That is pretty stupid. Host thank you for the call. Stephen hammond has this on our Facebook Page we need to practice social gov. Cuomo good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here today. I want to thank our hosts very much, northwell. Ishael dowling to my left head of northwell. They have done an extraordinary job all through this situation. They have an extraordinary leader in Michael Dowling. Michael dowling ran health care for the state of new york, social services for the state of new york. He worked with my father, came for one year, wound up staying with my father for 12 years in state service. He is one of the really beautiful and brilliant leaders in this state and it is a pleasure to be with him. I want to say to all the people of northwell who have done extraordinary jobs, thank you so much and thank you for having us today for for my to my right is Melissa Derosa, secretary to the governor. To her right is what is your name . Cuomo, who is part of my team and it is a pleasure to have her with me today. More aboutentioning that in a second. Today is sunday. That is a fact. I know these days tend to run one into the other, but today is sunday. And i like to focus on the facts in this situation because facts are what is most important. A lot of people have opinions and a lot of theories, but senator Daniel Patrick moynihan, who is a he was a great senator from new york, everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Lets give the state the people in the state the updated facts. This is a chart of total hospitalizations. We have been watching this 24 hours a day for what seems like most of our lives, but it has only been about 40 days the total hospitalization rate is down, again, and the state of new york. We are down to 16,000. If you look at the numbers, we were at 18,000 people hospitalized for a time. It flattened there for a while. It paused there. And it went down to 17,000. That this is a low from our high point of 16,000. The big question of whether we have passed the apex, past the high point and it turned out the high point was not a point, but the high point was a plateau. We got up to a high point and then we stayed at that level for a while. Holds, and ifta this trend holds, we are past the high points and all indications are we are on a dissent. Whether or not the dissent continues depend on on a de thet that is all numbers, hospitalizations numbers are down. The three day average of hospitalization rate is down. I was speaking to michael and that is what he is seeing in his Hospital System. That is what Emergency Rooms across the state are saying, that they see the maximum inflow. S less than what it was so that all tracks with what the numbers are saying. The number of intimations, which i watch carefully because intubations are the numbers of people put on ventilators and the number of people put on ventilators who dont make it, so this is an important chart to look at and the fact that those numbers are down is important. This is a reality check. With all the good news and reductions, we still have 1300 yesterday came in and tested positive and were hospitalized. 1300 is a lot of people coming into the Hospital System without wood with that diagnosis. Less than it had been, so that is good news, but it is still 1300 people who are testing positive and need hospitalization. We have been watching the spread of the virus from the new york city area and there have been little outbursts on long island and upstate new york and we have been jumping on those outbursts, but overall, we have controlled it and the numbers are about the same. Westchester and rockland, where we had real problems the first problem was in westchester county, new rochelle. Westchester, rockland, upstate new york, only about 7 of the cases. So we are watching for potential spread in other parts of the state. So far, we have contained it and we have controlled it. Nursing homes are still our number onecases. Concern. The optimumhome is feeding ground for this virus. Vulnerable people in a congregate facility, in a congregate setting, where it can spread like fire through dry grass. Really disturbing situations in Nursing Homes and we are still most concerned about the Nursing Homes. There was news of fort news for all of us to live with every day and an everyday tragedy, we lost another 507 new yorkers. Those are not just very large isbers we see, every number a face, a family, a brother, a sister, a mother, a father, and people who are in pain today and will be in pain for a long time. So we remember them in our thoughts and prayers stop but, on this sunday, a day of reflection, thank you from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of all new yorkers, for the people at northwell have done, the entire team, talk about a team effort, this is the team effort. To all of our Health Care Workers across the state, one million Health Care Workers, 445,000 hospital workers, the nursing home workers, they have made all the difference in the world. A crisis like this, it tends to bring out the best and the worst in people. Certain people can break your heart in their response to this. On the other hand, other people can rise to the occasion and give you such a sense of competence in the human spirit and the healthcare workers have done that. I have been looking at this chart for 40 days and it looks like a bar chart, it looks like a line. And align and i dont see it as a bar chart going through this. For me, it was a mountain that kept building and building and building and you didnt know where the top of the mountain was. Those numbers kept growing and we kept going up the mountain and we kept wondering where is the peak, where is the apex, what is the high point and when does it stop. And we get to the mountain and it is not a point, it plateaus and it plateaus at a very high rate, which means every day