Can see the lines that indicate spain, and germany, and italy, and france, in terms of their daily confirmed new cases, you can also see china back there, with their peak, way back in february, but if youre looking for us, thats up, up top, just running away with it, as our National Response continues to founder, and as our epidemic grows and grows and grows and the death numbers grow and grow and grow. Tonight, the federal government says it is working on guidance that would recommend for the first time that many americans, some americans, a large number of americans, some americans, all americans, we dont know, that some americans wear masks, not surgical masks but some kind of Face Covering, when we all go out in public. Again, it is unclear yet as to what the administration is going to announce, presumably they will, they are still working on it, we will talk more about it tonight, this is the kind of recommendation that was first made in Riverside County california, a couple of days ago and yesterday laredo texas made this recommendation. And yesterday, crucially, los angeless mayor Eric Garcetti also made that recommendation yesterday. Mayor garcetti will be joining us tonight as well. Tonight, today, new york citys mayor advised that people should generally cover their faces, wear some kind of mask when they go out in public, and now it seems that Wearing Masks in public may soon be a nationwide recommendation but we shall see. As the country reels, or keeps denying it, depending where you are, the place that remains unquestionably the bloody front line of this crisis is new york. Which itself is closing in on 100,000 cases, and where in new york city, as of 5 00 p. M. Tonight, there are 10,590 people hospitalized with coronavirus. 815 people newly admitted to new york City Hospitals in the last 24 hours alone. These hospitalization numbers have been rapidly increasing every single day that we have been tracking them, and it does not look like they are dropping anytime soon. Today the chief medical officer of mount sinai brooklyn talked to new York Magazine to give that publication one little slice of what its like to be running that one hospital, at 100 capacity, right now, on the front lines, with so many patients dying, every day now, that they literally cannot keep up with the bodies. Again, this is the chief medical officer at mount sinai brooklyn today, he said, quote, we started putting bodies in the morgue truck last week. And its been used a lot. A lot. I think theres 40 bodies in there now. The Funeral Homes are having trouble keeping up a bit. Were accumulating a certain number of bodies here. We have outfitted the morgue truck with shelves now. Because you have to keep track of people. You have to make sure that the right family gets the right body back. You want to treat these people with respect and dignity. Knowing that it is a very unnatural situation. Its dark days. With new yorks governor frankly warning of darker days yet. Still ahead. Joining us for the interview, im pleased to say is Governor Andrew Cuomo from the great state of new york. Governor, thank you so much for making time to be here tonight. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, rachel. First of all, if you dont mind me asking, i do wonder how you are, and how you are holding up, weeks into this crisis now, i have on this show sort of called you the president of the coronavirus response, because of the National Leadership that youve shown, and the National Attention to what you are contending with in new york, i just wonder how this is wearing on you, after these few weeks. Well, first, thank you for having me on, and more importantly, on behalf of all american, thank you for your coverage, it has really been extraordinary. You know, its hard, it is really hard, i take my responsibilities seriously, i dont make excuses, when you have 2300 people who die, and you see it every day, and its only getting worse, thats tough, rachel, just to deal with, day in and day out, obviously, on an organizational basis, its hectic, its 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but ive been through that before. Its the death, its the human suffering, its the fear, its the anxiety, that weighs on you, more than the physical fatigue. Its the emotional fatigue. I showed the daily number of how hospitalizations have increased day by day, in new york city, weve also seen similar rises in new york state, youve talked very publicly about trying to understand what the models are creating in terms of an imperative for new york, the need to simultaneously hospitali hospitalize somewhere on the order of 110,000, 140,000 at the same time in new york at peak and i know youre adding bed capacity everywhere you can, but do you have a clear expectation when every bed will be full and there wont be room to take more patients, are you sure new york will hit that point and do you know when it might be . Well, its, thats the 64,000 question, rachel. You only, we only know what the projection models say. And by the way, the projection models say different things. For example, when do you hit the top of the curve . Some models say seven days from now, some models say 21 days from now. So there is a variable about how effective they believe social distancing is. The number of total beds that we would need ranges 60,000 to 110,000. So the range in these models is maddening, frankly. Because if youre trying to plan for it, its very hard. But whatever model you pick, it eclipses everything we have. We have a 50,000 bed system. We have 36,000 beds in downstate new york. Its beds. Its staff. Its equipment. And the easiest thing to do is get the beds frankly. Its going to be about the staff and the equipment. And it may even be about the equipment more