NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo: We're moving onto reopening phase on coronavirus outbreak

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on loosening restrictions and reopening businesses that were shuttered to help curb the coronavirus outbreak.

New York is still struggling to contain the coronavirus outbreak across the state with 2,000 new hospitalizations a day, even as public officials make plans to gradually reopen parts of the economy for business, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.

Cuomo and other governors across the nation are desperate to loosen restrictions and reopen businesses that were shuttered to help curb the outbreak that’s already killed more than 33,300 people in the U.S. since emerging from Wuhan, China less than four months ago.

“The situation we have now is unsustainable. People can’t stay in their homes for this length of time, they can’t stay out of work. You can’t keep the economy closed forever. You just can’t,” Cuomo said. “Society can’t handle it personally or economically. So now we’re moving into another phase, which is this reopening phase.”

On Thursday, Cuomo announced that he was extending the state’s shutdown of nonessential businesses to May 15 as officials try to strike a delicate balance of getting people back to work without causing cases to spike again.

Cuomo said people have had a “nice break” but they are anxious to get out of the house and get back to work without getting sick and dying. “Death is bad and even though staying at the home and not getting a paycheck is bad, it’s not as bad as death. That’s the yin and the yang here.”

While the hospitals in New York aren’t as overwhelmed with coronavirus cases as originally predicted, Cuomo said the state is far from claiming victory.

The number of new Covid-19 cases admitted to the hospital “is still about 2,000 per day and that is still very high,” he said. “And if you notice it’s hovered about the same rate for several weeks. It peaked, but 2,000, that’s a very high number.”

Cuomo added that 630 people died on Thursday from the coronavirus, another daily figure that “refuses to come down dramatically.” The number of deaths have been between 600 to 800 people per day for nearly a week.

Greater testing will be the “next frontier” of the state’s battle against the outbreak, but it doesn’t have a system that can handle the volume required to begin easing restrictions. New York has 301 labs and hospitals that are licensed to performed virology testing, but the challenge will be coordinating each facilities’ efforts to perform testing across the state, he said.

The Democratic governor called on the federal government to help the state obtain the supplies required to conduct greater testing. Cuomo said that even if the state’s labs are able to purchase the coronavirus tests, they’re still struggling to obtain all the chemical reagents necessary to perform them. He said the major supplier of the chemical reagents is China.

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[BigRed]

Remember how slow Cumo was to lockdown his state?

[williamkim]

Exclusionary, income-based discrimination breeds resentment. Some people (like small business owners) could have high annual incomes but low or negative net worth, high student loans and often have no pensions or benefits.

Often times, the income of the owners goes straight into paying down the loans taken out to start the business. Other people (like employees of the government and strong companies) could have high net worth, tax-favorable pensions, benefits and even passive income, but only moderate incomes.  How is it fair to give one group this money and exclude the other people?
Ironically, the COVID crisis was more financially devastating to the former group than to the latter. Universal Basic Income is universally popular because it doesn’t exclude, and it doesn’t divide. It would be great if Congress Representatives Tim Ryan, Ro Khanna and Joseph Kennedy III and their Republican colleagues would team up with Andrew Yang. Unity = Power

Andrew Yang’s plan is far more sophisticated, sustainable and equitable because balance and fairness are achieved not through exclusion, but rather through the “Value Added Tax” (VAT). “Every Google search, every Facebook Ad, every Amazon purchase and every robotruck mile....” Even small businesses would pay significantly as almost every business-to-business and business -to-consumer transaction would be taxed, and those amounts would be substantial

[tashaburton]

its almost the 15th and i just now finely got thu to employment after waiting 7 weeks

[Darklustmoonchild]

I hope Ontario or Quebec doesnt open the borders.

[jenskimble]

Thank you, Governor, for your calm and sensible response.

[Dra]

In a way I'm glad that he overreacted, he reacted according to the numbers that were projected which was a good idea, when we see a drop in the curve all extra equipment that he has could be shared with New Jersey and other places, the hotspots, so he's really riding this horse into the sunset guardedly carefully and appropriately