Net change, down. Thats good news. Intubation is down, thats good news. Covid hospitalizations, new ones, flat, up to a tick, not good news. What we are watching right now is how fast it climbs and how low it goes. We would like to see it in the low hundreds, ideally, of new cases every day. Death rate, terrible news. 330. You see the decline has been slow at best. And still disgustingly high. So, we are making progress for sure, but we are not out of the woods yet and we are proceeding with caution. There are signs of caution out there that we should Pay Attention to. Singapore is talking about a second wave, with 900 new cases. This is after they controlled the beast. They were on the decline. They are now looking at new cases. Germany is a situation we should also watch and learn from. They relaxed and started to reopen and they are now seeing an increase. These are interesting. The rate of infection, which is what we watch, was at. 7. One person infecting. 7 . Obviously less than one person. 1 infection rate is one person infecting one person. They were at. 7. They started to reopen. In 10 days, they went up to a one on the infection rate. Thats thats troubling. It shows you how fast the infection rate can increase. If you dont do it right on the reopen. So proceed with caution. Our reopening is different. We dont have a conceptual plan or an abstract plan. There is no conceptual plan or abstract plan. You have to have a plan based on facts, based on specifics. This is not about politics, this is not about spin, this is not about emotions. There are no conspiracy theories at work here. We have a 12step plan that is factual and based on numbers, based on data. And then it has a numerical Circuit Breaker that is not subject to personal emotion or desire, but just checks and monitors that infection rates, like we just saw in germany, is watching for those increases. If there is an increase, Circuit Breaker stops the reopening at that point. Some of the specifics that we are looking at . You must have 30 of your hospital that is available. We cannot go back to where we were where we overwhelmed to the hospital system. We have to have a 30 buffer. We have to have 30 of icu beds, we have to have that buffer before we start bumping up against total capacity. And we have to watch the hospitalization rate and the diagnostic testing rate, how many are positive, how many are negative, taking on a continuous basis. You see the number start going up, worry. But its all based on the data and the numbers. Im sorry, and the rate of transmission, the r. T. , rate of transmission, the rate of transmission has to be 1. 1 or less. Is hire higher. Textbook outbreak. Watch the numbers and watch the transition rate. How do you do that . You do that with testing, right . That is why everybody is talking about testing. Testing allows you to continually test samples, how many people are positive, how many are negative. You see the positive start to increase through your daytoday testing, thats applause sign. That is a pause sign. We were doing about 20,000 tests. We said we wanted to double that. We are now on average about 30,000 tests per day. Which is a dramatic increase. Not where we need to be, but a dramatic increase. Where we are now, you should know, new york state is doing more than most countries are doing. So we have been very aggressive in testing and have made great progress. And new yorkers should feel good about that, but we have more to do. On elective surgeries, we had canceled all elective surgeries to have increased capacity in the hospitals. When you cancel elective surgeries, hospitals feel a financial pinch because that is where they make their money, on elective surgeries. So for areas that dont have a fear of a covid surge, we are going to allow elective surgeries to begin. Thats primarily in counties upstate. Again, counties where we are still worried about a surge, we are not going to open it up to elective surgery until we know that we are out of the woods on the covid virus. This is a list of counties eligible now for elective surgeries. Im doing an executive order on that today. We have been worried about frontline workers, they are the heroes out there every day so that everyone else can stay home. Somebody asked me yesterday on a radio interview well, you are out there every day, are you taking care of yourself . Im out there every day. Forget me. Ill tell you who is out there every day, nurses and doctors in the emergency room. The Police Officer going into homes and apartments because there is a domestic disturbance. The emts, the fire departments, the delivery workers who go to 50 doors per day and gets paid. Those people are out there every day. They are the ones really doing the work. Compared to them, what i do is the minimus. They are doing it not because they get paid a lot of money, not because people say thank you, god bless you, they are doing it because it is their value and their honor and their pride and their dignity. They show up. Even when its hard, they show up. My hats off to them. I want to make sure that we do what we need to do to protect them, that they have the equipment, the ppe, respect and gratitude. I also want to make sure that we are testing so that we get them the results of their tests so that they can take care of themselves. I also want to see if we have a significant problem in any of those frontline workforces. So we are doing testing. We started with the new York City Fire department and new York City Police