Saturday. A little convoluted reasoning, but not the first time. The total number of hospitalizations are down, again. Interesting to look at the curve, how fast we went up and how relatively slow the decline has been. That shows you the problem of having a spike, a spike happens quickly but resolves slowly. Change in hospitalizations, intubation is down. Number of new cases per day is also down, 400, which sounds like a large number but this is on a statewide population of 19 million. 15,000 hospital beds. The number of lives lost, 157. That number has been stubborn. May 10, 161, these were all basically in the margin of error, if you will. This system is not that precise. I believe when they actually go back weeks from now and calculate total number of deaths, at deaths, etc. , you will see a variation in this number. We are right about where we were when we started. We want to make sure we do not go back to the hell we have gone through. When we talk about reopening, that is a discussion. Half the state now, in terms of regions, now in the process of reopening. We have a dashboard that tells people where their region is, what is going on, what the hospital rates are doing, the infection rates are doing, so everyone has info to inform themselves and have conversations with local government. We have a smart phased reopening plan that has been reviewed by great experts in the field. We feel very good about that. Were getting a little more nuanced in our analysis, looking for economic activities, that you can start without crowds and without gatherings. Remember, the problem here are crowds and gatherings. So what can you do or what Economic Activity is willing to reopen without a crowd . In terms of sports, baseball, without a crowd, but it can still be televised. Great. If you can have Economic Activity without a crowd, that is great. We can do that in this state with horseracing tracks. Were going to do that. There will be guidelines for the actual participants but no crowds, no fans. For the industry itself, for the televised viewers, that can still work. That is also true with watkins glen, that can operate and there is a big viewership for watkins glen. Take my car to watkins glen . I have done it before. I can do it again. I wont have to wear a mask in the car. I will be alone. Update on elective surgeries. Were going to open westchester and Suffolk County for elective surgeries and ambulatory care. We want to make sure those who need medical services or getting them. There was a time when hospitals were dealing basically with the covid patients. We are past that period. If you need medical attention, a medical procedure, you should get it, right . Hospitals are safe places to go. People are worried about going to a hospital. There is no reason. The caveat is always, as we reopen, this is a new phase. This is an unknown phase. No one can tell you exactly what happens. No one has been here before. Stone to stone across the morass, take a step you know is a firm step, then you watch and see what happens. What happens depends on what we do. That is why this has been such a unique situation, not for government but for society. What will happen . Tell me what youre going to do and i will tell you what will happen. How can that be . You are in control of what happened. How you act will determine what happens to you. Literally. Will i get infected . Depends on what you do. Will we have a higher infection rate . It depends on what we do. You increase Economic Activity. We expect an increase in numbers. We dont want to see a spike. Well, will there be a spike . It depends on how people react and on their personal behavior. Are they Wearing Masks . Are they using Hand Sanitizer . It is getting warmer. There will be a natural increase in activity anyway. People are going to come out of their home. They have been there a long time, the weather is warmer, they will come out. How did act when they come out . That is the big question mark. I have conversations with experts. What is going to happen . They say, you tell me how people will react and i will tell you what is going to happen. I dont know how people will react. Then, i cannot tell you what will happen. If people are smart, then, yes, you will see some increase in numbers but you will not see a spike. You have seen spikes in other countries that have opened. You have seen spikes in states that have opened. We have an intelligent and i believe the most intelligent system but it is still reliant on what we do. It is reliant on human behavior. Be smart and diligent and dont underestimate this virus. Local governments will do their part. I have spoken to all government officials. They will be doing compliance on businesses opening, they have to follow protocols, they will be doing compliance on enforcement, Wearing Masks, etc. Still, it will come down to what individuals do. The only other big question mark on where we go, longerterm, is what the federal government does. We have a significant economic problem in this state. It is the collective of all the individual economic problems. When you add up the collective, it is 61 billion, the state of new york. We dont really care about the state budget. Nothing to do with me. I know that is what you may say. It is actually not correct. The state budget is very relevant