Gov. Cuomo: N.Y. Has Made Significant Progress Against Coronavirus, Plan Moving Forward Is To 'Supercharge' The Economy
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Citing constantly improving medical data, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says that the state is now ready to "turn the page on COVID-19."
Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange, where the trading floor was opened Tuesday for the first time in two months, the governor started his daily coronavirus media briefing by saying all significant metrics on hospitalizations and deaths related to the pandemic have dropped to the point where the focus going forward will be to "monitor" the reopening and "supercharge" the economy.
There were just 73 deaths on Monday, the governor said, the lowest number since the state started recording that data.
"We went up the mountain very quickly, that spike took us up very quickly, and it took a long time to come down, but we're still coming down," Cuomo said.
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Cuomo reiterated that the Mid-Hudson Region, including Westchester and Rockland counties, reopened businesses on Tuesday and Long Island will follow suit on Wednesday, adding regional control groups will keep tabs on infection rates to make sure any potential new clusters are immediately addressed.
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New York City, which is still a few weeks from entering Phase 1 of reopening, is making progress in its battle against the virus, but Cuomo cautioned a lot more work needs to be done. He said the infection rate among the general population in the city is 19%, but pointed out that in some communities it's closer to an alarming 40%.
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That's why the state plans to "attack the virus at the source" by monitoring the data in each zip code. Cuomo said the plan is to get the number of contact tracers up and trained as soon as possible to aid in that endeavor.
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"We do so much testing that we can actually identify zip codes that are generating the new cases. If you have that kind of intelligence, that kind of data, then you can target your resources right to those areas," Cuomo said.
CORONAVIRUS: NY Health Dept. | NY Call 1-(888)-364-3065 | NYC Health Dept. | NYC Call 311, Text COVID to 692692 | NJ Health Dept. | NJ Call 1-(800)-222-1222 or 211, Text NJCOVID to 898211 | CT Health Dept. | CT Call 211
Cuomo added all the directives offered by the state on personal hygiene, wearing masks, and following social distancing only matter if the people do their part.
"It's about citizens, and it's about what people do. That's been the great riddle. In this whole thing," Cuomo said. "We don't understand it. It's about government, 'government this, government that.' Forget government. This whole trajectory in this is decided by people. It's personal behavior. That's all it is. You tell me what people do today, I'll tell you what the infection rate is tomorrow."