those Health Care Workers have to come in and they are seeing a tremendous number of people coming in the door, overwhelming the capacity of the hospital. Remember, we asked hospital to increase their capacity 50 . So if a hospital had a 100 bed capacity, now they had a 150 bed capacity. And it stuck at that very high level at that plateau, and it was day after day after day. People who were at their mask people who are at their max and had given it all. But they did it, they got us through the plateau, and now they are getting us down the other side and we just pray to god it remains down on the other side. This has been a lot of pain and a lot of anguish for a lot of people. But the skill come of the courage, and the love of our Health Care Workers, of our first responders, of our police, of our essential workers, they have really gotten us through all of this. We also want to thank our neighbors. 95,000 medical professionals who agreed to help in this state and outside of this state, who said they would come and help us. I want to thank the other states and communities who we put out a call for help and we got help from all across the country. It reminds me of that post9 11 time when we needed help and and peoplenities came from all across the nation and they just wanted to help and they just showed up. That is what happened here. When i talk about seeing the best and the worst in people in a time of crisis, that outpouring of generosity, im sure you felt the same. It gave us such a sense of confidence that we are not in it the love humanity and of the American People was there for us. Today,we need your help but new yorkers also never forget. Thank you for the help and we will be there when you need us. Anyonewill be there when needs us. Right now, our neighbors in massachusetts are looking at an increase in cases. I spoke to Governor Charlie Baker yesterday. They may need 400 ventilators and we know how important ventilators are. If there numbers keep going up and they have to scramble, i said you were there for us, we are going to be there for you. If they need 400 ventilators, we have already identified them and we will bring them over on 24 hours notice. And we wish them well, and anything they need, we are going to be there. So, the recent news is good. We are on the others of the plateau and the numbers are coming down. But, that is good news only compared to the terrible news we were living with, which is that constant increase. Haveemember, you still 1300 people who walked into the hospitals yesterday testing positive. So it is no time to get cocky and it is no time to get arrogant, right . We still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. And this virus has been ahead of us every step of the way. We have been playing catchup from day one in this situation. So it is no time to relax. And this is only half time in this entire situation. We showed that we can control the beast and when you close down, you can actually slow that infection rate, but it is only half time. We have to make sure we keep that beast under control, we keep that infection rate down, we keep that hospitalization rate down as we now all get very eager to get on with life and move on. So it is not over. We have a whole second phase and in this second phase, first, do no harm. Dont jeopardize what you have already accomplished by seeing that infection rate increase. We have to be smarter, especially when it comes to the new frontier of testing and how we test and how aggressively and how we get that organized. Then when we talk about rebuilding, we have to talk about not just rebuilding, but lets learn from this horrific experience. Forwardke these lessons and how do we build back at her and before . I dont want to have on all through this and then just say we are reopening. For a bettero open future than we have ever had. And we have to learn from this. I knowo through this, people are eager to get on with life. We have slowed the infection rate down to. 9 . Infects. 9ne person percent of a person. That means the virus is slowing. If one person is infecting 1. 2 people, the virus is increasing and is an epidemic and an outbreak and is out of control. So we have a very small margin of error as we navigate going forward. To startthat is going to reopen the economy has to be based on data, and that means it has to be based on testing. This is a new world for all of us. How do you get testing up to scale . How do you get it up to scale quickly and how do you find out where we really are right now in terms of this virus . You have all these scientists and experts who are trying to extrapolate from the data, but we dont really know how any people were infected. How many people had coronavirus but self resolved . We dont really know because we havent been able to do testing on that large a scale. But we are going to start, we are going to start here in the state of new york with Antibody Testing. Antibody testing means you test the person to find out if they have the antibodies if they were infected with the coronavirus. We are going to do that in the most aggressive way in the nation. We are going to sample people in this state, thousands of people in this state, across the state to find out if they have the antibodies. That will tell us for the first time what percent of the population actually has had the is now at least shortterm immune to the virus. This will be the first, true snapshot of what we are really dealing with. We are going to be doing that over the next week and the new York State Department of health will be running that. Theres also another set of test s called diagnostic testing. Thats whether a person is positive or negative. We are coming up the scale on this, even though it is very, very hard. Northwell is leading the parade on this and i just looked at some of the technology they are bringing in. All of these different