department. What we have found so far, higher department, which also has the emts, tested 17 positive. Nypd, 10 positive. Number much higher in the fdny emts. We believe thats because the emt number is driving it up. But we will have to do more numbers and research to determine that. The emts, they are the frontline, the ones where there, assisting the person in the closest contact in many ways. Fdny, also. But we want to find out exactly whats going on. Compared to a downstate average of the general population of about 18 . Again, we will do further research to look at it by race and gender, also. We will also do the same thing with the transit workers. The people who drive the buses, the subways, who clean the buses and the subways. Without the buses and the subways, the essential workers couldnt get to work. Why didnt we just close down subways and buses . You close down the subways and the people who drive the buses, the subways, who clean the buses and the subways. Without the buses and the subways, the essential workers couldnt get to work. Why didnt we just close down subways and buses . You close down the subways and the buses in new york city, dont expect the nurses and the doctors to be able to get to the hospital. Dont expect the delivery worker to be able to deliver food when you bring on your telephone. We need that Public Transportation to transport the essential workers. But those frontline workers are at risk. So were going through additional testing for the transport workers. I also commented yesterday, the daily news had pictures of things going on in the new york city subway system, for the cars were filthy and disgusting. Homeless people were there with all of their belongings. And it was not just a daily news picture. It reflected what has been the press and what people have been saying, which is the deterioration of the conditions in the subways. Crime, some crimes are up in the subways, even though ridership is down 90 . I dont even know mathematically how that is possible. The trains are filled with Homeless People. You are not doing the homeless any favors. Worked with the homeless all my life. To let Homeless People stay on the trains in the middle of a Global Health pandemic with no masks, no protective equipment, youre not helping the homeless. Letting them endanger their own life and endanger the lives of others is not helping anyone. I told the mta yesterday, in two days, which means tomorrow, i want a full plan. How do we disinfect everything . Any essential worker who shows up and gets on a train should know that the train was disinfected the night before. We want them to show up, we dont want them to stay home. We want them to know that the train and the bus that they ride has been disinfected and is clean. Also, state and local funding from washington is essential. This is now turning into a political brawl about state and local funding. More and more some of the elected officials in washington are saying they are against it. They are led by senator mitch mcconnell, who leads the senate, who makes it blatantly political. No blue state bailout. No blue state bailout. What is he trying to say . That states that have coronavirus are democratic states. And hes a republican, so he doesnt want to help the democratic states. He went so far as to say, well, he would be in favor of the states going bankrupt. First, states have never gone bankrupt. States cant go bankrupt. There are serious constitutional questions about whether or not a state can declare bankruptcy. And you would need a federal law that would allow the states to declare bankruptcy. Even if you got around the constitutional question on bankruptcy. So if he believed that, if it wasnt just political rhetoric and personal vitriol, pass a law that allows states to declare bankruptcy. And i dare him to do that and get that bill signed by the president. But to make it partisan is what is most disturbing. You can see that they are now rallying the partisan troops. Senator scott from florida says we are supposed to bail them out. We versus them. We are supposed bail them out. Its we and it is them. Thats not right. Who is we and who is them . Who is we . Who is them . Them. The people who had coronavirus. They are the ones who had the coronavirus. We, without the virus, are supposed bail out those people who have the virus. What an ugly sentiment. First of all, on the facts its not even close to right. Why they would even want to go down this road, when the fact damn everything that they are saying. And they are still facts. I know it is hard to communicate facts in this environment. I know that a lot of the filters dont communicate facts. They communicate spin now. Everybody has their own spin. But there are still facts that are not political theater, right . New york state bails them out every year. They are not bailing us out. We bail them out every year. New york state pays 29 billion into that federal pot, 29 billion more every year. That we never get back. Our state contribution into the federal pot, the United States of america pot, every year we put in 29 billion more than we take out. On the other hand, they take out every year 37 billion more than they pay to the federal government. Senator mitch mcconnell, you are bailing out new york . When every year you take out more from the kitty, the federal pot, 37 billion more than you put in . Who is bailing out whom . Senator scott, florida . Youre going to bail us out . You take out 30 billion more every year than