Gov. Andrew Cuomo addresses latest with COVID-19's effect on New York | USA TODAY

mmm ooh everyone, as we know, these are stressful emotional times and

today

is a day in New York State with very mixed emotions based on two very different pieces of information we have. I'm trying to get over mixed emotions myself, so we'll just present the facts and then go from there. There is good news in what we are seeing: what we have done and what we are doing is really working and making a difference. We took dramatic actions in this state. New York pauses the program to close schools, businesses, social distancing and it is working, it is flattening the curve and we see that again

today

so far, which means that curve is flattening because we are flattening the curve because of what we are doing if we stop What we are doing, you will see that the change in the curve is purely a function of what we do day to day, but right now it is flattening, the number of hospitalized patients is declining and again we are not just looking at the day-to-day data. day. look at the three day trend, but that number has gone down, the 3 day average trend has also gone down anecdotally, there were individual hospitals, the larger systems are reporting that some of them are actually discharging more people than they thought come in, so their network decreased, so we see the flattening of the curve, in quotes, we have more capacity in the hospital system than ever, so we have had more capacity in that system to absorb more people, the exchange of teams, which has really been one of the beautiful cooperative and generous acts between different partners in the health system has worked, if the hospitalization rate continues to decline as it is now, then the system should stabilize over the next few weeks, which will minimize the need for overflow in the system that we have built at Javits and that the USNS comfort, then it is all good news, there is a big sign of caution, which is, if we continue doing what we are doing, we are flattening the curve because we are rigorous with social distancing, etc., so if we continue doing what we are doing, then we believe that the curve will continue to flatten, but it is not time to become complacent, it is not time to do anything different than what we have been doing, remember what It happened in Italy when the entire health system was overwhelmed, so we have to continue to be diligent, we have to continue to be disciplined in the future, but there is no doubt that we are now turning the curve and there is no doubt that we cannot stop doing What we're doing.

That's the good news. Bad news is not just bad. The bad news is actually terrible. The highest single-day death toll so far, 779 people. When we look at the death toll figures, it has been steadily increasing and reached a new height yesterday. The number of deaths, in fact, the number of deaths will increase. continues to increase as those hospitalized for a longer period of time die, the longer you are on a ventilator, the less likely you are to be taken off. Dr. Chi talked to me about this and he was acting under the correct percentage, the delay in quotes. indicator between hospitalizations and deaths hospitalizations may begin to decrease deaths actually increase because people who have been in the hospital for 11 days 14 days 17 days died that is what we are seeing hospitalizations decreased and the number of deaths increases I understand the science I understand the facts and the logic, but it is still incredibly difficult to deal with every face, every number is a face, and that has been painfully obvious to me every day, but we have lost people, many of them frontline workers. healthcare workers, many of them people who were performing the essential functions that we all needed for society to continue and were putting themselves at risk and knew that many of them were vulnerable people who were being attacked from the bottom by this cruel predator of a virus. day.

One, this virus attacked the vulnerable and it attacked the weak and it is our job as a society to protect the vulnerable and that has always been about from day one and it is still about being responsible not only for yourself but protecting others. the vulnerable. because the life you risk may not be yours, those people who work and enter an emergency room every day and put themselves in danger do not make their situation worse do not infect yourself or infect another person so that their situation becomes more dangerous just to put some perspective on this 911 that many of us experience in this state and in this nation 2750 three lives lost this crisis we lost sixty two hundred and sixty-eight New Yorkers I am going to order all flags to be flown at half-mast in honor of those who we have lost because of this virus.

Great question from everyone, from my daughters. I'm sure on most people's tables, when will things go back to the way they were before? I don't think it's about going back. I don't think it's ever about going back. I think the issue is always moving forward and that's what we have to deal with here, it's about learning from what we've experienced, growing and moving forward well when we can. back to normal I don't think we'll go back to normal I don't think we'll go back to where we were yesterday I think if we're smart we'll achieve a new normal in the same way we understand a new normal when it comes to the economy and a new normal when it comes to As far as the environment is concerned, we now understand the new normal in terms of health and public health and we have to learn just as we have been learning about the new normal and other aspects of society that we have to learn what does it mean global pandemic how small the world is actually someone sneezes in Asia today you catch a cold tomorrow no matter what happens in any country in this world you can get on a plane and be here literally overnight and understand this phenomenon and appreciate it again how our health system should prepare public and the scale at which we need a public health system, look at the way we are struggling right now to make this work, we have to learn from that, I think we have also learned positive lessons that I have found ways to use technology that we had never explored before.