to you. What the state budget funds, we dont do Space Exploration in this state. We find schools fund schools, hospitals and local governments. That is the state budget. A lot of words, but it funds schools, hospitals and local governments. Local Governments Fund police, fire, all the heroes we talk about. Hospitals, nurses, doctors, emergency room staff. The house passed a bill yesterday, which is a smart bill, that finally provides funding for state and local governments. They funded businesses, millionaires, corporations. Who did they forget . They forgot the police, firefighters and working americans. What a shock, right . The house bill also has medicaid funding, increases food assistance, 100 federal reimbursement for fema cost, funding for testing, which is so important, everyone says testing, testing, testing, fine, we will get it up and running but we need funding. It repeals the salt tax penalty to the state of new york, 14 billion. A theft in the first place. After the house passes a bill, it goes to the senate and that is where the bill is now and to the senate, they should respond quickly. I understand from their point of view, we say, we funded businesses and millionaires. Good. That is nice. How about working americans . That is with the senate should think about. How do you help the American People . My two cents, they should not delay. They should not be captive of special interests. I dont care who gave you money to run for office. You still work for the people. No corporate bailouts. Dont bailout corporations, then have them turn around and lay off american workers. Do not let them use government money to subsidize employee layoffs. Dont do that. That would betray the trust of the American People. That is what happened in the 2008 bailouts. They bailed out the banks. The banks turned around and gave each of the bonuses. I was attorney general. I brought actions against aig, bank of america, who took taxpayer money and gave themselves a raise. Dont give corporations money so they can lay off workers in restructuring. The american taxpayer will then have to pay for the people who are laid off. I am afraid, if this is not raised sooner rather than later, that is exactly what these corporations are going to do. Lets put politics aside. If there is ever a moment in this government, this country, where it is not about politics, this is the moment. I mean, for senators to talk about, i will not bailout blue states because blue states have more coronavirus cases shame on you. Shame on you to look at the death in the nation and say, i want to count how many people passed away by their Political Party and i am more interested in states where republicans live than where democrats live. We are not democrats and republicans. We are americans. That is what comes first. In a time of crisis, we have always been americans and the great leaders, democrats and republicans, have always said that. Go back and look at the great republicans. Look at the great democrats. See how they operated. Try to be great in this moment, senator and congressperson. If you dont want to look at former politicians, go back to the good book, which said the same thing that the great politicians said. I wonder where they got it from . They got it from the good book. Everybody says they read a good book. Mark 3 25, if the house is divided against itself, the house cannot stand. Read a good book. Do what is right for the American People. Lets be together, smart, united, disciplined and loving. Questions, comments, queries. Governor, do you have any regrets [indiscernible] do you intend on expanding that to other sports . Are you ok with the yankees or mets having games without fans . What you want to do is increase Economic Activity as much as you can without spiking the infection rate. If you have Economic Activity that can take place but generates economic interest, also entertainment interest. A lot of people are sitting at home, Something Interesting on television to follow, that is great, makes staying at home easier and all our admonitions, stay home, stay home, it is easier with some entertainment. When you look at the risk reward, there is a lot of reward for minimal risk. We dont control baseball. I have spoken the baseball organizations. One state cannot make that decision, john, but if it works economically, that is great. We control the racetracks. We can open watkins glen. That is in our control. Is this just for the nascar race in august or all racing . I dont know exactly. Do you know . Allow for fanless activity, to the extent nascar wants to race, which they have indicated they would, as long as there is no fans, they can bring staff, with guidance. That is the same thing for the racetracks, the horse racetracks in the vast majority of employees are already on site on those tracks working with horses and training. As the governor mentioned, the risk there is minimal because activity is already occurring. For any sports, baseball in particular, there is a large number of maintenance staff, support staff, can you allow games in stadiums and still account for production and social distancing . That is what they are doing, coming up with a plan that says, look, i have to maintain the stadium anyway. There are people there. It is a big venue. If i am only doing a game, i can