Gov. Andrew Cuomo New York COVID-19 Briefing April 7

Andrew Cuomo: (07:35)
(silence). Good morning. Everyone I think knows who’s here. To my far right, Dr. Malatras, Dr. Zucker. I’m technically a doctor also, but not really. Melissa DeRosa is Secretary to the Governor. Governor Robert Mujica, Director of the Budget.

Let’s talk about today’s numbers and where we are today. Total number of newly hospitalized is up from yesterday, but when you look at the three day averaging of these numbers, the three day average is down, which is good news. This is the three day hospitalization rate. We tend not to look at any one day. Day to day, it’s up somewhat, but if you look at the three day average, it’s moving down, which is good news. We talk about the apex and is the apex a plateau, and right now we’re projecting that we are reaching a plateau in the total number of hospitalizations and you can see the growth and you see it starting to flatten. Again this is a projection. It still depends on what we do and what we do will affect those numbers. This is not an act of God that we’re looking at. It’s an act of what society actually does.

Change in daily ICU admissions is way down and that’s good news. The daily intubations number is down and that’s good news. The discharge rate is right about where it was. The bad news is 5,489 New Yorkers have lost their lives to this virus. That is up from 4,758. That is the largest single day increase. And we talk about numbers, but that’s 731 people who we lost. Behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father, is a sister, is a brother. So a lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers and they’re in our thoughts and prayers. Many people across this country.

Why the discrepancy or the discordancy? Number of deaths up, number of hospitalization dropping. The number of deaths, number of losses, is a lagging indicator to the number of hospitalizations. Right? What happens is a person goes into the hospital, if they’re treated, most of them are then released, they’re discharged. Some stay, some get put on a ventilator. The longer you are on a ventilator, the less likely that you will ever come off that ventilator. And that’s why you’re seeing the number of deaths increase, because these are people who came in at the peak. They were not successfully treated. They’re on a ventilator. The longer you’re on a ventilator, the less likely you come off the ventilator.

New York is still the most heavily impacted state in the nation. New Jersey, which is on the curve a little bit behind New York is suffering. And again, our thoughts and prayers are with them. I spoke to Governor Murphy of New Jersey today and we talked through the situation and working on joint strategies, but our heart goes out to all of our neighbors in New Jersey, Michigan, California, Louisiana. In terms of how we’re operating, how we’re managing the situation. As we know, the hospital system basically is a three legged stool. It relies on number of beds, number of staff, and the equipment. Number of beds. We have…

…the equipment, number of beds. We have started with a system of about 53,000 beds statewide, we’re up to about 90,000 available beds, so we have more than enough beds available. Staff has been a problem.

Healthcare staff is getting sick, they’re overworked, they’re stress, they’re under great emotional stress. Think about these healthcare workers, you’re working in a hospital, in an emergency room that’s overwhelmed. You’re worried about your own health, you then go home, you’re worried about bringing a virus home, if you’re infected. At home is under stress, as every home is under stress.

About 7,000 new staff have been hired from the pool that we have identified. These are retired healthcare workers who came forward, these are people from across the country who came forward. State has a pool of potential employees. The hospitals hire from that pool and they’ve hired about 7,000 to date.

Equipment, that’s the protective equipment. Ventilators where we are stretching and moving but every hospital has what they need to date. And then, we balance the patient load among all hospitals so no hospital, single hospital or system gets overburdened. And, that’s a daily adjustment which takes a tremendous cooperation among all of the healthcare institutions. I thank them very much for what they’re doing.

And then, we have the overload relief, which is the Javits Center, 2,500 beds and the U.S. Navy ship Comfort. The U.S. Navy ship Comfort had 1,000 bed capacity, it was originally for non COVID patients. What wound up happening was, we don’t really have non COVID patients. Closed down society, there’s fewer traffic accidents, crime is down, so the original plan, which was the Comfort would take non COVID cases from the hospitals, didn’t really work because the hospitals didn’t have non COVID cases.