manufacturers who make different machines to run different tests bigits a number of manufacturers. Northwell is bringing in as many as they can, but this has to be brought to scale. Nobody has done testing at this level ever. We have to do this in partnership with the federal government because there are all sorts of logistical questions and supply chain questions and people cant get certain chemicals they need and the chemicals are made in other countries. We have to do this with the federal government. I spoke to the head of the cdc yesterday and he was very smart and very informed. We talked about how we can do this together. Smart, thebeing federal government is talking about passing another piece of legislation which would help in the reopening. They want to help Small Businesses, and that is great. They also have to help a governments and local governments, which have not been supported in previous legislation. Everyone is saying it is up to the states to come up with a reopening plan, its up to the governors, its up to the governors, fine. That is true, and right, and legal. But the governors in the state have to have resources. And yes, you have to help Small Businesses, you have to help the airlines, all of these private sector interests as well as citizens. But if you dont help the State Government and local government, how are we supposed to have the finances to reopen . If you dont give state and local government support, we are the ones who support the schools, we support the police, we support the fire, we support the hospital workers, we support the transit workers. So if you starve state and local government, all that means is we have to turn around and reduce funding to the people who we are funding. If we dont get federal assistance, you are looking at education cuts of close to 50 n the state of new york. Where School Districts would only get half of the aid they got from the state last year. You are talking about cuts to hospitals from the state. I mean, how ludicrous would it be to now cut hospital funding from State Governments . So, the governors, bipartisan, democrat and republican, in this crazy and political environment where you can get democrats and republicans to agree on anything, all the governors agree and have said to washington make sure you fund the states in any next bill you pass. Billion,ked for 500 again on a nonpartisan basis. We also must remember as we go forward what we have done so well thus far. The mutuality and discipline that we have shown. I have many School Districts in the state, over 700 School Districts. They are calling saying they want to open up their local schools, they want to make these decisions, local officials are calling, we have beaches, parks, we have businesses, we want to make decisions. I understand the pressure but the local School Districts are under. I understand the pressure that the local officials are under. I understand the mounting political pressure. People see those numbers come down, they are like, ok, lets go. Let me get out of my house. I get it. But, we have to stay smart and we have to stay united. Now is no time, as i said, to arrogant. We are working with our regional states, our partners, new jersey, connecticut, the surrounding states. We are coordinating with them and we have to continue to do that. The weather is getting warmer, the numbers are coming down, cabin fever is getting worse, i believe that is going to be a documented disease when this is over, cabin fever. But we have to stay smart and we have to stay coordinated. We have been working with the new jersey and connecticut because whatever one state does affects other states. Right . You live in nashville, suffolk, new york city, you can get in your car and be a new jersey, you can be in connecticut in a matter of minutes. So it is very important to plan accordingly. It is not that we can be on the same page for everything, but at least lets know what each other doing. For example, on state parks, we are coordinating with our policies because you can see people go from one state to another. I was in albany yesterday, talked to a couple who drove up from queens for thai food. To albany. And i said, you came up for thai food from queens . That is a two and a half hour ride. They said yeah, we had to get out of the house. Food . , just for thai queens, they have good thai food, im from queens. It just show how people need to get out and do something. So we get it. New york state parks are open, new jersey they are closed, connecticut, they are open. New york, our beaches are closed. New jersey, the state beaches are closed. Some of the local beaches are open. Connecticut, they are open. Connecticut marinas are open. And new jersey and new york also. Staying coordinated with our partners is very important. And it is important within the state also. I get the political pressure that everybody is under. I get the political pressure that local officials are under. But we have to be smart and we have to be coordinated. People have to have the best government from government officials in the state of new york. Government matters today, in a way it has not mattered in decades. And it is important that government sends the right signal and one message and there is no confusion. Because if people dont have confidence in government right now, if they think there is chaos or confusion or politics, that would be a terrible message to send. We have done a great job as government officials. All of us. Democrat, republican, state, local. We have to keep doing it. Now is not the time to send mixed messages. And also on a very parochial i get in the conversations ive had a, people feel political pressure. Hears the simple answer. The states Emergency Powers now govern in this emergency. Blame me. Blame me. Somebodys complaining about a beach, somebodys complaining about whatever, businesses open, schools