President trumps approach to schools. He also spoke about the federal governments overall response to , rising cases across the country, and concerns over travelers potentially causing another outbreak in new york. This is an hour. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning, everyone. A pleasure to be here gov. Cuomo good morning, everyone. The doctor who has been working on among other things the state reopening School Reopening plan. Right, melissa, secretary to the governor. To her right rick cotton was the head of the Board Authority whos been doing an extraordinary job overall, building laguardia airport, first newport and the United States in 25 years, redoing john f. Kennedy airport and then if that wasnt enough he had to do was something called covid which obviously impacted the airports and were were so lucky to havm and want to thank you very much for everything he has been doing. This morning were going to be joined by mayor bottoms, mayor of atlanta. And shes going to join us this morning. Good morning. How are you, mayor . Good to be with you. I dont know if your audio is working. Mayor bottoms, weve been watching you. We are your neighbors to the north and weve been watching you and what you been going through. And first i hope youre feeling will and i hope your family is feeling well, on top of everything just yet to begin we covid virus yourself. Then you have your hands more than full there. You have not only the covid virus but the other virus of racism and division and what was going on with mr. Brooks. But we just want to tell you all behalf of new yorkers after what we have gone through, that you are exactly right, mayor. What youre saying and what you are advocating. Its no longer a question of degree or question of politics. We have facts, data. We went through it here in new york. We went through it in a worst case scenario, and it is about following the data and following the sides and taking the precautions and doing whats right. It is about masks. Masks work. We can tell you that here in new york. We had the worst spike per capita on the globe come and we brought it down and now you see these states are going higher than new york. So those masks work. We were the first state to start mandatory masks april 15 and all the sides now says for sure masks make a big difference. One of the models last week, the ih in a model, a gates funded model at the white house uses actually projected 40,000 more americans will die if we dont have a National Mask policy. So its clear, but we just wanted to tell you that we feel for you. We are all one, one community. I applaud your leadership. You really get to see what an elected official is made of when the pressure is on, and you have more than risen to the occasion. You have been inspired. The refer to you as a rising star, and they are all correct. We are with you. Anything we can do for you or the city, we stand ready. We remember how good the people across this country were to us with. When we were in the midst of it, i asked for volunteers from across the United States, nurses, doctors to come help in our hospitals. 30,000 people volunteered to come to new york in the midst of it and work in our hospital. It was such an act of generosity and love that it was really touching. So we are here for you. The concept of a at forward. Whatever we can do on any level, we have people who have been through this and actually know and we stand ready. But youre right. Keep going, stay strong. The facts will bear out. Its about saving lives and youre doing exactly the right thing. And the numbers are going to show that, so thank you for taking some time to be with us today. Mayor . And at the beginning of this pandemic my charge to my team was simple. God bless the child whos got his own. I had no idea we would have to go it alone in so many ways. I thought it was more geared towards the lack of leadership. The federal level, but it has proven to be equally challenging at the statewide level, and my family is an example whats happening across this country. We had an asymptomatic child in our home for eight days before we knew that that child was asymptomatic. And by the time my husband and i had contracted covid, unnecessarily i would imagine, because we wouldve taken precautions to protect ourselves. Ourselves. Thankfully, by the grace of god, we dont have Underlying Health conditions and we are all on the mend. My husband is feeling a lot better but for so many people across this country that is not their story, and their outcome is very different. So in atlanta when we saw that were in a very different place than the governors leadership was taking us, we convene an Advisory Committee in our city, comprised of health experts, Small Business owners, fortune 500 representatives, colleges and universities, just a representation of our community. And that makes it very clear recommendations on where we need to go with reopening, a phased approach. We have made into the second phase, but given where we are, our icu bed capacity is maxed out in some hospitals by the day. Day. Were getting close into maxing out in others. Our numbers are taking at. I see the daily. Ive seen numbers that ive not seen since april. As of yesterday afternoon we were up almost 23 over of weeks time. We are headed the wrong direction. So as the city we recommended that we go back to phase one which is essentially the stayathome order. Also weve instituted a mask mandate. The benefit of that is, one, as taking a very good position that as a city that we recognize that Wearing Masks help save lives but also even in the worlds busiest airport, one of our largest job centers, we can also mandate masks there as well, and its very simple. Unless we have a coordinated approach across this country, we are going to continue to unnecessarily what people die, and what makes it even more frustrating and even more disappointing, we didnt have to look to italy. We could look to new york, and you told us very clearly that if we didnt do things differently in our cities and states, we would find ourselves in the same situation that new york was facing. And, unfortunately, you were correct. Because throughout the south especially we are