you pay in. How dare they. How dare they when those are the facts. How long are you going to play the American People and assume they are stupid . They are not. And they can add. And they know facts. And i dont care what the news media tries to do to distort these facts. They are numbers and they are facts. And they cannot be distorted. And this is every year. Look, what this was really about, its the washington doublespeak. Look at the bills and who they want to help, funding the hotels, the restaurants, the airlines, the coroporations. That is who they want to fund. Who do state and local Government Fund . Police, firefighters, nurses, school teachers, food banks. Thats who i want to fund. Thats what it means to fund a state and local government. And thats the choice that they are making. Everybody applauds the health care workers. Jets fly over in tribute to the health care workers, thats all nice. Thank you is nice. How about actually rewarding them . How about getting them hazard pay or helping with childcare, helping families that cannot feed their kids right now . How about helping the police and the firefighters and all the people who are out there right now killing themselves to make life easier for us . Thats what this is really about. They want to Fund Corporate america. Thats who puts money in their pockets. And i say lets fund working americans. Thats the choice. Bailout, us, them. No, its just theater. Its just smoke and mirrors to avoid the American People seeing the reality, which is whose pocket they want to put money in versus whose pocket state and local governments want to fund. The reason it is so disturbing to me i am not surprised by anything in politics. I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly for many, many years. I was in washington for eight years. I know what its like. But if there was ever a time that one could reasonably believe you could put aside partisan politics, if there was ever going to be a moment where we could say, you know what, lets stop, just for one moment, the partisanship, the ugliness, the anger, the deception, just stop for one moment. If there was going to be one moment to hit the pause button, the moment would be now. You have human suffering. You have people dying. You cant stop the politics . Even in this moment . Even in this moment, when people are dying all across the country . You still want to play your politics . Thats what this is about. And that is why it is so disturbing on a mental level. On a fundamental level. Politics . Im getting up and reading a death toll number. Im speaking to the widows, the brothers and the sisters and the children of people who died. And then were going to play politics with funding thats necessary to save the lives of people . I mean, when does it stop . And the disconnect is between the Political Leadership in the people. Because the American People, its not them. They are principled, they are kind, they are better than what they are getting. The american instinct is to help each other. The american instinct is to be good neighbors. The american instinct was the farmer who sent me the one mask to help a new yorker who only had five masks and a wife with one lung and underlying illness. He sends one of his five masks to new york. Think about the generosity, the charity. The spirit. Thats america. Why . Because we are good neighbors, because we care about one another. America was when i said we need help in our Emergency Rooms and hospitals and 95,000 nurses and doctors from across the nation said, we will come to new york to help. We will come into the emergency room, we will come into the hospital. I understand it is covid. I will leave my family and come to help yours. That is america. That is who we are. That is who we have shown ourselves to be in the middle of this crisis. The crisis brings out the best and the worst. Yes. And the best of america is beautiful. And thats what we have seen. Because yes, we are tough, we are smart, we are disciplined. We are loving. Americans. Are and thats who we are and how we are as americans. I just hope the Political Leadership of this nation understands how good we are as a people. The textbook says politicians lead, elected officials lead. Andtimes, the people lead the politicians follow. Thats where we are today. Follow the American People. Look at what they are doing, how they are reacting, and politicians, try to be half as good as the American People. I want to show you a self bytrait that was done American People. This is a selfportrait of america. That is the selfportrait of america. Do you know what it spells . It spells love. Thats what it spells. You have to look carefully, but thats what the American People are seeing. We received thousands of masks from all across america. Mail,cited, in the creative, personal, with beautiful notes from all across the country, literally. Thinking about you, we care, we love you, we want to help. And this is just peoples way of saying we care and we want to help. This is what this country is about. This is what americans are about. A little bit more of this, and a little bit less of the partisanship and ugliness in this country would be a better place. Thank you. Questions . How will this be done [inaudible] gov. Cuomo i said when people get into the train in the morning, they had to know the train was disinfected the night before. What are the impacts . Gov. Cuomo i dont know. I told the mta to give me a plan as how you will clean and disinfect every train, every