It has a New York State court system. Thank you. The chief judge is basically developing a virtual online court system that has all kinds of positive benefits going forward. He uses technology for healthcare. Use technology. from home using technology for education I think these are all positive aspects that we can learn testing capacity that we still have to develop and that will be the bridge from where we are today to the new economy, in my opinion, it will be informed testing. transition to the new economy where the people who have antibodies the people who are negative the people who have been exposed and are now better those are the people who can go to work and you know who they are because you can do tests, but we all have developed a sense of scale in recent weeks in dealing with this there are also lessons to be learned why are more African Americans and Latinos affected we are seeing this across the country now the numbers in New York are not as bad as the disparities We see it in other places in the country , but apparently there are still disparities, why, well, comorbidity.

I don't understand it, but I think there is something else. You know, it always seems like the poorest people pay the highest price. Because? Because? Whatever the situation, it's a natural disaster, Hurricane Katrina, the people that were on those rooftops were not rich white people, why do the poorest people always pay the highest price, but let's figure it out, let's do the work, let's investigate, Let's learn from this moment? and let's learn these lessons and let's do it now, let's do more testing in minority communities, but not just testing for the virus, let's get research and data that can inform us as to why we have more people in minority communities.

Why do people in certain neighborhoods have higher infection rates? I understand comorbidity. I understand the problem of the underlying disease, but what else influences it? There are more Latino and African American public workers who, frankly, have no choice but to leave. there every day and they drive the bus and the train and they show up to work and they end up subjecting themselves, in this case, to the virus, while many other people who had the option simply went away, they live in denser communities, in more urban environments , but what is it? and let's learn from that and do it now.

I'm going to ask our boss at SUNY Albany, Dr. Avadon Rodriguez, they made an effort to do it right now. We will do more testing in minority communities now with more data research done now, so let's learn now. The Department of Health will do this together with the north, but let's learn these lessons now. We are also making an additional payment of six hundred and six hundred dollars to all unemployed New Yorkers. The federal government says they will reimburse us, but people need money in their pockets now, so New York will do it immediately. We are also expanding payment. period covered by unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks because from 26 weeks to 39 weeks, so it should be a relief for the vote.

I've seen lines of people on TV voting in other states, which is totally absurd. God bless you for being so diligent in this civic duty that you would stand in line to vote, but people should not have to make that decision and we are by executive order that all New Yorkers can vote absentee in the June 23 primary. they approach I want to thank the many places and people who are working with New York State Medical Mercury donated 2,400 BiPAP machines. The BiPAP machines are not technically ventilators, but they can be modified to ventilate

effect

ively even though they are not ventilators and we are using, they were raised from Florida, thank you so much JetBlue for doing that.

I also want to thank Oregon and Washington State in California for releasing ventilators. I want to thank the direct care workers who are doing a fantastic job and do it every day. thank you, thank you to the state workers who show up and do a great job every day, to all the first responders, this has been a long battle and it will continue, but I want you to know how grateful we all are to them for what they are doing. I want people to remember that we are flattening that curve and, if anything, we will double our diligence now.

We are going to start a campaign on social networks. Who do you stay home for? It's not about staying home for you. Stay at home. others are staying home for vulnerable people who, if they get this virus, are in a really bad situation in life. Stay home for the health care worker who is in the emergency room because he doesn't want to infect anyone else and then add another burden. our healthcare system, so who are you staying home for? I stay home for my mom, but everyone, it's not just about you, it's about all of us, so who are you staying home for and we'll start a social media campaign that does that, but thank you.

To all New Yorkers for everything you have done and we still have more to do. We are by no means out of the woods and don't miss reading what you are seeing in that data and in those graphs, which is a pure product. of our actions and behavior, if we behave differently, you will see those numbers change. I just doubled the fine for disobeying social distancing rules, why, if anything, we have to be more diligent, not less diligent, and we have more to do, and that's tough in New York. but tough is more than just tough tough is smart and disciplined and unified and tough is loving the toughest guys are tough enough to love last point our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community celebrate Passover tonight we wish everyone a happy Passover to the Jewish community You've had a long, difficult year, on top of all of this, the number of incidents of anti-Semitism throughout this country, the violence that you've seen even in this state of New York that has such a large Jewish population, so We wish you the best on Pesach. and the message of Pesach I know helps me today and I offer it to others to consider Pesach says to remember the past we learn from the past we remember the lessons of the past we teach those lessons to a new generation but there is also a message of hope in Pesach the next year in Jerusalem in Jerusalem yes, the question is that many of the essential workers in the public workforce tend to be African American Latinos.

