New York state’s economy will be reopened on a regional basis, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo told a news conference in Buffalo this morning.
He said that Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who attended the session with Cuomo at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, has been put in charge of the Western New York region public health and reopening strategy.
Former Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy will serve as a volunteer to coordinate public health and the reopening strategy for the Finger Lakes region. Cuomo did not mention any appointments relating to the rest of the state, although he did say that the other regions would be Central New York, the Southern Tier, North Country, the Mohawk Valley, the Capital District, the Mid-Hudson Region, Long Island and New York City.
Yesterday, Cuomo announced that Westchester County Executive George Latimer would be serving with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the county executives of Nassau and Suffolk on a team to help plan the reopening of the greater New York City area including Westchester and Long Island.
“There is no new committee here; there’s no new process. Look at the hospitalization rate. Look at the infection rate and tell me where you are. Are you on the ascent, plateau, descent?” Cuomo asked. He noted that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has clear guidelines for reopening including steady declines in the number of new cases.
“Look at the CDC guidelines; talk to the local officials. The ‘when’ is data driven,” Cuomo said. “How do we phase it? What businesses are first? Do we do it by percentages? Let’s talk about all of that. It’s the when and the how, data driven on the ‘when.’ Not political pressure on the ‘when,’ where people are yelling at me (and) I want to open because I don’t want to take the political heat. You don’t want to take the political heat you shouldn’t be in the political kitchen.”
Cuomo said that the latest statistics still support the belief that the state has passed the outbreak’s apex. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 stood at 16,076 as of yesterday with new admissions yesterday down to 1,308 compared with 1,560 on Sunday and 2,327 a week earlier.
There were 481 deaths yesterday, with 29 in nursing homes and 452 in hospitals. According to statistics from the Department of Health this morning, there have been 14,828 total deaths in New York state from COVID-19 with 904 fatalities in Westchester. There were 321 Rockland residents who succumbed to the virus, 38 Putnam residents, and 183 residents of Orange County. In Dutchess, there were 53 deaths.
Westchester had 24,656 COVID-19 cases identified, while there were 9,568 in Rockland. Putnam had 605 cases, Orange County had 6,561 and Dutchess had 2,331 cases of the disease.
Cuomo was asked about his scheduled 3 p.m. meeting with President Trump today at the White House. He said that it would be centered on testing, with him pressing Trump to have the federal government use its powers and international contacts to open up supply lines to end shortages of testing supplies.
Cuomo admitted that there still are delays being encountered by people using the state’s unemployment application website and telephone system and that he understands the frustration of people who have been unable to either make initial contact with the Department of Labor or complete the application process.
He said they should take comfort in knowing that retroactive payments are being issued and no one who qualifies for unemployment insurance will lose funds because of delays or problems with the system.
