me give you a couple of the new facts today. Just to recap with a better plan of action to are three steps. Flatten the curve. Slow the spread. Increase the current Hospital Capacity. Number three, identify new hospital beds. Do them all at the same time, which is the challenge. Make government work, mobilize, operationalize, get it all done, get it all done today. On density reduction, this is a atadriven decision. Look at the increase in the number of cases. Look at the Hospital Capacity, and do adjust and everything you can to slow the increase of the spread so that your Hospital System can deal with the growth. We have been taking increasing steps on density reduction. Because the numbers have been ncreasing. And again this is driven by science and by data. We said voluntary work from home, mandatory closing schools statewide, mandatory reduction of state and local workforce, mandatory tristate agreement on bars, restaurants, jims. Mandatory in Office Workforce cut by 50 . We said that yesterday. The numbers have got up overnight. I am going to increase the density control today. No more than 25 of people can be in the workforce. Esterday it was 50 . We are reducing it again, except the essential services that we spoke about yesterday. That means 75 of the workforce must stay at home and work from ome. Again, voluntarily. Im asking all businesses to people work from home. As a mandate, 75 of your Employee Base must work from home. In terms of increasing Hospital Capacity, our current Hospital Capacity is about 50,000 beds statewide. Majority of those beds are in ownstate new york. Commissioner zucker is working with the hospital industry, is going to put out new regulations assessing how many more beds we can get in our existing hospitals. Waiving department of health rules, waiving department of Financial Services rules, how many more beds can we get in those hospitals . Were working on that aggressively. At the same time identifying new hospital beds. The army corps of engineers was with us yesterday. We had a very good meeting. We are looking at sites across the states to find existing facilities that could expeditiously be turned into healthcare facilities. And again what i said the federal response is very elcomed. I want to thank the president , he said he would bring the army corps of engineers here and he rought them here the next day. I spoke to him last night to follow up on the meeting. So this is Going Forward aggressively. We are also going to take a bold action by the necessary action that, offering 90 day relief on mortgage payment, waiving mortgage payments based on financial hardship, meaning if you are not working, if youre working on only part time, were going to have the banks and Financial Institutions waive mortgage payments for 90 days. That will be a reallife economic benefit. Will also be a stress reliever for many families. Waiving these payments will not have a negative effect on your credit report. There will be a grace period for loan modification. We are not exempting people from the mortgage payments, which is adjusting the mortgage to include those payments on the back end. No late fees or online payment fees. Postponing or suspending any foreclosures during this period of time. And waiving fees for overdrafts, a. T. M. , credit cards. This is a real life benefit. People are under tremendous economic pressure. Making a mortgage payment can be one of the number one stressors. Eliminating that stressor for 90 days i think will go a long way. Again, we will reassess as the situation goes on if they should be extended or not. Number of positive cases, total positive 4000. Number of new positives, 1700. You see additional counties that are being added to counties that have cases. The spread mirrors whats happening in the country just as the spread has gone through all states. The spread is going through our counties. With downstate first, now moving upstate. New york now has 2000 cases. Washington state 1100 cases. Washington state had cases earlier because i went to a it went to a nursing home if you remember. But new york state has more cases than washington state. More cases than any state in the nation, and i have made that point to the federal government and the president , he understands that. If theres a state that needs help, the state by the number of cases is new york. In terms of testing. We have tested now 22,000. We tested 7500 people last night. Why are you seeing the numbers go up . Because you are taking more tests. People see the numbers go up. They get nervous. They panic. Look at how many more people have the virus. Thats not how many more people have the virus. You are just taking more tests so youre finding more positives. There are thousands and thousands of people who have the virus who are not testing. There are thousands and thousands of people who had the virus before we started testing. There are thousands and thousands of people who had the virus and who resolved and never knew they had the virus. We are still testing because you ant to find those positive cases so you can track them down, isolate people and stop the spread. But you cant watch these numbers like the stock market and say, well, thats the indicator of anything other than the indicator of how many tests we are taking. It is good news that we are not p to 7500 tests. We were at one time doing 200 tests per day, just to put that 7500 in focus. So thats a tremendous increase in the number of tests and youre going to see the numbers go up. The hospitalization rate is a very relevant because remember this is all about the flow into healthcare system. O 777 out of 4152. Perspective, perspective, perspective. We know the virus. We know what it does. We know who it hurts. We know who it affects. Johns hopkins since day one has tracked this virus from china. 222,000 cases. 9,000 deaths. 84,000 recoveries. 