night, so that i can say to the i told the mta to give me a plan essential workers, who are killing themselves for our state, we are keeping the subways open for you, and when you get on the subway in the morning, or in the afternoon, know that that car was disinfected the night before. Is there money for that . How realistic . Gov. Cuomo how realistic is a . What is the alternative . Essential workers go to work. By the way, you may get infected with the coronavirus on the train on the way to work. That is not realistic. I am not going to do that. [inaudible] gov. Cuomo it is a tremendous undertaking never been done before. And youre going to have to get Homeless People into shelters where they can get housing and the services they need, so that is a second operation. And the mta has been going back and forth with the nypd about this for weeks, and weeks, and weeks. The mta hired private Security Guards to help. But all a private Security Guard can do is call 3112 the city hotline, which then calls the nypd, who arent there in the first place. The mta story is that they are out at their wits end. But what i said is, look, i dont care. I dont care who was to blame. I dont want to point fingers. I dont care. I am at a place where i am dealing with people losing their lives every day. Ok . I just want to get it done. And i will get it done. Just tell me what i need to do to get it done. Lets start telling the truth, lets stop with filters and everyone covering their own rearend, and people spewing facts to cover their own rear end. Lets start telling the truth. The blunt truth. And if it makes some people unhappy, that is the way it is going to be. But it has to stop. The trains have to be cleaned. The homeless need the services that they need. And we have to be able to do it as a society. We have to. Tell me what it takes to clean the trains and disinfect the trains, so i know that i can say to the essential workers, it is safe to go on those trains. Do you think it should be cleaned on a 24 hour basis . Gov. Cuomo i am not going to do a cleaning schedule. I dont do that. I told him, give me a plan i told him, give me a plan i told them, give me a plan so that when the train comes in in the morning, it is clean. It is their job to figure out a schedule, but however it has to be done, i will do whatever i have to do to make that happen. You cant be in a position where you say, we are going to send a plane tribute to the nurses and we are going to applaud the nurses at the hospital, and yesterday, i got out of my car, and i applauded the nurses in syracuse, and the doctors in syracuse, and i said on behalf of every new yorker, i thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you did. On behalf of every new yorker. I believe that. But at the same time, if that is what you believe, well then, help them. And you know they are getting on the subways to go to work, make sure the subways are clean. What should be done with Homeless People . Gov. Cuomo look, i have been working on the homeless issue bernadette, i have been working on the homeless issue since i was 20 something years old. I did the first plan for mayor david on how to help the homeless in new york city. He accepted it. The neck mayor was rudy giuliani. He accepted it. The next mayor was rudy giuliani. He accepted it. I went to washington and helped bill clinton. He accepted it. We implemented it. We made tremendous progress. It was called the continuum of care. This federal government still is operating the program. We have done this before. This is a false choice. Are the homeless on the train . Do they have a right to be on the trains . No one wants to live their lives on the subway train, and we have a higher obligation as a society than to say, ok, you can sleep on a subway car. No. You deserve a shelter that is safe and services, if you need them, to help you improve your life. That is what we should offer, and that is what we will. What about the problems in the Nursing Homes with more deaths . [inaudible] gov. Cuomo what facility, sir . Your policy that Nursing Homes have to be staffed despite the restrictions. Is that an impossible standard . Will new york except [inaudible] gov. Cuomo lets do the facts again, ok . We have done that. Just let me give you the fact, ok . Facts. We are talking about facts. You can have an opinion, but you cannot have your own facts, right . A nursing home takes a covid person if, capital i, capital f, if they can adequately care for that person. If they cannot adequately care for that person, they say, i cant adequately care for a covid patient. Fine. Either they transfer that present to a different facility, or they transfer or they call the department of health and say we have to transfer that person. We have no covidonly overflow facilities, just what youre talking about. We have it. We have discussed this. So, we can do that. But it starts with their determination. They have to say, i cant provide for this person. As long as they say, i cant provide for this person, and by the way, no one even asks why. It is just, i cannot provide for this person. Ok. We will take the person. And we have overflow facilities. This is a question for the commissioner. The department of health there is department of Health Guidance that allows asymptomatic nursing home staffers to work with no covidpositive patients. Some local officials are raising concerns because these people are still going to work, while they are asymptomatic and are no covid positive. Is there