open, blame me. Its true. Its right. Its the state law. And i dont have any issue with that. So blame me. Also, as we are planning the reopening, lets set the bar a little higher. Lets all start to think about this now. What did we learn during this . Personally, what did we learn. Socially, what did we learn . Collectively, what did we learn . And how do we incorporate that into our reopening . How do we have a Better Health care system when we reopen . How do we have a better transportation system, better telecommuting, a smarter Telemedicine Program . Better technology and education . How do we have more social equity . You can see the disparate effect of this disease and how it reinforced the disparity in the inequity in society. How do we remedy that . More cohesive as a community for having gone through this . Right . It is not just reopen. It is not just build it back. It is advanced. Use this as a moment in time where they look back and they say boy, they went to a went through a terrible time but they actually learned from it and they improved from it, they moved forward. We had 9 11. Yes, we built back. We built back smarter. We had hurricane sandy. Devastated long island. I was governor. I didnt say we want to replace. I said we are going to learn how to do a new grid system. Were going to learn how to do infrastructure. And we did. Long island today is better for having gone through hurricane sandy, as terrible as that was. We have to do the same thing here. How do we come back even better . So the long and short of it is thank you to all new yorkers for all the good work, to our Health Care Workers, a special thank you to the police, fire, transit workers. The economy has not been closed down. All the essential services have still been functioning. You still could go to a Grocery Store and get food. Lord knows you could go to a Health Care Institution and get health care. The transportation work, the buses work, all these people who capped everything working, we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. But also remember, we still have more to do. And new yorkers know that because new yorkers are tough. But tough doesnt mean just tough. Tough is easy. It is tough but smart, but disciplined, but unified, and but loving. And that is who we are as new yorkers. Last point, on a personal point, my daughter mariah who is with me, and she is the third daughter for me, and she just came home, she was quarantined. Now i have all three daughters with me. Thishey cant appreciate but it is such a comfort to me personally to have them home. You know, when your child is not at home, especially at a difficult time like this, you are always wondering, where are they, are they ok, are they doing whats right . And every instinct as you want to be able to protect them. And when they are not there, you have this constant hole in your heart, this constant question as you go through the day. You are trying to do everything you have to do but you still have this question in the back of your mind, where is mariah . How is she . So that they are now all three with me gives me a great sense of comfort. In this crazy situation we are in, but for the craziness, i would never have my three daughters with me again. Old. 5, 22 years the last thing they want to do is hang out with pop, right . They have places to go, people to see. They are taking life by the horns. So i get this beautiful silverlining in the midst of this hell where my daughters are with me again. And we get to celebrate family and we get to bring back traditions and we get to enjoy each other and have really indepth conversations. That we havent had in years. And reconnect in a way that we havent had the opportunity in years. Sunday and i come from an Italian American household where we had a great tradition on sundays, the family had to come together at the table, you had to be there, they called it dinner but it started at 2 00 in the afternoon. I dont really know why they called it dinner. But everybody was at the table. Spaghetti and meatballs every sunday. I started my tomato sauce before i left. We are going to go back, we are going to sit at the table, have our spaghetti and meatballs on sunday, and i know what im going to talk to them about. Mariah and mariah brought her boyfriend, who is also here. The boyfriend is very nice and we like the boyfriend. Advice to fathers, the answer on what you think of the boyfriend is always, i like the boyfriend. Always. There are only two options. Either you like the boyfriend, or you dont like the boyfriend. But you can never say you dont like the boyfriend. I learned this lesson the hard way. Nds. Wise it triggers nds is a natural defined syndrome. It is not documented. But it is a psychological condition where if you say as a father i dont like him, natural defiance syndrome kicks in and then they like the boyfriend more because he is opposed by the father. So the answer has to be i like the boyfriend. In this case, i actually like the boyfriend. But even if you dont like the boyfriend, the answer can only boyfriend. He but we are going to be at dinner with the boyfriend and we are going to have our spaghetti and meatballs. They wont eat the spaghetti and meatballs because when i cook it, they wont eat it. But they are on the dish and thats all i can ask. But im going to tell them, im going to recall to them how important that meal was on sundays to have the family together, to take the time, to sit and to talk and to reconnect. People talk about the italians food. Ey love the yeah, they love the food but the food was the magnet to get the family to the table. It was just the device to get people to spend two hours at the table. And thats where you talk and you went through the week. I used to do it at my grandfathers house. My father, mother, my kids, all the siblings would go to my grandfathers house. My grandfathers