getting there in rapid order. So i thank you for your leadership. I know that as a city in the same way that new york was able to get to the other side, i know that we will get to the other side but it is going to take us taking responsibility for ourselves and taking actions that look at data and science, and not just our opinion. Right. Thank you very much, mayor. And youre right, the unfortunate and really frustrating point year is why did other states have to go through this . We do what we were dealing with. New york went down the path before. We lived exactly this. Just learn from what new york did. Learn from the numbers, learn from the data. We knew that if you reopened recklessly the virus was going to take off again. If youre not doing precautions, the virus is going to take off. Now new yorks problem is we have the infection coming from other states back to new york. We are worried about infection rates going up because of people coming from other states where the infection rate is higher. We have a cluster of cases in an upstate county called rensselaer. People came up from georgia. They had the virus and they infected people in new york and then it took off. Youre on exactly the right track. Anything we can do to help, were at a staple period now. We have the virus way down low. We went from the worst infection rate in the country to the best infection rate, the lowest. So we have a little breathing space here. Anything we can do for you that you need, any help on the testing, setting up the testing and the tracing, that is so, so important. And we have been through that, so you have an open offer, whatever you need, but also when it behind you and we wish you godspeed in your health recovering, and we hope that atlanta under your guidance comes back quickly. Anything we can do we stand ready. Thank you, governor. Thats exactly what we need assistance with. Testing, testing that gets people results very quickly. And also that Contact Tracing. Because we know thats extremely important for us to help slow the spread. So i appreciate your offer to help and we certainly will be appreciative of that assistance. Well, we can do that. Ill arrange it with your team, but we will put together people who have done the testing for us and the Contact Tracing. We actually worked with mike bloomberg, former mayor of new york city. It does nobody knew what a Contact Tracing program was, and we worked with the former mayor who stepped up and brought Johns Hopkins to the table, and we came up with the Training Program and a whole software program. So ill send the team down to atlanta and they can work with your people and what have we know and whatever we can share, we will do. In the meantime, send my regards to the former mayor there who i worked with. Send my regards to all the people at centennial park. When i was had secretary i did a lot of work in atlanta, a lot of good work, i have a lot of fond memories of send my regards to everyone. Ill get that Team Together and they will come down to atlanta as soon as it works for you. Thank you bring with us, mayor. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank thank you, my pleasure, thanks. Okay. Godspeed to the mayor. Where are we . Today is day 135. Lets talk about some facts first. Where are we . 702 hospitalizations today. That is very good news. Lowest ends march 18. You look at our rate of transmission all across the board, every region we see good numbers. And again we have more data than any state in the country, so we live and die by the data and all the numbers are good. You look across new york city, the county numbers, they are all good and they are all consistent. You have a little deviation from daytoday. Thats statistically irrelevant but theres all good news in the numbers across the state and across the city. Death toll for yesterday is ten people. Again, we would love to see that number at zero, but compared to where we have been, that is a very good place to be. You look at the threeday average and you see there the whole slope of what we have gone through. You see the dissent dissent and the experts say admit you l never really get to zero on the number of deaths, because people die. This is condition like pneumonia. It attacks the respiratory system so people who are very ill can contract covid and it can be a cause of death. But thats where we are now. We did 51,000 tests yesterday, and it was just over 1 . So it is all good news on where we are as the state. The numbers show that what we have done in terms of our reopening strategy at our plane has worked. We have been reopening for weeks now, over one month we started reopening. We expected after the reopening we expected the numbers to pick up. They havent. It actually gone down. So the reopening strategy has worked. New york state smart has worked and it shows that this nation can defeat covid. There was no reason to have these states on the increase. New york inherited a spike. Remember where we started. We were handed this high infection rate. Because nobody knew that the virus had come from europe. So we started with a high spike. We had to get that spike down. The other states didnt start with a spike. They just had to stop it from increasing. And with all we did in new york and all we knew, they were just blind to the reality. And again i want to congratulate new yorkers who really stepped up to the plate and they did what they had to do, and it was hard. Social distancing, close businesses, closed schools, stay at home. It was hard but they did it. We now get to the question of reopening schools. There is a state formula that will determine if it is safe to reopen schools, okay . So open schools or not . Theres a state formula that determines it. There are then state guidelines as to how that school reopens. Right . State former determines if it reopens. If it reopens, the second question is how, and that will be done by state guidelines. But the question of School Opening is like the question of reopening the economy. Reopening the schools come reopening the economy, its the same conversation. And by the way its the exact same conversation with the president of the United States. We talked about reopening the economy. And