a concern you have with nursing home staffers even though they have tested positive for the coronavirus . Concerns because these people your question is about being asymptomatic, we make sure we have the necessary precautions to care for individuals, and then enclose all the ppe, and we monitor them, and we are working on a way to test, and we are testing individuals in the Nursing Homes, as well as the patients. Is there a number of those staffers who were a symptomatic or covid positive and going to work every day . We are looking at those numbers. Governor, extendthelockdown is trending on twitter. Yesterday, you said one of your fears early on was that essential workers would not go to work out of fear of coronavirus. As you get ready to open businesses in the state, are you worried that the next round of workers will not want to go back to work, or will be fearful of going back to work . Gov. Cuomo i extend the lockdown is trending, meaning people want to extend the lockdown and not open up . Yes. Gov. Cuomo ok. Last week, your question was, we have protesters outside and people wanted to go to work. And i was oppressing people by keeping them in lockdown. So, today, im not artificially open the lockdown . The people outside, they wanted to go back to work. Now because they are fearful of the coronavirus. Gov. Cuomo natspeak, we had last week, we had people protesting that they wanted to go back to work, and now there protesting that they dont want to go back to work. Welcome to america. Thats right. You have some people who say they want to go back to work. Liberate, democracy, you have other people who say, i dont want to go back to work. I want to live. Yes. What i am saying is, i hear both voices. I hear the politics. I feel the tension. I get the tension. Lets decide on the facts. Because this is the motion on both sides, right . And i get the emotion because this is an emotional time. Everybody is under stress. Everybody is anxious. Dental Health Issues are way up mental Health Issues are way up. Domestic violence is way up. Alcoholism is way up. Substance abuse is way up. People are anxious. These decisions, we have to make the without emotions and on the facts, and i will not be swayed this week by this one, and next week by the other one. Make decisions on the facts. Make decisions on the numbers. I laid out yesterday 12 steps, first plan we have ever seen on the numbers. You can reopen, if you dont increase hospitalizations, and you dont increase the infection rate. Because you can overwhelm the hospitals. What does that mean . You heard the numbers are your other numbers. And we will make this decision on the numbers. We said from day one, follow the data. Follow the numbers. There are concerns on Small Business owners that their employees are unemployment and now they may not be able to get those employees back. Is there a way to deal with that, if a business tries to reopen . And then they cannot get their workers back . Gov. Cuomo forced labor . Not in this country. Who are the new yorkers coming into hospitals every day from covid . Are they family members or frontline workers . Do we know who these people are . Gov. Cuomo i dont know if we have a statistical breakdown. The 1000 people are troubling to me, for all the progress we may. All of the progress we made. To put it in perspective, if i said we had 1000 people who tested positive for the covid virus, you would say, wow. In one day . Yeah. It is starting news. The only thing that makes it less startling is that relative to everything we have gone through, it is relatively positive news. I dont know that we have any data. Predominately downstate new york, they tracked the statewide numbers, predominantly downstate, western new york, a i dont know if we have a breakdown, who they are. By region, so we know what hospital theyre going into, but not necessarily their occupations. The governor announced a study on diagnostic testing to collect a lot more demographic data, so we know who was getting testing, who was positive. It doesnt necessarily result in hospitalization rates, but it will give us a better sense of who is testing positive in the state. But they just began that study. When many other states responded . What is one thing that will change about new yorks initial response as a Lesson Learned . Gov. Cuomo i said at the time, new york was the fastest state to shut down. We went from our first case to total shut down in 19 days. Thats, that at the time was the fastest shutdown. Since then, other states that came later that some what was going on, moved faster. If i read your charts correctly, it appears that Saratoga Hospital can resume elective procedures, but another hospital cannot . How do you feel about the race track opening this summer if they can guarantee their employees and staff are safe . Gov. Cuomo saratoga, do you know about that . Some individual hospitals have to meet the governors criteria established by the department of health, which is 30 icu bed capacity in he not capacity overall, and not an uptick in the number of Covid Patients per day. Some of the hospitals dont meet those tests, and some counties have not met those tests. Thats why you see differences in the regions based on the hospitalizations of those regions. But those two hospitals are not terribly far apart. Are they the same region . Is they have the capacity they have. If there are emerging issues with a thing to have the capacity, the department of health has established an exemption