I called the President yesterday morning, asked him to speak to the Department of Defense, to see if they would change it to COVID. President to his credit, moved expeditiously, called me back yesterday afternoon, said they would make the Comfort non COVID. When they make that transition, the capacity of the ship comes down from 1,000 to 500 beds because COVID patients require greater treatment area, more space and therefore the capacity of the ship came down from 1,000 to 500. It’s still a tremendous benefit.

So between Javits and the Comfort, that’s 3,000 beds which is a welcome overload relief to the hospital system, which is already extraordinarily stressed. But, I spoke to general Shaughnessy today, who we spoke through the Comfort and Javits. The Department of Defense has been fantastic and the number of military personnel they have sent up here and how quickly they’ve sent up here. And, this is a tough assignment, to run facilities this large and to come up to speed and to be handling this many COVID patients in a new startup emergency facility. This is a really difficult undertaking and they have been fantastic and I want to thank them all. And I want to thank the President for moving as quickly as he did. We’re working on a tri-state cooperative. As I mentioned, I spoke to Governor Murphy from New Jersey. I spoke to Governor Ned Lamont from the state of Connecticut. We coordinated the shutting down, if you will, when we did schools, businesses, et cetera, because this really operates as a tri-state area. A lot of people who live in New Jersey work in New York or live in New York, work in New Jersey or Connecticut. So we talk about the tri-state area, which is true. And, we try to operate to the best we can as that regional collaboration. And, that has been working well for us on schools, on the economy, on healthcare issues.

We have to start planning restarting life, we’re not there yet. But, this is not a light switch that we can just flick one day and everything goes back to normal. We’re going to have to restart that economy, we’re going to have to restart a lot of systems that we shut down abruptly. And, we need to start to plan for that. And, I spoke to the governors, Governor Murphy and Governor Lamont about coming up with a regional, metropolitan tri-state approach to do just that. How do we… When we get to that point, which we’re not at, but how do we restart our economy and get everything up and running as quickly as possible.

My personal opinion is going to come down to, how good we are with testing. You’re not going to end the infection and end the virus before you start restarting life. I don’t think you have that luxury. How do you start the economy back up? How do you start getting back to work as quickly as possible? It’s going to come down to testing. You’re going to have to know who had the virus, who resolved the virus, who never had it and that’s going to be testing. And, that is an entirely new field that we’re just developing now. Right?

New York state developed, Department of Health developed an antibody testing regimen that Department of Health has approved for use in New York state. That has to be brought to scale and the Department of Health is going to be working with the FDA to do just that. This tests the blood to determine whether or not you have the antibodies, which means you had the virus and resolved the virus. That’s why you would have the antibodies for the virus. That would mean that you’re no longer contagious and you can’t catch the virus because you have the antibodies in your system, which means you can get to work and go back to school, you can do whatever you want. But, you have to have that testing and you have to have that testing on a scale, right? You have 19 million people in the state of New York. Just think of how many people you would need to be able to test and test quickly. So the antibody testing is part of that.

Also, rapid testing to determine whether or not you have the virus, now exists. They have “15 minute tests” that are commercially available. But again, they have to be brought to scale. No private company has the capacity to bring those to scale. So I was speaking with Governor Murphy and Governor Lamont, we are interested in working with private companies that can actually bring this testing capacity to scale and to scale quickly. Because again, if you have the antibody testing, that’s part, if you can then test if a person is positive for the virus and you can do it that day and you can get those results in 15 minutes, that’s also another way to get back to life and do it quickly.

So we’re very interested in that in New York, so is New Jersey, so it was Connecticut. There are private companies that have these tests. Again, it’s all up to scale. We’re starting them in the state of New York but we only have about a 50,000 person testing capacity, which is nice. But, it’s not of a scale that’s actually going to make a large difference. So private companies that are interested in getting into this space and coming up the scale quickly, we are interested in those companies and we’re interested in investing in those companies. And, they should contact us at Empire State Development Corporation.

Also, restarting life, the state budget, not just this state but every state budget, has been decimated by the situation. You shut down the economy, people aren’t working, they’re not paying income taxes, businesses aren’t operating, so our budget just collapsed, right? Our revenues just collapsed. You want to restart the economy, you have to help restart the local governments and that’s going to be a federal act.

