GOVERNOR Andrew Cuomo said New York is “past the high point” of the coronavirus – but he warned it is “only halftime in war against coronavirus.”
At his daily press briefing, Cuomo said hospitalization and intubation rates were flattening but it wasn’t the time to get complacent as President Trump pushed to reopen the country.
“We gave to stay smart now is not the time to get arrogant,” the governor told reporters as he revealed that 1,300 people tested positive for COVID-19 Saturday and were hospitalized.
“Blame me!” he said of the state’s shutdown rules while Americans in other states rallied against their governors’ emergency powers.
Cuomo issued the appeal after another 507 patients died overnight after losing their coronavirus battle.
He also had a message for officials warning them not to send the nation conflicting messages of “chaos, confusion or politics” as the infection continues to spread and states like Massachusetts gear up for an onslaught.
Cuomo said New York state would also be ramping up and rolling out antibody testing in order to reopen safely after Vice President Mike Pence said every state had enough tests to reopen.
But Cuomo said “everyone” – including the Feds – had to do their part to achieve this widespread testing.
He pushed back against conspiracy theories as protestors railed against the emergency stay-home measures in states like Michigan, Texas, and Kentucky this week.
“Anyone can say anything,” Cuomo said. “People say coronavirus is a hoax? … 600 people died the other day. Those are real deaths, that’s a fact.
“I don’t care what you think or what your opinion is, that is a fact. You can’t say it’s a hoax.”
He said although “people are anxious they see the numbers coming down,” vigilance was still vital even though the state had “controlled the beast.”
“The beast can rise up again, we know that,” He said. “This is a temporary reduction in the virus rate… it is wholly dependent on what you do today.
During Cuomo’s briefing, Trump tweeted that he was “right on testing” all along, saying “Governors must be able to step up and get the job done.”
“The president is right,” Cuomo said, in response. “States have to step up on testing and the federal government have to step up on testing.
“‘We will be with you all the way?’ Great. Perfect – that’s what’s called partnership.”
He said the antibody testing they were doing in New York this week would be a random sample conducted throughout the state.
This is so officials know what percentage of the population has the coronavirus antibodies.
“We have tested more than any country has tested [in New York] on a per capita basis,” Cuomo said of the 500,000 COVID tests that have been done so far.
But he questioned how states were going to ramp this up when the Feds were giving the states “zero, zilch, nada” in subsequent legislation.
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