I think that's probably true. I don't know the statistics, but I think it's probably true. I also think frontline workers do. They have greater exposure than most people. I think that's one of the things we're going to find when we do this research and why the infection rate is higher among the African American community and the Latino community again, the disparity that we're seeing in New York.

york

It's nothing like what you see in other places in the country, but I think it's something we have to understand. I don't think we can reduce essential services. You know, we're basically limited to food, pharmacy, basic transportation, which frankly is more for our essential workers to get where they're going, if they did, if they didn't have public transportation, those healthcare workers wouldn't be able to show up, they wouldn't be able to show up. supermarket workers, so I don't think we're in a position to say eat less or use less drugs or use less healthcare.

I think we have to get through this from time to time, learn from it and see what changes we can make in the future. This is me, one second, Karen, just Bernie. Mom, I'm sorry the state was late in shutting down everything we did in New York because it was too late. Do they wish they had started reducing the workforce by closing businesses, etc. before, especially considering that San Francisco had closed before New York? New York was slow to act, no, I think New York was early, and I think the actions we took were more dramatic than most and, frankly, they were criticized for being premature, so no, I think if you could rewind the tape you would have to. go back to last November and December, what was. going over what was happening around the world and what the

effect

was going to be here.

My point about global pandemics. We are watching China. We are watching Italy. We are looking at other countries. Well, we extrapolated from that to a national level what happened. the first part of your question, Bernadette, I was wondering if you think you know that we should have closed the schools. There is a conflict between the city's schools. You know de Blasio and you were having that debate about whether we should close them. Bars and restaurants should also close. any of those actions there was no debate there was no debate I made the decision to close the City Schools there was no debate there was a debate about closing the City Schools and people thought that I closed the city schools city ​​prematurely, that was the ongoing debate, but no, I think looking back at something, it shows that what we did was right.

Sorry, can you in the June 23rd vote? Can you imagine the polls being open since you know everyone? I think we're just saying absentee voting is an option, not saying it's a necessity, right? We are saying that absentee voting is an option. We are saying that the temporary illness provision of absentee voting will include the risk of contracting kovat 19 and I think we are going to take a wait and see approach as we get closer to whether any polls should be open or not. Connick Landing is a nursing home that has been releasing data in case other nursing homes release data as the question should be. nursing homes or any nursing home, so we are tracking nursing homes and we want to protect the privacy of people in nursing homes and we refer you to the homes themselves so that particular place has published data, but the we track.

We have seen in multiple nursing homes across the state, particularly in the lower state. I should say cases and we track them, some of them are a result of a person being there and others getting infected, so we are looking at that. Locking patients down, as other states and countries have done, goes back to the fact that the nursing home is, in many ways, the place where they live, it's not like a place where you go to the hospital and then you can leave the hospital, so we try to protect them. privacy a little more, but we keep track and if there is a case there that is of concern, we go and investigate immediately.

I said it would be closed until June 7th this morning. That will be a good rule of thumb for other types of mass gatherings in New York City or across the state. No, I wouldn't use what they think are mass gatherings that started before Jules. I don't know, I don't know, but I wouldn't use what Broadway thinks as a barometer of anything unless they're in the public health business and have seen better numbers and models. I think all of these projections basically turned out to be wrong and this is a very difficult thing to model because on top of all the variables that you're modeling. public behavior and what people will do if you go back and look at even the models that were released in January, they all had a premise about how effective social distancing would be, what percentage of the population would actually comply with social distancing, etc., and they have It turned out to be wrong, but I think Jessie, they can be wrong either way.

You know, I'm more worried about people saying, "Well, the number of cases is going down, it's safer now, no, no, no, I'm more afraid of the number changing." and the curve changes because people read something that's not there, if you reduce social distancing compliance you'll see those numbers go up in a few days, they literally go up in a few days, so no, I take it one day at a time, look the data. for the day look at the numbers for the day and then make a decision, well two weeks, look, we only got to April 29th right with the school closing, we extended everything until April 29th with the school closing, pause in New York, even that is a projection.