I don’t have the capacities, a governor, no governor does, to generate revenue in a positive way from an economy that’s not operating. That is going to be a federal stimulus bill, there’s no other way to do this. And, that has to be a stimulus bill that actually understands you have state and local governments that have to be brought up to speed and functioning, if you want to facilitate this restarting of the economy.

The federal government passed some legislation. As I’ve said at the time, it was woefully inadequate from New York’s point of view. We then have had some time to actually study the legislation and it actually gets worse when you read it and it’s not even what was represented to us initially. So I’m sending our congressional delegation a letter today saying, the past legislation did good for the nation. I have no doubt. Gave aid to a lot of people and places that needed it. But, it was not fair to New York and that has to be remedied in any legislation that goes forward.

The last point, I know it’s been a frustrating 37 days, but it’s only been 37 days on the other hand. I know it feels like a lifetime. It’s been so disruptive, so abrupt, so frightening, so disorienting but it’s only been 37 days. Right? Everything in context and everything in perspective. I know it’s tough to get up every day and this is like Groundhog Day, living through this bizarre reality that we’re in. It’s even more difficult, I think, with the weather changing and you feel the seasons changing and it’s getting nicer and you start to open a new book of possibilities.

And, now the weather’s getting nice and I should be getting outdoors and I should be doing this and I should be doing this. I get it but it’s only been 37 days. And, I started by saying those numbers of cases, that’s not arbitrary. What we do affects the number of cases, our behavior affects the number of cases. We’re generating the cases, they’re not the descending on us from Heaven, right? It’s our behavior. So it’s been 37 days.

… it’s our behavior, so it’s been 37 days. The 1918 pandemic that we talk about peaked in New York for six months, it came through in three waves and it peaked for six months. 30,000 people died in New York during that pandemic. Why? They didn’t react the way we did. They didn’t know as much as we know today. They didn’t have the same drug therapies. But we are changing the curve in that virus growth, you see that plateauing. That’s because of what we are doing. If we don’t do what we are doing, that is a much different curve and that’s what happened in the past. Social distancing is working. “Well, you shut down all the businesses.” I know. “Well, you shut down all the schools.” I know, but it is working. That’s why you see those numbers coming down. If we were doing the same rate of interaction, those numbers would still be going up. To the extent we see a flattening or a possible plateau, that’s because of what we are doing and we have to keep doing it. I know it’s hard, but we have to keep doing it. To the extent it takes an effort, remember at this time it is about we and it is not about me. I know what I would like to be doing. It’s motorcycle weather for me. It’s time to get out on the water. It’s time to go hiking in the Adirondacks. I get it. It’s not about me. It’s not about me. What I do will affect other people. It will affect my family. It will affect other people. It will affect people in those emergency rooms who are killing themselves every day to keep other people safe. I get infected, I will affect them.

We all talk about society and community and interconnection and interrelation and family and life is bigger than us. Now is the time to live that, right? Now is the time to live that. When you feel that need, “I have to do this,” it’s not about me. It’s about we and what’s good for all of us. My health is in your hands and your health is in my hands and the health of those healthcare workers and those first responders and all those people who have to show up to work every day to keep society functioning, we are responsible to them also. To the extent it’s hard, I get it, but maybe if we think about it through a different lens, a broader lens, it’ll be a little easier.

Let’s not get complacent. We have to stay disciplined. We have to stay smart. We have to stay safe, and we do that by staying at home. We will get through this together. Questions?

Speaker 4: (27:28)
[inaudible 00:27:28] said yesterday that the Comfort is meant to treat trauma patients and that they could isolate COVID patients in a small number. I know you said that they are going to be treating a smaller number of patients, but will the ship be able to care for even that number of COVID patients safely?

I spoke to General Shaughnessy, I spoke to the president, I spoke to the vice president and I spoke to Northwell, who’s helping manage the comfort. When you transition from non-COVID patients to COVID, the capacity of the ship goes from 1,000 beds down to 500 beds, but it can treat 500 COVID patients adequately and safely and that’s what we’re transitioning into operation now.