name was andrea. Im named after him, andrew. At the end of the meal, my grandfather would always say, he was at the head of the table and he would say ok, that was my vacation. And then he would get up and they would do whatever they are doing. I never understood what he meant. Later in life, i said to my father, what did grandpa mean, that was my vacation . He said, your grandfather never had a day off. Store sevenrocery days a week. And he was saying that was his vacation. He never took a vacation. And everybody would take a vacation on tv and in the tv commercials. That was his vacation. The three hours at the table for dinner with his family, that was his vacation. Then he would go back to run the store. Immigrantsf how our work in this country. And wherever the immigrants are from, what that whole immigrant philosophy and drive does for us, and i will and where are started. You think of all the essential workers. We had to stayathome. Im tired of staying at home. Yeah, think of all the people, all the essential workers who had to go out there every day and work in the middle of this, who frankly would have much rather stayed home. And they didnt know what the virus was, and they are out there working with the public, exposing themselves. Why do we have a higher rate of infection among africanamericans, latinos, etc. . Well, who are the essential workers . We have a higher rate of infection among the essential workers, because they are out there driving the buses and they were out there driving the trains, and they were out there running the hospitals and the Emergency Rooms and the nurses and the police officers. They didnt get to stay home. And they got sicker and they died, more than anyone else. Were there honoring their responsibility to their job in the public service. Lets remember that. Lets remember them. Yeah, we are all going through a tough time, and it is a tough time. But a lot of people have shown a lot of and a lot of beauty. And theyve had very tough lives. Lets appreciate them at the same time. Any questions for myself or Michael Dowling or Melissa Derosa . Questions for mariah kurt Mariah Kennedy cuomo because that would be trouble. Im just kidding. Reporter good morning, governor. [indiscernible] i wonder if you have any idea [indiscernible] if you have concerns over the Nursing Homes . Gov. Cuomo which covid reporter the Health Department tracker online. Gov. Cuomo i dont know why the covid tracker would not be up to date. That is the first ive heard. But i will check. It should be uptodate. Because the numbers i just gave you are the uptodate numbers. So i can check why they dont have that on their website. Reporter you mentioned testing over the next week. I wonder if you have a concrete idea of when you would like to start, and what is the status of the fda to approve testing . Gov. Cuomo the fda has approved the states antibody tests. That is what we are going to be rolling out this week. Now that we have the approved test, we will be rolling it out to do the Largest Survey of any state population that has been done. And we will take thousands of tests, antibody tests, over this next week, all across the state, to give us a real snapshot, a real baseline of exactly how many people were infected by coronavirus. Antibodies. So we will have the first real statistical number on exactly where we are as a population. They talk about herd immunity, they talk about infection rate. And we are all trying to extrapolate from that. But we have not had hard data on where we are. And that is just one of the testing. It is diagnostic testing, are you positive or negative . How do you do that fast . How do you do that large . And the Antibody Testing tells you if you have the virus and our past it. This whole world of testing is complicated. All these different manufacturers make a very big expensive machine. And then each manufacturer has their own test. And you have to buy that test from that manufacturer. And then you have to buy the chemicals like go with that test. Have 7, 10ll must different machines from different manufacturers that are all running different tests. Youach one of those tests, have to go back to those that manufacturer and get all the new supplies to run the tests. And that is what gets a very complicated. And i go back and forth with the federal government on this. We have to figure it out. The states can do the tests. But when i go back to the manufacturers, they will say, i cant find the reagents. The chemicals that are used in the test. Reagents . Get more i have to get them through china, i have to get them through this country, from this country. I cant help them do that. I cant do an International Supply chain. And that is where the federal government has to help because no state can do that. In the same manufacturers who are selling to me, to new york, they are selling to chicago, california, to all these other states. So everyone has to do their part. I know its hard and i know it is complex, but everything were doing here is hard and everything is complex. Stake in what is at terms of getting this decision wrong with reopening america . You have people on the streets in cities across the country saying coronavirus you have the president weeding out, saying what you have experienced in new york, what would you say about that . I will ask michael to follow up afterwards on the testing and the machines we saw and how that works. Look, nobody can say. Anyone can say anything. God bless america. As my grandfather would say. God bless america. First amendment, anyone can say anything. So yeah, anyone can say anything. Conspiracy theories, Daniel Patrick mora hand, god rest his soul, anyone can have an opinion. Facts are facts, and opinions are opinions. Some people say coronavirus is a hoax. God bless america. 