bring back limited staff. This is how they will be protected, the ppe, there is no density because they are securing the stadium. Those of the plans theyre coming up with. One note, just in case you raise it with me later, i have brought my vehicle to watkins glen, i have driven my car on watkins glen. I am not an official participant in nascar. I have no vested interest in opening watkins glen. If they open, and if i am invited to the ceremony, i may go and bring my car. I drive it around the track. There is no selfinterest involved in watkins glen. Just to be clear. [indiscernible] it is better if nursing home staff are not factored into the reopening metric because that is an isolated problem. Do you agree or disagree . Is it possible to separate that . To get the Capital Region opening . [indiscernible] people have been restless. I am restless. I am more restless than anyone. I am sure we all think we are the most restless person. We are talking within the department of health. I. Understand the issue. It is not just Capital District region. To the extent we are saying to hospitals, you should keep nursing home patients and not discharge them to nursing homes. They are saying that is artificially increasing hospitalization rate. I get the point. It is not a Capital District might. It is acrosstheboard. We change that policy across the state. We are having those conversations. We dont have a decision. When you talked about regional reopening before, you had a fear people from certain regions would go to others. Amsterdam [indiscernible] is there a fear that people from places like the Capital Region will go through the Mohawk Valley to shop if they have the option . The only differential on shopping is when you open phase i, you have a Curbside Pickup. You now have Curbside Pickup in the Capital District region but only one employee. There is not much a difference on that phase one between regions. The other phases, the other activities in phase one, almost by definition are existing employees, manufacturing plant opens up, they have their employees and the employees for that business are going to go. There is not a lot of cross region fertilization on that. You said yesterday [indiscernible] he said those were coming from home transmission. Is that new data from hospital surveys . Last week . [indiscernible] excuse me. Remember, we did the data last week we want to know where those new cases are coming from. I have a theory. It turned out to be wrong. Like many of my theories. I thought it might be predominantly essential workers who were still out working, showing up and that that is where the new cases may have come from. That was exactly wrong. The infection rate among the essential workers is lower than the general population in new cases are coming from predominantly from people who are not working and they are at home. What is the course of infection . At home, no [indiscernible] [indiscernible] they must be contracting the virus in the world and bringing it home . Someone in the home, obviously left the home to go shopping or a walk or whatever they did and brought it back home, if a person was staying home or the person went out of their home, not to work but to socialize or do whatever they did. That person got infected, either went to the hospital or went home and infected the other people at home. Did we have any we will learn a lot more about this when we start Contact Tracing. We will get data from that. Where are we at this point on Contact Tracing . How many people . This is just starting. We are enrolling hundreds of people to do this, working closely with the Bluebird Foundation bloomberg foundation. We can give you more data as it rolls out. Excuse me. Ballpark, how many tracers do we have set up . Several hundred now for the five regions open. The metric of having those numbers, trading has begun training has begun, they have done the 46 hour training with the john hopkins program. Yesterday was the first day we opened. We can get that answer for you. They are out. They are ready to go. [indiscernible] we will have to get that data as it comes in. [indiscernible] considering the scope of this, we did a report a couple days ago, it said it would take a team of five contact tracers three days to contact 50 people, exponential growth. Are you still confident this will work . Is this merely a way to combat future outbreaks . You know how many tracers we have. If you look at regions who opened, they had a number of tracers they had to have to open. Those five regions that opened, they had to have a certain number of tracers, proportionate to their population. Those are all in place. If you add up those five regions, tracers, numbers on the dashboard, you will find out. The tracing is, as you say, a first time, testing is a first time, tracing, all of this is a first time. The tracing operation is tremendously large and challenging. That is why Mike Bloomberg was so important here in his offer to help with his philanthropy, with john hopkins, with vital strategies, to come up with a training program, recruitment program, how does it work . Then to coordinate statewide, especially down, because there is such crosspollination downstate. You live in westchester but work in new york, you have a summer home on long island. The regional ordination is also