GOVERNOR CUOMO UPDATES NEW YORKERS ON STATE’S PROGRESS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Positive Testing Rate in All Focus Zone Areas is 5.83 Percent; New York State Positivity Outside All Focus Zone Areas is 3.75 Percent
Statewide Positivity Rate is 4.27 Percent
55 COVID-19 Deaths in New York State Yesterday
Governor Cuomo: “If you look at New York versus the other states, New York is doing very, very well, relative to the other states. Congratulations, New Yorkers. If you look at New York relative only to New York, you see the numbers going up, not as fast as in other states, but the numbers are going up, and it’s nice that we’re doing better in a national context and global context, but it’s irrelevant to one extent, because we have to deal with the issues that we have here in New York relative to New York, right?”
Cuomo: “I expect, as I’ve said before, you’re going to see the rate going up through the holiday season, which ends after the New Year. So, after New Year’s Day, look a week or 10 days afterwards, hopefully the social activity slows at that point and the infection rate starts to level off. And then you get to a vaccine which is the answer ultimately, but the vaccine, then you have to have discussion about how quickly and distribute it and how effectively, and what’s the critical mass point of the vaccine. But that is months away by every professional’s estimate. So that’s what we’re looking at.”
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo updated New Yorkers on the state’s progress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
AUDIO of today’s remarks is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:
Hello guys. Happy Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend. Today is day 274. We did 157,000 tests. The number of tests we’re doing are astronomical. When you test that many, obviously the positivity, the number of positive cases, is going to go up proportionate to the number of tests. It’s the percentage increase that is relevant, you know. So we had 6,723 tests reported positive. The other day it was 8,000. Doesn’t mean we’re down. It means the number of tests were down. So it’s the percentage that matters, right.
Overall, with focus zones included, 4.27, which is up from 3.9. It was the highest since back in May. The state without micro-cluster zones is 3.75. Micro-cluster zones is 5.8. 55 New Yorkers died from COVID yesterday. They’re in our thoughts and prayers. 3,000 New Yorkers were hospitalized, that’s up 85. 667 COVID patients were in ICU, that’s up 13. 326 intubated, that’s down 5. Western New York leads the show, 6.6. Finger Lakes, 5.1, Central New York, 4.6, Mid-Hudson, 4.4, Mohawk Valley, 3.8, Long Island, 3.6, Capital Region, 2.9, New York City, 2.7, North Country, 2.5, Southern Tier, 1.96. Statewide, 3.5.
If you look at New York versus the other states, New York is doing very, very well, relative to the other states. Congratulations, New Yorkers. If you look at New York relative only to New York, you see the numbers going up, not as fast as in other states, but the numbers are going up, and it’s nice that we’re doing better in a national context and global context, but it’s irrelevant to one extent, because we have to deal with the issues that we have here in New York relative to New York, right? And that’s why when you hear that Dr. Fauci say today, we’re for looking at a surge upon surge- it’s interesting how language develops through this COVID situation. We talked about waves at first. We are still in the first wave. People say, “Oh we’re in the second wave,” but we’re not in the second wave. A second wave is a mutated virus as a wave. This is a first wave with additional surge. Dr. Fauci then says today, “surge upon surge,” so the first wave is increasing, and surge upon surge, it’s going to continue to increase. And he talked about through the Holidays and New Years. That’s what we’ve been talking about. We’ve been talking about the 37 days of the holiday season starting at Thanksgiving, and then you got a Black Friday, and now all the songs are Christmas songs and holiday songs, and holiday shopping. And all the TV commercials are holiday shopping, buy this and buy that. So you are in the holiday season and that is increased social activity and that means increased infection rate. That is where we are. And that is what we’re going to see.
I expect, as I’ve said before, you’re going to see the rate going up through the holiday season, which ends after the New Year. So, after New Year’s Day, look a week or 10 days afterwards, hopefully the social activity slows at that point and the infection rate starts to level off. And then you get to a vaccine which is the answer ultimately, but the vaccine, then you have to have discussion about how quickly and distribute it and how effectively, and what’s the critical mass point of the vaccine. But that is months away by every professional’s estimate. So that’s what we’re looking at.
This is a new phase for COVID. You want to call it the winter phase; you want to call it the holiday phase; you want to call it the surge upon surge phase; you want to call it the dramatic increase in COVID rates nationwide phase; you want to call it the international increase in COVID rate phase. Italy is using the army now to enforce close downs. California announced another basic shutdown. That’s where we are.
We are spending this weekend finishing leftover turkey and talking to health officials and local governments about a winter plan, next phase plan. We’ll be speaking to that tomorrow and this week with more details.
New York City announced that they are reopening schools. I think that’s the right direction. The schools, we do have new facts and new information on schools. Just about every professional says the schools, especially K-8, should be kept open whenever it’s possible to keep them open safely. We have done testing in schools and we now know what we’re looking at in schools. The positivity rate is much, much lower. It’s literally safer for a child and the teacher to be in the school than in the community.
Last point, unrelated. East Greenbush, Times Union did a good piece of reporting today on an East Greenbush police officer. You know, we are trying to reestablish the police, community relationship. We have every community in the State, 550 municipalities with a police agency, now going through a reformation plan where they reimagine their police department. There’s a roll for the State in all of this also and people have to know that a police officer who breaks the rules and abuses his or her position is no longer going to be a police officer.
There can’t be these bureaucratic contrivances and loopholes that, “well, he wasn’t fired for cause, he was allowed to resign,” and therefore he can be a police officer somewhere else. If a police officer is not qualified or does not perform to the standards for one police agency, that doesn’t mean you take a person who acted unprofessionally and you let them go work in a different police department. That doesn’t work for the people of the state.
So the State will be making, I will be making proposals. I want the people of this state to know trust is a two-way street and the police should trust the community and the community should trust the police and the conditions exist for both of them to do it and if there is a bad cop that bad cop should no longer be a police officer. A bad cop does a disservice to the 99.9 percent of good cops and we’ll make sure that happens.
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