129,000 pending. One last point. We talk about this is a government response, federal government is doing this, State Government is doing this, government, government, government. This manifests on a number of levels and the government esponse is very important. But the impact, i think, is greater, and probably greatest, as a social phenomenon and on people and on families. This is tremendously disruptive on all sorts of levels. It came out of the blue. For me in new york, it reminds me of 9 11 where one moment which was inconceivable just changed everything, changed your perspective on the world, changed your perspective on safety. Children who were young at the time but of school age watched on tv. They didnt know if their parents were coming home. I think it changed their whole outlook on life after 9 11. This is a situation like that. Its obviously totally different magnitude, but its like that. Its a moment that just changes your whole life. Yesterday you were going to work, and youre going to go to the office party. Today you are at home and the kids are at home, and you are worried about health and you are worried about your job and you are worried about economics. And you were dealing with personal issues and youre dealing with family issues. Its all happening at once and then you turn the tv and theres all this different information, and nobody can tell you if this is going to be 30 days or 60 days or four months or five months or nine months. The stress, the emotion is just incredible. And rightfully so. It is a situation that is one of he most disruptive that i have seen, and it will change almost every thing Going Forward. It will. That is a fact. Its not your perception. Its not just you. Its all of us. And its true and its a and its real. Nobody can tell you when this is going to end your nobody can tell you, i talked to all the experts. Nobody can say two months, four months, nine months. Nobody. Its hard living your life with that big question mark out there. Nobody can tell you when youll go back to work. People can tell you is not just you economically. Its everyone. Take comfort in that. Federal government is reacting on an economic package but its true. Having your family altogether is a beautiful thing its also different for a lot of people, especially for a prolonged eriod of time. So these are major shifts in life and in the most emotional, stressful conditions that you can imagine. And i think, my own personal advice is, understand it for what it is. And that its not just you. It has changed everything. And it will for the foreseeable future. And think through how you are going to deal with it and what t means. And even try to find a positive in it, right . Its a very negative circumstance, but you are going to have time on your hands. You are going to have time with your family. You are going to have time at home in this busy hurry up world. All of a sudden someone said okay, you have a couple of months where you are going to be home with the family, no work. You work from home. But its a totally different situation. How do you use that . How do you adjust . Its not going to be done overnight but it is something everybody has to think through. Younger oint is to the people in our great state and in our great society, and thats why i invited our special guest here today, mikayla. My grandfather, my grandfather n my fathers side, his name was andrea, im named for my grandfather andrew, Italian American immigrant. When i was youngish, 16, 17, 18, and i would do something he didnt like he would just look at me and he would say, we grow too soon old and too late smart. What does that mean, grandpa . Is that a criticism . We grow too soon old, too late smart. These pictures of young people on beaches, these videos of young people saying this is my spring break, you know, im out to party. His is my time to party. This is so unintelligent and reckless, i cant even begin to xpress it. Now, i had a conversation with y daughter about this. Im governor of the state, i can order a quarantine of 10,000 people, but i cant tell my daughter to do anything, all right . And i have to be careful because theres almost an inverse response to a direct action. But i did say to all three of them, from as soon as they could crawl, i used one line. What is the one line i used to say . Risk reward. Gov. Cuomo yeah. Risk reward. Risk reward. Just post the question i couldnt offer an answer because whatever and i would offer they would do the other. Risk reward. It makes no sense to go expose yourself to these conditions and expose other people. Expose other people. Michaela wanted to take first f all, michaela was graduating this year, and her School Closed to online courses so shes not going to have to graduation. We will have a big party at the ppropriate time. We dont know what that time is going to be, but at the first opportunity were going to have a big party. Thats going to happen. But she was deprived of the last year and the last two months of college, which im sure were very intense study to respect study period, thats what shes deprived of that intense study period of the last few weeks. I remember the last few week a lot of study. But thats a shift in life but she was going to take a vacation on spring break. And go with friends and take a trip and risk reward. And luckily she made the right decision, and im proud of her for that. No prompting from me because of from me, besides the question, risk reward. What these people are doing is the risk does not justify the reward. Theyre putting themselves at risk. Young people can get coronavirus. Thats one of the other myths, young people dont get it. Young people do get it. And young people can transfer t. And you can wind up infecting someone, and possibly killing someone, if you are exposed to it. Risk reward. Questions, comments . Reporter are there plans to ask the feds for a 4 billion bailout what if they cant get it, will the state step in . Gov. Cuomo the economic consequences here are for the nta, for the state