important. That is all coming online. A region does not open unless they have that in place. Data we took last week was more on the question of, 400 new cases. Where are they coming from . Again, my premise was, they are workers. Data said they are not. Which is actually good news. Surprising but good. Covid related bills in the legislature, is there any bill you would like to see past the legislature or is it lawmakers, are their job effectively done . Lawmakers are working harder than they have worked in a long time. All elected officials are working harder than they have in a long time. If you are in a district, you are getting constant calls of people who need all sorts of help. Constituency demands it. Executive orders, everything i do, we talk to leaders about. They are talking to their members. Right . They may not be here physically. They are all engaged, not just on the constituency work, they are also part of what i am doing. I am not taking actions, i am not talking to them about. They are raising issues with me. We have to look at this, this, this. They are very much engaged in everything we are doing. With the new covid hospitalization [indiscernible] level these past few days, and also number of deaths seems to be going down. Do you think more lockdown measures will be needed to get numbers down further . You cannot do any more lockdown measures. You cannot do anymore than we have done. [indiscernible] only Grocery Stores on certain days . We are not talking about additional lockdown. The numbers are down. The question is reopening, right . Side of thehe tunnel. How do you reopen, smartly, intelligently, with individual responsibility . Understanding you are going to see increased in numbers but you dont want to see a spike. [indiscernible] you can handle, this is a conversation about the rate of transmission, etc. If you look at numbers now, it is not a constant number. It is a little up, a little down, a little up, a little down. You can handle that. You dont want to handle a spike which gets up near Hospital Capacity or anything like that. Statistically is that a 20 or 30 increase . It depends on what your original number is. You have different numbers across the state. Some regions, you are in the single digits. Some regions, youre in the double digits. It is proportionate to that. The Hospital Capacity in that region. Everything is by the region. Correctly . Hat do you regret moving forward with malaria drugs, given the whistleblower complaints [indiscernible] cardiac at a slightly elevated level. Is the state aware of such concerns . We looked at the hydroxychloroquine. Hospitalized patients, there was no benefit or adverse it was clearly known there was an issue with the potential of abnormal heart rhythms when you take the drug along with [indiscernible] the other drug. There are other group studying and looking at the use of this for individuals who are outpatients and we will wait and see what that data shows. Quick to do you regret moving forward . We did not move forward, right . We tested the drug was tested and hospital trials for the fda, which is how they test drugs, so drugs were tested and new york hospitals, and the tests suggested not to go ahead with the drug. [inaudible] [indiscernible] reported five weeks of decline in new cases. [indiscernible] yourwanted to know what response is. Governor cuomo you should send a letter to the New York Times because the chart i showed was from the New York Times so either the chart i showed either that fellow is right for the New York Times is right. Whoa for me to pick between the two. Last question . [indiscernible] cuomoc yes, ive spoken to everyone about the bill to such an extent that im sure none of our federal representatives want to talk to me about it any more. Ive made it clear how important it is. I made it clear how what will happen to the state budget if they did not test that bill. In many ways, they control all the state budget this year. I made it clear what will happen to the state budget if they do not pass that bill. If washington does not make up our shortfall, there will be cuts. I can only respond to the get aall if we do not makeup and the funding. I believe it would be ludicrous for them to take the actions they have taken where they are funding a business, small business, airlines. They are worried about hotels, they are worried about restaurants, and im not debating those issues, but then not to help schools and police and firefighters and give people and needare starving snap . How could you ever justify that. , ethical basis, legal basis, political i dont care. How would you ever justify that. Ok, have a nice day. Im going to go out and get some [indiscernible] be here cuomo tomorrow, sunday. [indiscernible] Governor Cuomo be here tomorrow cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Sunday morning, journalists from around the world provide an update on global coronavirus pandemic efforts. Magazine analyst molly ball discusses her new book, nancy pelosi. Join the discussion. Jeromeral reserve chair powell and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin testify remotely before the Senate Banking committee about the 2 trillion cares act which passed in march as part of the governments coronavi
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