than the staff, right . You need all three, for the system to work, and the first one that crumbles, the system crumbles. Governor, you talk about the anxiety, and the fear, and the grind of the logistical work that youre doing. I feel like theres a, i have a base fear, when i think about there being severely ill americans, even by the tens, let alone by the hundreds of the thousands, and who need to be hospitalized, who need to be hospital, and need intensive care in order to stay alive, not being able to go anywhere to get that care, i mean i, i know that we talk about these number, and these models, and i know lots of states right now are looking at those curves and looking at those projections and seeing how many more beds they are going to need, and how many more icu beds they are going to need, but i dont know how to prepare people for what it might mean, when the hospitals are full, and what that is going to do in terms of us as culture and a society, seeing that kind of level of human suffering. Rachel, god forbid we get there, god forbid this country gets to a point where you see people literally on gurneys in hallways. I just, i, for this state, i am not, i am not going to accept that. We are doing everything we can to mobilize. Were trying everything. For us, it is going to come down to not the beds, it is going to be staff fatigue, and it is ventilators. You know, most of, almost all of these people now at this point are almost all icu cases, they all need ventilators and the ventilator becomes a question of life and death. And weve been talking about these ventilators for a long period of time. And theyre impossible to get, any ventilators. So weve come up with an elaborate plan on how to move around ventilators and splitting ventilators, and using anesthesia machines and bipap machines and stopped all elective surgery to free up ventilators, but first, we have to avoid. It second, i think we have to be smarter. The one Silver Lining here is not every place in this country gets hit at the same time. Right . Theres going to be a different curve for the disease in different areas. Depending on when it started. And those curves will have a lag. The problem for every area is going to be the apex of the curve, where it just overwhelms the Health Care System. But new york is going to have one apex, detroit will have another, new orleans will have another, texas will have another, los angeles will have another. Why dont we devise a National Strategy that moves with that rolling apex if you will. I need roughly 30,000 ventilators which i cant get but i only need 30,000 ventilators for two or three weeks at the top of my curve. I need backup Public Health professionals. But i only need them for two or three weeks at the top of my curve. Why dont we have a national, use our National Unity and our commonality, and say, lets be smart, lets go help this place, when this, when that town goes over its curve, then well go to the next, and then we will go to the next, and then well go to the next. I think americans have a lot more commonality and volunteerism than were using. I asked for national Public Health people to come into new york. We had over 20,000 volunteers in three days. 20,000. I have 60,000 volunteers in the state. There is more goodwill and american spirit than we are using. And i think theres a smarter deployment. You have been making that case for the federal deployment of resources for the sort of mutuallysupportive deployment of resources to the places that most need them, understanding that not everybody is going to hit theyre pex at the same time, has that resonated at all with the federal government. I know that youve got a mixed relationship with the Trump Administration right now and they have been able to talk to you about some things and you have been critical of them with other, but has that pound that, point youve been making come home to them at all . I dont see any way any other states or any other cities, that are approaching this right now, i dont see any other way that they are going to be able to deal with the rolling apexes that youre describing. Youre right. First, to say that i have a mixed relationship with the president is very kind. There is probably no governor in the country that has been more critical and probably no governor in the country that he has been more aggressive towards with his tweets but on this one, the president and i have said look, this is not about politics, if you help new york state, i will say, be gracious, and thank you you, and be in partnership, and if you dont help me, if you dont help new york state, i will say that. The states cant do this on their own. It would have to be federally organized. But i dont see how you do it otherwise. Otherwise youre saying to every state, every locality, you must be prepared on your own to handle this. The federal government will give you some back support, but its up to you. Its not going, to its not going to work that way, or it could work better the other way. Lets say it that way, rachel. Which is let the federal government say, look, this is like a slowmoving hurricane across the country, and we know the track that its going to take, lets go to new york, board it up, do what we have to do, we all go to new york, and then we all go to detroit, and then we all go to the next place. I think thats the only way you do it. Where we are now, 50 states, all trying to buy the same equipment, from china, and then the federal government comes in with fema, which is trying to purchase the same equipment, this is not the way to do it. I mean obviously, if you could design a system, nobody would design a system where you say to the states, okay, youren on your own, you go buy equipment, all shopping the same manufacturers in