600 people died. 00 people those are real deaths. That is real. That is a fact. That is a fact. Ok . Who00 people in hospitals test positive for coronavirus. That is a fact. I dont care what you think or what your opinion is. That is a fact. So you cant say it is a hoax because that is a fact. Ok . So thats a fact. And i will leave that at that. People are anxious. They see the numbers coming down. You exhale a little bit. And they should exhale. Look, i was afraid. Nobody said that we can stop the growth of the virus. People said we think maybe you can if you do socially distance and you close down and you do masks. But nobody said we know for sure. So my fear was always, we will do all this, in the virus will still increase. That would have been a really bad place to be. You did everything you could, you closed everything down, and the virus continued to spread. That would have been really frightening. That didnt happen. The beast. Ed we apex, we plateaued it, it is coming down the other side. That is good not good news. Ok, so we exhale. We can control the beast. Yes, but the beast is still alive. We did not kill the beast. Again. Beast can rise up we know that. This is a temporary reduction in the virus rate. The virus rate is wholly dependent on what you do. You tell me what you do today, i will tell you the infection rate three days from now. You tell me what you do today as society, i will tell you how many people are going to walk into a hospital three days from today. It is purely contingent on what we do. Well, the numbers are down, we have to get out of the house, we have to get back to work, i need the paycheck. I get it. You go back to where we were, infection rate will go up, the hospitalization rate will go up again. So all this with a calibration. How do you start to reopen, start to increase activity, start to bring people out, make sure they socially distance, etc. , make sure you are doing it intelligently so that you start to reopen, but watch that hospitalization rate and that infection rate because if that starts going up again and you dont immediately correct, or you made such a Dramatic Movement that the virus infection spreads, you could go right back to where you were in one weeks time. And if we went through all of this and lost all of these forced essential workers and hospital workers to do unbelievable tasks to get us through this crisis, and we recreate the crisis, then shame on us. Michael, you want to talk about that . The machines on the reagents and supply chain . [indiscernible] we are continuing to do all that testing. We are continuing to expand the testing capabilities. Then you have antibody tests. Which is where we had to recalibrate. Thewe are now doing some of Antibody Testing. We anticipate to go to getting up to 10,000 tests a day. We are also working with other Health Systems of the region. We collaborated. We have all the people from all the various systems that are getting together. Weve had discussions this morning. So we are all collaborating to make sure we expand the capacity in the Antibody Testing. The anticipation is we will be able to do hundreds and hundreds of tests working with the state. And another side of the lab is developed on building the capacity to develop the Antibody Testing. The goal is to do them maximum testing as we possibly can. Because that is the way that we can the economy can be reopened and health care can get to be reopened. If you dont do the testing, as the governor said, and you make too quick a move to open too quickly, then you can walk into the scenario that the governor described. That would be one of the most Dangerous Things that we could ever possibly do. Gov. Cuomo thank you, michael. Remember the context here. We have accomplished what no one thought could be accomplished. Cdc, thexperts, the president s Coronavirus Task multiples ofll had more infections projected and multiples of more deaths projected. Cdc, coronavirus, White House Task force, they were talking about 2 Million People hospitalized in this country. Just a month ago. 2 Million People. You know how many hospital beds we have in this country . One million. Their low estimate was for double the Hospital Capacity of the nation. 13. Ike march but is what the top experts were predicting. Here in new york state, mckinsey, cornell, columbia, the gates funded operation, they all had multiples of what we did. This is a Great Success story. On everyones behalf. People this is this has been a great triumph. What the federal government did, what the states did, with the healthcare workers did. A way americans responded and acted responsibly. It is better than any of the predictors. The president is right when he gets up there and says the models had to more people dying. The president is right. All the experts said that. Her row efforts that changed that curve this was heroic efforts that changed that curve. God bless america, but dont under appreciate what you just did and dont go backwards. That would be a real mistake. Reporter i have a three parter. This push about [indiscernible] secondly, efforts to alleviate bodies coming into funeral homes. Ive taken a lot of during this period of time. The action that probably has caused me the most amount of grief is what i set about marriages. Youiages you can now do, can get a marriage license online, and we have authorized marriages online. Legal licensed or official who can perform a marriage. No one hasesterday, any excuses anymore. Now it is a simple yes or more. Will you marry me . Yes or no. You lose all those possible excuses. Well, i have to set a wedding date, you can do it tomorrow. It is all online. You can get your certificate, get your license, you can do it online, a judge can do it, any official can do it. There are no excuses anymore. Yes or no, will you marry me . I also got ugly comments about that. Melissa, i will ask her if she and if she knows anything about funeral homes. Do i have faith in the