budget, for county budgets, town budgets, village budgets, all the public authorities. Its just a big question are big question mark. Theyve all lost tremendous revenues and were going to have to figure out as a nation how to deal with this. The ridership is done on nta, and the revenue is down on the nta, and say hello to every other Public Transit system in the United States of america. So its going to be a national response. Reporter if you have to shut down transportation how is it possible if they cant paycheck payroll . Are there plans to save the n. T. A. . The n. T. A. Will continue run, they are an essential service on the essential service list and the revenues were going with were going to have to make do. Rob, do you have anything . Trains are running on time, new york city still has, there are still some businesses and essential services flowing. The n. T. A. Is part of bringing people back and forth. Right now were looking at that. Every train in the system, and the nation, is facing the same reality. Reporter [inaudible] were looking at that as well. This is part of the discussion were having with the legislature right now. Were looking, as the governor mentioned the entire bunnell is impacted. Well have to have flexibility in the budget to be able to prioritize Certain Services over others as the governor indicated, n. T. A. Is an essential service for new york city. Gov. Cuomo remember these broad statements. We have to run a government. We have to run a service, a society, right . We need the Health Care System up and running. Doctors have to get to work. Nurses have to get to work. Health care workers have to get to work. We need police. We need fire. We need bus drivers. We need day care workers. All those functions have to happen. So we need a transportation ystem because we need people getting to work, refuse has to be picked up, right . All these functions have to continue. They dont shut down, we have to make sure were operational and ealthy and functional. Reporter i know you have trouble with the phrase shelt for the place are you considering any kind of more stringent restrictions on people leaving the home, going to businesses or things like that . Gov. Cuomo yeah. I believe communication is important. I believe words are important. Say what you mean and dont say what might alarm people. The level of alarm in this country, in this state, especially in new york city, is higher than i have ever seen it. Somehow people have the idea that new york city may be quarantined. May be quarantined, they may be imprisoned in their home. I dont know where they get it. This is a smart person who i have known for a long time, just panicking, just fear. None of that is going to happen. None of that is going to happen. There is no quarantine plan for new york city. He said to me, you did a containment plan. My containment plan in new rochelle didnt contain anyone. It was a bad word. It meant to contain the virus. You can comment go in new rochelle come and go in new rochelle, schools and large gatherings work closed but there wasnt containment. You called out the national guard. That was food delivery and cleaning services. We use the national guard, every time there is a snowstorm or fire or flood, i call the national guard. It doesnt signal martial law. Place mandatory evacuation . You dont have to evacuate . Dont call it mandatory evacuation. Mandatory fasting, but you can eat. Dont call it fasting. If you look at the principles of shelter in place. Deceptive place is because it does have a meaning. Shelter in place literally means , it is currently used in an active shooter context. It was most recently used for. Uclear war protection what shelter in place meant was find the room in your house with no windows, where you would be free from smoke or gases and stay there until you get the all clear sign. That is where it comes from. We need a modified shelter in place. Say modified shelter in place. What other places call shelter in place, it is what we are doing now. Not exactly. What they are doing in the San Francisco area is warning people, only do essential things. You can get medicine, get groceries. Would you consider that sort of model, the San Francisco model for new york city . Gov. Cuomo you want to wager a dollar that is not what San Francisco model is . Be careful, because there it is. Shelterinplace, except go out for essential services, walk exercise,o out for walking, biking, running, Family Members homes to help with a Family Member or pet, if i am going out to help with pets i am not in a room in a postNuclear Holocaust waiting for the all clear sign. Language matters. That is all i am saying. , businesses are down to 25 of the workforce. Adjustll continue to with the spread. On the residential side, stay home. Stay home. If you have to go out to shop for essential services, go out to shop. If you have to help a Family Member, they have a problem, go help a Family Member with a problem. But, and if you have to get outside the house to exercise, which isme fresh air, 100 necessary for a lot of people in a lot of circumstances, then do it. , just staydistancing away from people. Stay away from, these people in new York City Parks who are clustered together, i dont know what they are thinking. Stay away from people. A person can infect you and they wont even know they have the virus. A special consideration, if you are a senior citizen, hypercautious on all these points or compromised immune or underlying illness. But if you look at the actual rules, what San Francisco is doing, what we are doing, they are virtually identical. Words matter at this point. Quarantine, lockdown, these words are scary words and nobody is talking about those things. Is a scary term for people, especially when they dont know what it means. Especially when you are not doing what it means. If you are not doing that, why do you call it that . We have a mandatory evacuation policy. But you dont have