china. Emergency management rule 101 is leave it to the local government, right . Local government knows best. That is Emergency Management rule 101. I was in the clinton administration, as the hud secretary, as you know, and i did Emergency Management work for eight years. Rule one is leave it to the localities. Rule two is, if the localities cant handle it, then the federal government steps in. Remember what happened with president bush with hurricane katrina. He blamed the mayor. Why . Because that was rule one. The mayor didnt know how to handle it. And its the mayors fault. Yeah, but it was rule two. Which is if its beyond the capacity of the local government, then the federal government should step in. No state is equipped to handle this situation. State Emergency Management does hurricanes, floods, of moderate dimension, if they are really big, the federal government comes in, thats what fema is all about, states dont do Public Health emergencies. Wi will, there is no capacity in my state Health System that runs 50,000 beds, to create and maintain an additional 50,000 beds, just in case once every 20 years, there is a pandemic. You know, it doesnt work that way. But thats where we are now. Hindsight is 20 20. But the states are responsible for their own purchasing, and frankly, theres nothing left to buy anymore anyway. I bought 17,000 ventilators, ordered 17,000 ventilators from china, but i think whats happening is when somebody else outbids you, your order just is gone. I havent even received 1,000. So that horse is out of the barn. The deployment we could still do. And i think americans would support that. In terms of the way it has worked thus far with the federal government, one of the things that weve covered here on the show is the federal government, the army corps, coming in, and helping build out, for example, the Javits Center in new york. Lots of cities are setting up their Convention Centers as hospitals to house coronavirus patients and you were the first out of the gate with that with this Javits Center buildout in manhattan. We also saw the Navy Hospital ship, the comfort arrive in new york harbor, but there has been some intriguing twists around both of them, the New York Times reporting tonight that the comfort has a grand total of three patients on board. The comfort of course has been set up to not take coronavirus patients, until today, the Javits Center was not planning on taking any coronavirus patients either but your Office Released a statement tonight, saying that now that has changed. It seems odd for those things to be changing course now. It seems weird for the hospital ship to essentially be disused in the harbor, when new York Hospitals are full up. What can you tell us about those federally supported facilities right now . In fairness, rachel, the plan was both the u. S. Navy ship comfort, and the Javits Center emergency medical facility were supposed to be for noncovid19 people. The plan was they would be relief valve for the local hospitals, to take the nonCovid Patients, and then more Covid Patients could go into the hospitals. What has happened is the Covid Patients have overwhelmed the hospitals. Hospitals have now just basically turned into icu units, with Covid Patients. And because everything is closed down, there are fewer normal trauma cases, and since i stopped all of the elective surgery, you dont have those patients. So the offloading of nonCovid Patients really doesnt exist. The Javits Center is at 2500 beds. We are at desperate search for beds with staff. Javits has beds but more importantly federal staff, and federal equipment. And i called the president this morning, and i explained the situation to him, and to his credit, to his credit, rachel, in one day, he turned around, and he called me this afternoon, and said were going to use javits for Covid Patients. Which is a big deal. Its 25 additional, 2500 additional beds. The military apparently doesnt want to use the ship for noncovid19, because of a protocol on how they would then disinfect the ship which i dont really understand, frankly. But the ship was never supposed to be for Covid Patients. The original understanding was nonCovid Patients. There is this alarming report today from the entity that manages new York Hospitals, that, if youre in cardiac arrest somewhere in new york city, and emts show up, and they cant revive you onsite, there is now a change in protocol, where they are not taking you to a hospital, to try to revive you there. Because the hospitals are so overwhelmed. It does seem like having that hospital ship in new york harbor with no coronavirus patients on it, with, as far as we can tell, hundreds of empty beds, and staff there, to deal with it, they could be taking the few trauma patients, the few heart attack patients, the other people who now cant get into the new york City Hospitals. Well, theoretically, they can. This is all new. You have protocols that arent really established, that have to be set up. Theoretically, the u. S. Navy ship comfort could take a noncovid trauma case. So i dont know how that protocol works on that. But look, this is a, were all doing the best we can, trying to put together a system, that can handle over 150, 200 of what the system is designed to do. And the federal facilities are an advantage. For us, what it is going to come down to is the staff burnout, staff getting sick, we have 80,000 volunteers, can we get them oriented to the right hospitals and in the right places, and then the equipment, and these ventilators that i never heard of before, now become the most precious piece of equipment, and the difference between life and death. You literally cant acquire them. And were looking at right now, we have about enough vent laters for six days at our current burn