Let's not go past the concentrations in Malaya and Stephen in the Hudson Valley state, but there are other places where you haven't seen cases, you haven't seen these cases yet, Jimmy, and be careful with the tents and be careful with counting our chickens before hatch we haven't seen cases yet we're in the middle of this don't start looking back like it's over because that's the attitude we need to avoid you'll see more cases in upstate New York I bet you whatever you want to bet now you will see more cases on Long Island. I'll bet you whatever you want to bet right now that we're not over, it's not over, we're in the middle of it, we have good news about it.

What we are doing is working and, by the way, we have all been killing ourselves in one way or another. The isolation, the work of the health system has been phenomenal. People work 24 hours a day. People expose themselves. The good news is that this is showing a benefit. flatten the curve at a lower rate than almost any of the projected models. Well, that's the good news, but we're still in the middle of this and the bad news, the terrible news, is seeing how many lives we lost. I mean, it's awesome. The next time we want to think about it, we'll get a little complacent or arrogant and look at the number of people we've lost.

Remember before you decide to leave the house because you have lockdown fever, what metric would you look for? in or dr. Zucker or any of you to make that kind of decision what would be the tipping points of infection rates Jessie that number has to go down on the other side of the mountain the number of infections new cases that go to a hospital the infection rate has That you get to a point where you believe that the isolation of the vulnerable, the other measures that we are taking are enough to begin to reopen and then how do you reopen?

It won't just be about Broadway theaters before you go to Broadway theaters. Beavers, everyone can go. Back to work, can I go back to school? One of the other essential services will open. You know, before you go to a play, there will be a lot of other questions they will ask and that will be a function of the numbers. Frankly, I would like to do that regionally with Connecticut in New Jersey because it's a regional workforce, so I stay very close to Governor Murphy and Governor Lamont on those decisions. I don't believe in these geographical distinctions in these situations, do you?

There is no New York City, there is New York City, there is Nassau, there is Suffolk, there is Westchester, there is Rockland, right, the virus doesn't stop it at a border and these decisions are regional in nature, so now Broadway obviously it's a microcosm but the general decisions are all in a regional context and I think it will be the numbers and when the low numbers are low enough that it's safe, it wouldn't need to be zero is what you're saying, it could just be reduced, yes, I don't think so. It may never be zero It may never be zero and you have to see this.

You know, when we get back to normal, you think it's not a. Do you think this will ever be a morning where I wake up again in my life without worrying about this. In the back of my mind, you don't think we're all going to worry now. Is there a second wave? Don't you think we're going to worry now? when someone sneezes in Asia. How long until the cold arrives? No. but I wouldn't set it to zero. I don't know if we will ever go back to zero. Doctor, do you want to mention that some are lovely queens, but they do not have the blood gas machines and cartridges that are essential to operate them, also in the case of ventilators in hospitals?

Do they have fans? Do they have enough operational technicians to operate them? Do you have enough operational technicians? They must do it because they have been working in some way. I don't know what the exact operating technician is for a fan, but I haven't heard of it. I've talked to every hospital every day for the last few days to find out what's going on, what the heads of the big hospital systems need, no one has mentioned to me that we have over 100 hospitals on the phone, so what? was the first part of your question blood gas machine cartridges the doctors are Carissa is an expert on blood gas machine cartridges she gave me some for my birthday last year she actually said just in case I didn't know what she meant at that point, I know I know I need to go on a ventilator this birthday, so I'm going to put it all together, those are the supplies to do the point-of-care testing, which is blood gases that the lab tests that we do next to the bed and, if there is a decrease in supplies, we are investigating all of them to get them to the hospitals that are needed.

I knew what a blood gas cartridge was. I just wanted the doctors. Why do we need these temporary facilities? What would we get based on those numbers? for my ears, not my fur, you're right, that's my point, we are flattening the curve now under the projected piece because of our behavior, but again, Jimmy, do you want to talk about this in the retrospective? There is no retrospective. You're in the middle of this if you walk in front of traffic on your way home. If you are young. You may have a different life expectancy depending on your action.

We are in the middle of this. I'm not going to say anything. now you've seen a little bit of flattening that's all you've seen you've seen four or five days of flattening oh it's flat no you've got four or five days of flattening that you couldn't have tomorrow morning we wake up and the numbers come back like this which I'm not willing to say because it's not true that any of this is over or that anything has been accomplished because this is just a small snapshot in time where we are at this pace, we are below the projected numbers, there is no judge . there is no new maximum projection listen to what I'm saying no one says repeat we are flattening the curve over this period of time if you continue doing what you are doing one would think the flattening would continue I might think that but no one knows no one knows in terms of people who may have died at home and not been diagnosed.