Speaker 5: (28:13)
[inaudible 00:28:13] bit about the antibody test.

Dr. [crosstalk 00:28:17] antibody test.

Speaker 5: (28:16)
If the FDA approved it tomorrow, how long is it going to take to get any [inaudible 00:28:21]?

Speaker 6: (28:21)
We have a test at our Wadsworth lab that we have developed. We’re working to scale that up now. Over the course of the next week we’ll be able to figure out how many we could run. We’re expecting to be able to scale that up, not just here in the lab, in our lab, but to get other labs do as well. That’s where we’ll have to work with the FDA to get that approved.

Speaker 7: (28:40)
[crosstalk 00:28:40] The FDA has already approved some private antibody tests, is there a way that the state can work with them or …

Speaker 6: (28:47)
I think the antibody tests, you have to look at them. Some antibody tests measure the immunoglobulin G and others mentioned immunoglobin M and G. The difference is that some suggest that there’s a new infection occurring, that’s the IgM, and others show that the infection has been around for a while. It’s important to make sure that the test that we are measuring show that individuals had the infection, they have the infection and still have the infection. It’s important to make sure it’s the correct test. Our test measures the immunoglobulin G, saying that they had the infection and it’s resolved.

Did you get that?

Yeah, neither did I.

Speaker 6: (29:26)
Sorry.

Need that one more time.

Speaker 6: (29:28)
I got one more time for this. Thank you.

Speaker 6: (29:31)
There’s many tests that are out there that companies are making. There’s two types of immunoglobulins. There’s one that says the infection just is still there and you’re starting to mount a response, which happens with any virus. Your body also makes an immunoglobulin after your infection is resolved or it’s developed, it’s resolved. That’s the one you want to measure. Otherwise, you may be measuring something, which actually says you still have the infection in your body. You want to measure the one that says it’s resolved, and that’s the one that we’ve developed the test for.

Speaker 6: (30:03)
Is that better.

Yes, that was good.

Speaker 6: (30:05)
Thank you.

I almost understood that one. Mark?

Mark: (30:08)
Earlier today, this is very provincial, I know you’re [crosstalk 00:30:12].

I’m very provincial. That’s okay.

Mark: (30:14)
But I know that you’re very close to the Jewish community.

Yes.

Mark: (30:17)
Earlier today, [inaudible 00:30:20] passed away from coronavirus in Boro Park and he’s going to be buried later today. [inaudible 00:30:29] Israel says, stay away, should be small, but you know how people listen. I mean this seems rife for a mass gathering. Is there anything that the state police or state government can do to make sure that people are held at bay?

This is Boro Park, Brooklyn, right?

I’m sure the NYPD will be doing what they need to do. I made it clear yesterday that these social distancing regulations are not just ” please,” they’re regulations. You can be fined for it. We increased the fine to make the point that we’re serious. I’m sure the NYPD will be enforcing it.

But also people have to understand, I understand religious gatherings. I understand the Orthodox community, Jewish Orthodox community. I’m very close to them and I have been for many, many years. My family is very close to them. But now is not the time for large religious gatherings. I mean we’ve paid this price already. We’ve learned this lesson that was New Rochelle and Westchester. Please, now is not the time. You do no one a service by making this worse and infecting more people.

Joseph?

Joseph: (31:50)
There’s been a lot of reports that communities of color have been particularly hit hard by the virus. Do you have a sense yet if that’s been the case in New York? You’ve been putting out a lot of data, gender, age, updating it daily, has it been difficult to get those racial breakdowns? What are you doing to get those?

[inaudible 00:32:12] this?

Speaker 8: (32:14)
The hospitals actually don’t report the race information directly to the state, so what we ended up doing on the backend is calling the coroner’s offices around the state after the death has been reported. There has been a lag. We understand people want that information. We want that information too. We’ll have it this week.

Joseph: (32:29)
Is there any sense though, Doctor, that there has been that trend? Where it has affected communities of color?