to evacuate. Well then why do you call it mandatory evacuation . Then iyou scare me and have to get unwound . Shooter not an active shelter in place. It is not a Nuclear Holocaust shelterinplace, wait for the all clear. There wont be any all clear sign. What about filing petitions on time now that the deadline has been shortened . Gov. Cuomo we changed the dates. The legislature did yesterday was pass a lot to make the filing deadline for the petition travel with the new and date of the petition. Previously it had been i think march 30 and between april 1 and april 3 you had to file, so if you see the date traveled exactly, the issue with leaving the filing deadline open is it invites fraud. People can go out and collect signatures and predate them. That is what we did, we had the dates travel together. Rumors and facebook and social media, theres chapter chatter. Dopter you have any positive sense in this village at this point . Gov. Cuomo i havent heard that. I havent even heard the rumors. There are rumors of positive tests in [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo i have not heard. Of the gov. Cuomo i am not attuned to rumors of must they come from the lcf. Of the 777 people hospitalized [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo we would have to get those numbers for you. We are giving you the most recent numbers on a rolling basis, but sometimes they come information as to where is everyone. The numbers are getting so big they are hard to get all the particulars. As soon as we get them we will give them to you. [indiscernible] the state has in [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo there is a global, you know how we went through the price gouging on Hand Sanitizer . Hand sanitizer in the state of new york. I can get it for you. I know people. I know people. Citrus smell. I was kidding when i said it was that floral bouquet. I took a pounding for that. I thought it was an obvious joke. Not everybody appreciates my sense of humor. I know. I know too well. What was the question again you again . Ventilators. We had price gouging on Hand Sanitizer. The ventilators, there is a global rush for ventilators and literally, we have people on the ground in china, you cant even buy them from china. As i mentioned, the National Governors association, most of the governors on the telephone yesterday, every state is looking for them. That is where the federal government has to come in and handle this. I believe the army corps of engineers in the state is working together can create more beds. The beds to me very little good without the ventilators. Because almost all of these covid19 cases require the ventilator. If youhat is great but dont have the ventilator, the bed is virtually useless. There is a federal stockpile of medical equipment. I havent gotten an official number, but the suggestion is that stockpile has about 12,000 ventilators. For the nation. Again, just for context, where we are, we have about five or 6000 secured. We need 30,000. Federal government has 12,000. I mean, this is a bad situation. And it would literally take the federal government to say to manufacturers, stop what you are making or start making these machines. They are fairly technical, as i understand it, but the supply chain issues are real. But it would take the federal government saying we need to make these ventilators. It would take the federal government to say we need ppe equipment, we need gloves, masks. When the cdc puts out titans, you can use a scarf as a mask, it is time to make more masks. Governor, there is a [indiscernible] deadline tomorrow and the Restaurant Association [indiscernible] begging you to delay the deadline. Is that a possibility . Gov. Cuomo you know who that is back of that is john campbell. You know the video on baloney . He is the man. [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo go ahead. We will talk later. Gov. Cuomo ok. [indiscernible] this one. Answer gov. Cuomo i dont know the answer. [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo this is for sales taxes that were collected prior, for sales prior to the crisis. People pay their sales taxes, businesses collect them on behalf of the state so they are holding those taxes. We are looking at the deadline which is to be clear, we are not asking them to paying anything, we are holding taxes belonging to the state but we are looking at the deadline because they may not be able to file and the timing. We will have something, a decision today. Governor, what is the effect of the new federal coronavirus [indiscernible] on the budget . You said your budget couldnt work if the house [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo there is no money for the state in the budget. It is good for people and industries, but it is the minimus, from our point of view. One last point. Im glad michaela is with me today. All this government talk, this is a social, family issue. As much as anything. And it has to be talked through and dealt with, family by family, and it is a little different from families. I am dealing with it with my family, with my daughters, with the person, with i have most concern for riches my mother. I thank her for joining me today. She is with me up in albany now that she is not on spring break. I think it is cooler to be with me than like im a road trip, right . So cool. Gov. Cuomo are you being sarcastic . Thank you guys very much. [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo everyone. The situation [indiscernible] testing positive. What are you doing to safeguard put us prisoners and guards . Gov. Cuomo we have special precautions in prisons. I dont know anything specific about rikers island. Thank you, guys. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] abbotts governor reg limits public gatherings to no more than 10 people, prohibiting visitations to Nursing Homes and restricting bars and restaurants to carry out only. This is half an hour