I think it's a very real possibility. We are looking at other counting models, but I don't know. I have no idea. The question is whether people died at home. You don't have those numbers because they would basically only come from your funeral home. We're looking at other models because right now most of the data we have comes from hospitals and major institutions, nursing homes, so there could be a bias, certainly. the guys have been doing in hospitalizations if there have been so many deaths in the home that have been so many in the home - Jessie Ware could, yes, they have been fine, people have said that there may be people who have died in the home that don't Se has told, that is a possibility, right, that would never affect the hospitalization rate because the hospitalization rate is the number of people who enter the hospital, that is different from the number of people who died.

We are dealing with this disease at home. and maybe they had symptoms that would have been treatable or would have made them go to the hospital, so you know, it's confusing because if people are in hospitals, but if someone is at home because they can't go to the hospital, well, you're out of You, if someone who ever went to the hospital and just stayed home and died at home, it would never show up in the hospitalization rate, it would show up in the number of deaths, that might be Jesse's point there. There could be a delay in the number of deaths because we have not fully aggregated all the data from all the different possible sources.

I don't know how it will be statistically significant, but it's possible that tonight, I'm sure there is a governor. emergency room doctor in New York City who says he has seen a very high percentage of patients, maybe 70% died, who were put on ventilators. He thinks the focus is completelymistaken. We need to rethink the protocol, that these patients might not need the ventilators that they might need. oxygen instead, so I guess I can't comment on exactly what they are saying, but the fact is that when someone shows up in the emergency room, there are several things that will happen, one is that oxygen is an initial therapy that someone needs .

But the fact is that if someone's respiratory condition worsens, he will need respiratory assistance. The real question may be whether there are other interventions that can be done. We are looking at what other possible therapies would exist and could be administered. before and that's all experimental, so the problem with ventilators in general is that if someone is on a ventilator and the government has talked about this before about how long people stay on the ventilator, the longer they stay on the ventilator, will end up causing potential damage. to the lungs is a pressure that is pushed into the lungs and if you constantly put pressure on those little air sacs in the lungs, you can damage them and the high levels of oxygen also damage your lungs, but the fact is what is called the vicious cycle.

In many ways that's where you need the fan, but if you're on it for too long it can cause absolved damage, that's what you try to get them out of as quickly as possible. Sorry, I cannot comment on your case. but obviously because I don't know the information, but when someone comes, the first thing to do is give them oxygen through a mask and if someone gets worse, you end up intubating them. What happens with these patients is that they receive. It gets worse relatively quickly and so there are a lot of interventions that have to happen relatively quickly as well, yeah, obviously I'm not a doctor, but look, nobody wants to put people on the ventilator.

I have discerned this a lot and I think you are right. The percentage of people who go on the ventilator and never take it off is incredibly high. I've even heard it's closer to 80%. I don't think the fan is doing that. I think that's why they are hooked up to the ventilator. using the ventilator is basically a last resort so when they put you on the ventilator it's because everything else has failed and that's why the mortality rate is so high with the ventilator and that's what we're seeing here, that the mortality rate is increasing because it's people who have been on a ventilator for 7 days, 10 days, 15 days and they are dying, so when we had that big increase in hospitalizations about ten days ago, two weeks ago, that big increase in hospitalizations, what we're seeing is the people who went to the hospital that day ten days ago 12 days ago who didn't get better who was put on a ventilator are now dying and that's what's driving this number of deaths and look at that number which even makes it more depressing and distressing that the number of deaths will probably be as high or close to this high or even higher over the next few days because it is the coefficient of the high hospitalization rate from two or so ago, when you wake up tomorrow morning the news could be just as bleak and that's why I'll end where I started you know mixed emotions we're flattening the curve thank God thank God thank God thank God and thank you to a lot of good people who have been working very hard that it's a moment in time don't settle it's what we're doing what's working keep doing it that's the good news and that good news has a big warning we're still in the middle of this don't get complacent start acting differently you'll see that that number changes in 27 minutes that's the good news the bad news is that we have had a record number of deaths I mean, I went through 911 I thought that in my life I would never have to see something like that again nothing so bad nothing so tragic I remember the number of funerals after 9/11 I remember the pain after 9/11 that this should literally eclipse that in terms of death toll in this state it's almost unimaginable to me so how do you square those two things?

We are making progress, we lost more. people than ever before in a single day, okay, I'm going to work, thanks guys, we're not.