Speaker 6: (32:37)
One of the challenges is that some of the communities are have challenges with their health in general. They’re more apt to have some of the challenges with asthma and diabetes and so anytime anyone who has underlying medical conditions ends up with this virus or any other virus it puts them more at risk.

Speaker 9: (32:56)
Do you have any update on the unemployment website? [inaudible 00:33:00] talked about working with Google, is there any progress there?

Speaker 8: (33:03)
There is progress there and we’ll have that new interface up and running by Thursday. We’ve actually worked with Verizon. A lot of the problem was the lines were crashing because the volume was so extreme. We’ve now moved 80% of the incoming calls off of the Verizon system and into call centers, and so you should start to see some easing up on that today. Again, we just ask people to remain patient as we get this resolved.

Speaker 10: (33:24)
Governor, you promised an executive order on Friday regarding ventilator redistribution. I believe that that executive order was also going to cover other things, that still hasn’t appeared. Is there a reason for the delay?

No. I’m going to issue an executive order today on everything that I’ve mentioned, the fines, et cetera, today.

Speaker 10: (33:39)
What else will that cover? That will cover ….

Everything we’ve discussed to date.

Speaker 11: (33:44)
[crosstalk 00:33:44] that that’s going to be voluntary now. The quote unquote “taking” the ventilators that the health association put out something saying it’s going to be a voluntary taking of those. Is that-

Yeah, it was. It was always. The hospitals tell us what they have, quote unquote “available.” Meaning unused and they’re not going to use it in the foreseeable future. It was always all of the equipment that you believe, you, hospital, believe is available. If the state lent 20% of the available units, as you define available, that would be 500. 500 ventilators was a big deal, especially two weeks ago.

Frankly, since then, other things have happened. We have a thousand ventilators from China, California freed up 500 ventilators, Oregon sent 140 ventilators, state of Washington freed up, I think, 400 ventilators or something like that. We’ve also acquired an additional 500 ventilators, so we’re not in the position that we were in. But that’s what it always was. A hospital says we have available, by their own definition, unused inventory we’re not using for the foreseeable future. 20% of that number, leaving them with 80% of the unused, was 500 ventilators.

Speaker 4: (35:21)
That sounds like a big change from what you were saying on Friday, though.

No. That’s what I was saying.

Speaker 12: (35:27)
Governor, what are your thoughts on getting a presumptive line-of-duty death benefit. Similar to that that was passed after 9/ 11 for state and city workers who died of COVID?

It’s something that I think is going to come up and I think it’s an important thing to look at. I’d also like to find a way to say thank you to these healthcare workers who are out there every day. We talked to them on the telephone, but, gee, what they have done is just incredible. Just incredible. Not just the healthcare workers. I mean the healthcare workers, just think of the mindset-

I mean the healthcare workers, just think of the mindset to walk into that ER every morning, putting on these gowns, putting on all this protective clothing, having to change the protective clothing several times a day, seeing people pass away, and then go home and deal with the stress at home. But also the first responders, the transit workers, you look at the rates of sickness. I mean they know what they’re exposing themselves to, and they still do it. I mean, just God bless them.

Speaker 13: (36:34)
Governor, do you have plans to [inaudible 00:36:37] to [inaudible 00:36:39] or just any inmates in the state prison system to curve this corona outbreak?

We’re looking at that any way we can, we are. And we’re looking at that continually. I don’t think there’s anything new on that right now, but it’s something we’re exploring all the time.

Speaker 13: (36:57)
[crosstalk 00:36:57] any specific plans that you’re considering or any specific model?

We’ve done a number, but nothing right now. Are there any new?

Speaker 14: (37:03)
We’ve done about 700 parole violators statewide. Those are people who were deemed to be low risk to public safety and also high-risk to COVID. And so we have done that so far and we’re continuing to evaluate it on an ongoing basis.