hed said, just reopen. Just reopen the economy. There is no reason for any of this stuff, phases, data, masks. Its all baloney. Just reopen. Yet, we saw how well that worked. Go ask florida and texas and arizona how well that worked. On schools, what does he say . Reopen the schools. Just open them up. Dont worry, yeah, he was wrog on the economic reopening. Hes wrong on the schools reopening. Everybody wants to reopen the schools. I want to reopen the schools. Everybody wants to reopen the schools. Its not, do we reopen are not . You reopen if it is safe to reopen. How do you know if it is safe . You look at the data. You dont hold your finger up and feel the wind. You dont have an inspiration. You dont have a dream. You dont have any motion. Look at the data. We cast more. We have more data than any state. Look at the data. If you have the virus under control, reopen. If you dont have the virus under control, then you cant reopen, right . We are not to use our children as a litmus test and were not going to put our children in the place where the hell is endangered. Its that simple. Common sense and intelligence can still determine what we do. Even in this crazy environment. We are not going to use our children will as guinea pigs. I safety experts, its very simple. It by making the determination as to whether or not i would send my daughter to school. If its safe, ill send her. If its not safe, im not going to center. And you can determine that by science. So the point is this. Schools will be open if that region is in phase four and the daily infection rate remains 5 or lower over a 14 day average, okay . If you are in phase four and you are under 5 infection rate. That means the virus is under control. That means its safe to reopen. And then the schools can proceed to reopening in that region. Exactly how . You look at the state guidelines. This determination will be made the first week in august. The second question is, what happens if between the first week in august and the day school opens, the virus spikes . I dont want to be in a position where we made a determination august 7 and then the virus spikes, or we already said that schools are going to reopen. So the safety valve, theres a floor, schools will close if the regional infection rate is above 9 on a seven day average, okay . So you get a green light. Reopen in a region, if youre in phase four. And the infection rate is 5 or lower. If the infection rate goes over 9 on a sevenday average, that means the virus is moving rapidly and it is not intelligent to open. Thats the green light and thats the red light. And its the way we have done the economic reopening. Its purely on the numbers. Purely on the numbers. Its on the science. We will make the first decision. We will look at the numbers the week of august 1 to 7, seven, e week, because its a rolling 14 day average, different regions are in different positions on the 14 day average. Between august 1 you get a green light on august 1, between august 1 and the data school opens, we continue to monitor every day. And if the infection rate goes over nine, then we hit an emergency stop button, okay . Its a very simple. Its clear. Once you get a green light to reopen, then how you reopen, you follow the guidelines and we leave it to the 700 700 School Districts across the state to come up with the specific plan pursuant to those guidelines. We have done state health guidelines. The state department of education is doing state education guidelines which will incorporate our health guidelines. We had a great Reimagine Education Advisory Council but did a lot of work to come up with the guidelines. For me want to thank them all very much for the good work they did. They are education officials from all across the state. They came up with guidelines that will say the districts got the flexible plants. There have to be safeguards. They are prioritizing safety, maximizing available space, focusing on arts, career technical education. They have to be innovative. How do you use remote loading . How do you use innovative models . S practices, and all the guidelines will be up today. We want masks and ppe whenever students or staff cannot maintain social distancing. Masks work. They work for children. They work for teachers. A work for anyone. We have social distancing, 16 separation. We have cohort structures in the guidelines, guidelines on transportation, food service, aftercare, extracurricular activities. Every child in person entering will be screened. Tracing has to work in the schools. Cleaning and closure procedures. Thats all in the guidelines, and again weve done a healthy guidelines come state department of education, which i do not run. Its a separate agency. They will do the education guidelines incorporating hours. Well then, whats the bad news . All of our numbers are good. All of our numbers are good. Bad news is we have to keep them that way and there are challenges. There are two threats. First is lack of compliance by new yorkers. We get arrogant. We get cocky. The weather is warm. The numbers are good. I heard the governor. He said everything was good. Theres nothing to worry about. I never said that theres nothing to worry about. I never said that. I said the numbers are good. I worry every day. Well, you just worry about. No, im not really a worrier i nature. The circumstances caused me to worry. We have to remain compliant and the local governments have to do their job and enforce compliance. Well, its hard with younger people. I understand. Well, some people do like to wear a mask. I just in. Though, socially distancing is difficult. Id christine. We we have to do it. If you dont do it, the virus will increase. Period, period. This is not my opinion. Im not guessing. We know it as a scientific fact. Thats the first threat. Second is the virus comes to new york. This is a very real threat. And it is deja vu all over again. The First Federal debacle was losing track of the virus that was supposed to be in china, and not knowing it led to china and it went to europe and then they came here from europe. And the federal government has now admitted this. It was one of the great federal blunders in history, cost thousands of lives in