president . Look, what the federal government did working with states as i just said was a phenomenal a compliment. We bent the curve. We flattened the curve. Government did it, people did it, but government facilitates peoples actions, right . We had to double the Hospital Capacity in new york state. That is what all the experts said. The president brought in the army corps of engineers, they built 2500 beds at javits that michael and northwell were operating. That was a phenomenal accomplishment. Close to 1000 people have gone through javits. Luckily we didnt need the 2500 beds. But all the production said we did need it, and more, by the way. These were just extraordinary efforts and acts of mobilization. The federal government stepped up and was a great partner. And im the first one to say it. We needed help and they were there. State and local governments were fantastic. The Hospital System was fantastic. New yorkers were fantastic. And that is an undeniable fact. Just look at what they said was going to happen. Force,onavirus task cornell, mckinsey, all of them, and they had a lineup here and the actual line is down here. What do you owe the variance to . On behalf ofs people as facilitated by government. Federal and state. So, that was phase one. Now we have to go forward to phase two. The big challenge is going to be testing. It will not be done perfectly. We cant bring it up to scale in this period of time. I will tell you that. But we can do better working together than working apart. And thus the federalstate partnership. I will do my part as a governor, i know the other governors will do their part. Federal government is involved in testing. They had a whole presentation at the last president ial briefing. We have to Work Together and do the best we can. And we will. And i have faith that we well because we have in the past. On the funeral homes, the governor signed an executive order to allow Funeral Directors who are either retired or from outofstate to be able to be licensed immediately in new york to help with the backlogs. Yesterday, the, executive order we did allowed clerks to perform the weddings remotely. Today, the governor signed a new executive order to allow anybody who is licensed to be able to perform wedding so it will not just be limited to clerks. On the website, it will be updated by 2 00 today. The covid tracker. Gov. Cuomo im also licensed to perform weddings. Im available for online services. Special vows that i do. Did you know that . I would have assumed it. [laughter] a followup about the president. I have another unrelated question. Earlier in your press conference, governors must get up and get the job done. Did you speak with the president recently about this and has there been any new [indiscernible] for diagnostic testing . Gov. Cuomo we have been talking about i have not had a conversation with the president in the past day about this but weve had conversations about it in the president s right. Hes right. They haveo do to step up on testing. And the federal government has to step up on testing. The federal government is involved in testing. And they did a whole presentation at the president s briefing on testing. And what they are doing on testing and what they are doing on helping the supply chain, etc. , and thats great. Between the states working with the federal government, we will do the best job we can. What was the president s tweet exactly . Reporter he said looks like i was right on ventilators, our country is now the king of ventilators. Other countries are calling and asking for help. Im right on testing. Governors must be able to step up and get the job done. We will be with you all the way. Gov. Cuomo we will be with you all the way. Great. States must do their part. In the federal government must do its part. Perfect. That is what is called partnership. I agree. Reporter a followup on the testing, i know initially there was some rationing of died not diagnostic testing. Well will it look like for Antibody Testing . Who will be able to get the Antibody Testing once that gets wrapped up . Gov. Cuomo the Antibody Testing we are doing this week is a random sample. So it is not like testing where somebody can ask to be testing. It has to be a random sample that is conducted throughout the state. Thousands of people get tested. So we know this percentage of the population have the antibodies. Where anot a test person can call up and say i want to be tested to go to a place. It has to be done on a random sample basis. In terms of the Antibody Testing being added to the diagnostic testing, we now have an antibody buddy tested that the state can perform. We can do about 2000 tests per day for the state. That is about 14,000 per week. Sounds like a big number. It is not that big of a number in the total context of a state of 19 Million People. Also when you talk about it ang, just to give relative proportionality, we have tested in this state more than any state in the United States. More than any country has tested on a per capita basis. So nobody is better at testing than we are. With all the testing we have done since this started, 500,000 tests. Wow, its a lot. Not really. Its been a month and weve done 500,000. At that rate, this is on for three months, we would have tested 1. 