policy. But they want to review it to make sure there is actual capacity. But you dont want to be overwhelmed. What they are seeing the data are increases in hospitalizations, so we want to make sure the beds are available as infections increase. Gov. Cuomo this goes into our new concept of attractive nuisance, although the lawyers would say, this is an improper use of the term, which it is. It would just bother the lawyers a little bit. Attractionpen an that could bring people from across the state to that attraction and overwhelm a region. State fair in syracuse. Track in saratoga. I dont think we have time. But today, i dont think you can open those unless we do it statewide. Because there is such a pentup demand to get out of the house and do something. You open the saratoga racetrack, i guarantee you will have the highest attendance in the history of the saratoga racetrack. You will have people from the entire northeast region driving to the saratoga racetrack just because they want to get out of the house. You could say, that is great for the saratoga racetrack, but density is not our friend, right . When you talk about opening a venue, you look at some of the states opening venues with six feet apart. How do you do six feet apart at the racetrack . How do you do six feet apart at the state fair . How do you do six feet apart when you have double the attendance and people are all crammed in there, you know . I think it would have to be a statewide opening coordinated with connecticut, new jersey, otherwise, you will have a much, much more dense situation if you wind up being the only attraction in town, and town is a tristate region. Let me just make sure i put an exclamation point on a point i was trying to make earlier. Politicalization of what we are going through this country is extraordinarily dangerous. We are dealing with probably the most dramatic situation we have dealt with in modern political history. We are dealing with the situation that we dont really understand and we dont know how to deal with. This is all uncharted water. I talked to every expert on the globe, nobody has been here before. It is going to take us at our best to navigate this to save lives. At our best. At our best, we have to be working together. We have to be logical. We have to be cooperative. We have to be sane. We have to work with people, who sometimes we dont like. We have to work across the aisle. We have to be at our best. When you start to politicize this situation, and you start to say, red and blue, and this team and that team, you may as well take a wedge and hammer it right into the middle of this country. And if you do that during this time, and this becomes a political football, or a closing and opening becomes a political football, or funding becomes a political football, or this becomes a fingerpointing blame game, and you divide this country, the worst could lie ahead. We think we are coming out of it. But that is only if we do what we have to do. And what you hear coming out of washington, and i was there for eight years. I have heard this music before. This is the music of a campaign season. This is the music of a rally and balloons, and it is us versus them, and we are good and they are bad, and that is poison right now as to where we are. Thank you, guys. [inaudible] gov. Cuomo thank you. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up thursday morning, a discussion of oshas role in protecting workers during the coronavirus pandemic, with former assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and health, david michaels. Then we talk with North Carolina republican gardeners commerce and david rouser about the effect the pandemic is having on the food supply and Meat Processing industry. And we discussed why some people who contract coronavirus get sicker than others with the atlantics dr. James hanlon. Cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern thursday morning. Be sure to watch washington journal sunday at 9 00 a. M. , for a look back 50 years to the antiwar student protests at kent state, which are ripped it into a deadly confrontation between students and the Ohio National guard. Oh yeah, oh yea, oh yea, all persons having business before the Honorable Supreme Court of the United States admonished to god and give their attention. The court is now sitting. For the first time in history, here the u. S. Supreme court live. In may, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the court is hearing oral arguments in 10 cases via teleconference. Cspan will provide live coverage of each of these sessions. First up on monday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, the justices here the case of u. S. Patent and Trademark Office versus booking. Com. The case concerns the travel companys fight to trademark the website. Be a part of history and listen to the Supreme Court oral arguments as they are heard by the justices. Live monday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan, on at cspan. Org, or listen on the free cspan radio app. During his daily coronavirus during his daily coronavirus briefing, Kentucky Governor andy beshear announced the phase one reopening schedule in the coming month with some nonessential businesses being allowed to reopen starting on may 11. The governor also provided an update on unemployment claims. 5 00, a time we come together every single day to remind ourselves we are going to get through this and we are going to get through this together. We are going to get through