5 Million People. We have 9 Million People in the workforce. We have 19 Million People in the population. So we have to increase that rate. And thats why the partnership with the federal government to get the reagents, etc. , is so important. And that the federal government provides the states with resources to do this. I mean, you have the president saying 15 times, it is up to the governors, it is up to the governors, it is up to the governors. And then they are going to pass legislation that gives, you know what to states . Zero. Zilch. Nada. Niente. Nothing. But then how are the state supposed to do this . You know what happens, i will tell you exactly what happens. The state has about a 15 billion deficit. Somewhere between 10 billion and 15 billion deficit. I dont have any funding to do what i normally do. I normally fund schools. You will see a 50 cut in education. You will see a cut to hospitals. In the midst of all of this. I give local governments aid. They pay the police officers. They pay the firefighters. The bus drivers. Public transit. Those are the essential functions that are now working. How can you not fund that . We want to fund a Small Business. Great. Fun to Small Business. Fund their lines. Fund whatever you want. But how do you not fund the State Government that you know is in charge of reopening this entire nation . Right . So we have to be smart. I want to thank Michael Dowling, and all the people, not just for todays hospitality, but more importantly, for all the beautiful work that they have done. Thank you very much. Reporter [indiscernible] you have the ability to enroll cuts. [indiscernible] announcer President Trump leaves leads the Task Force Briefing this afternoon. It is scheduled for 5 00 eastern. You can watch it live on cspan. Announcer cspan has aroundtheclock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. And it is all available on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials, track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps, watch on demand, any time, unfiltered, at cspan. Org coronavirus. Announcer this statement from Speaker Pelosi to health to House Democrats was sent out last night and includes an update on talks over the next bills. Irus release it says in part im pleased to report that we have been engaged in bipartisan negotiations on our interim legislation and our encouraging. We are also working on cares two to prepare for the path ahead to support the lives and livelihoods of the American People. Earlier this morning, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke for a couple of minutes with reporters in the white house driveway commenting on negotiations for the next coronavirus package. Good morning, guys. Good morning. Perfect. How are you . Sec. Mnuchin we are making a lot of progress. Im hopeful we will conclude a bipartisan deal today. It will go to the senate tomorrow and the house on tuesday. The president can sign in on wednesday and we will open up the program again. We are very focused on money for the pcp. That has been our first priority. Fore is a lot of support fda disaster loans. This will also include a significant amount of money, 50 billion, which will allow them duress billion to disaster loans. It will also cover Unprecedented Program of 25 Million Dollars for testing. Everybody is very focused on testing. It is a Huge Investment for testing. What about money for states . Sec. Mnuchin the president is willing to consider that in the next bill. We are already disturbing money to the states. We distributed about half of it last week. We will distribute the rest of it this week. Right now, we are focused on Small Business and hospitals. They are in dire straits. They really need money now. Sec. Mnuchin one, they are getting money now. Two, there is money going to their hospitals. And three, working with the federal reserve, we are establishing an Unprecedented Program for states and local governments to be able to borrow. The president is very focused on those issues. What does that Fund Different with state labs . Sec. Mnuchin it is going to be for everything. It will be to make sure we have ample supply of testing, new technology, money distributed to the states. I mean, this is an unprecedented federal investment across the board. The president this week and our discussions with business leaders, governors senators, congressmen, Everyone Wants testing. We are up to the capacity of one million a week, which is very good, and we are going to do more. How about Small Businesses . It has it is very popular. Do you think you will have to go back to congress again . Sec. Mnuchin i think this will be enough. Over 30 one covered million workers. The average loan size is 250,000. Really unprecedented. 20 of this was done by banks. 60 by small regional banks. With 10 billion less in assets. Every single state participated. So yes, the program has been very successful and we look forward to more funding. On the stimulus checks, for folks who are waiting. Our we getting an update on where sec. Mnuchin thank you. Let me give the pitch. Please go to irs. Gov. Click on get my payment. We have not actually sent the checks yet. We are hoping to do more and more direct deposits. The checks will be for people where we do not have their direct deposit information. We had 40 Million People log onto the site and authenticate this week to check on their payments. We had 5 Million People upload information. Please go to the website if you have not received money. Go to the website, upload your information. It is the safest way for us to get you money. When will the paper checks go out . Sec. Mnuchin starting next week. A week from today . Announcer next, house ways and Means Committee chair richard neal talks about the next Coronavirus Relief bill. He is interviewed by political massachusetts playbook author stephanie murray. The Edward Kennedy institute for the United States senate hosted this event. We are so delighted that for our inaugural getting to the point by zoom, that we have an absolutely phenomenal first guest and it is chairman richie neil, chairman of the house ways and Means Committee. Chairman neil is not only a great friend to this institute, he was a wonderful, marvelous friend to senator kennedy. We are thrilled to have him. Involvedneil is deeply in not only the covid response, but really threw his house, waynes house ways and Means Committee, in everything that touches and impacts families in the compassionate response