Jesse: (37:17)
So following that, I think that the promise was about 400 people to come out of Rikers, so far that’s been about 130 people have been released. Is there reasonable-

Speaker 14: (37:24)
I think we’ve done our 240 out of Rikers so far of the 700 stay by, but we can get you the exact number of-

Jesse: (37:30)
And governor, on a more kind of psychological, philosophical issue, 730 people died, these numbers keep rolling out, but it’s easy it would seem to get numb to these sorts of stats. How do you counter that? How do you impress on people that these are human lives, that this is an enormous human catastrophe?

You know Jesse, I hear the point. I guess one could get numb to the numbers, that’s why I said remember every number is a human being behind that and a family. For myself, I can tell you, the last thing I do is get numb. I can tell you for the hospital staff that goes through this, they’re not getting numb. For the families who are suffering, they’re not getting numb. The pain is increasing. The grief is increasing. I mean, you see those pictures on TV of getting through a situation where you have to put bodies in trucks, in parking lots. I mean, how you could get numb to any of this, I can’t imagine, especially New Yorkers, that we lose the humanity of this. It’s something I struggle with every day. I try to think of the opposite that we are doing good because you can’t stop. You can’t stop, you can’t save everyone. This virus is very good at what it does, and it kills vulnerable people, that’s what it does and it does that very well, and we can’t stop that.

The question is, “Are you saving everyone you can save?” And there the answer is, “Yes,” and I take some solace in that fact. Our healthcare system is operating, I don’t believe we lost a single person because we couldn’t provide care. People we lost, we couldn’t save despite our best efforts. But no, I don’t see the numbness and I don’t believe New Yorkers see the numbness. I think the frustration of an individual situation can cause you to do irresponsible things, to go out more than you should, to disregard social distancing, I think that’s an issue and that’s what I’ve been trying to address.

Speaker 15: (40:24)
Governor [crosstalk 00:40:24] yet but when people do eventually start getting back to work, will it be the reverse of the reduction? Meaning they’ll go back and start to, 25% of the time or 12% or something like that?

Yeah, I don’t know. It’s a good question. I think they go back, it’s my opinion, it’s not a fact, I think, and we’re working on a plan with Connecticut and New Jersey, because when we go back, we go back together. I think we go back with people who have tested that they are negative or people who have tested that they have the antibodies, which means they had the virus and they’re immune from the virus, or we go back with younger people going first, still protecting, isolating the vulnerable. But if it’s waves, I think those are the waves.

Speaker 16: (41:16)
[crosstalk 00:41:16] Is there any proof you can’t get reinfected?

Say it again.

Speaker 16: (41:22)
Is there any proof you can’t get reinfected if you have the antibodies, is there-?

Let’s ask Dr. Zuker, your friend.

Dr. Zuker: (41:27)
So, usually when you have a virus, you develop antibodies, you don’t get it again. There was one report out of China where they suggested that maybe there were some cases, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Speaker 17: (41:41)
[crosstalk 00:41:41] Are you concerned about that the temporary hospitals won’t be accepting significant numbers of patients until after the peak is past?

A larger number of what? I’m sorry.

Speaker 17: (41:55)
Are you concerned that the temporary hospitals won’t be accepting significant numbers of patients until after the peak has past?

A significant number of patients?

Speaker 17: (41:59)
Patients, mm-hmm (affirmative).

No, they’re ramping up now. The Javits Center and the Comfort, you’re talking about?

Speaker 17: (42:06)
Yes, and the other-

Javits and Comfort, well, there’s two separate situations. When I say we have about 90,000 bed capacity, we brought online additional beds, right? Two ways, number one, every hospital had to increase capacity by 50% with a goal of 100%, every hospital is increased capacity 50%, that’s why you see hospital beds in conference rooms and lobbies, et cetera. Second, we built temporary emergency facilities, primarily around downstate New York. They may or may not be used depending on whether or not we need the beds. The Javits and the Comfort, we are using and they’re ramping up now. [crosstalk 00:42:58] I’m going to go speak to the hospitals, thank you.

Speaker 18: (43:00)
Governor, [crosstalk 00:43:00] Are you concerned that [inaudible 00:43:09] workers [inaudible 00:43:11] is there any plans on how to address grocery workers and their safety?

Grocery store workers, transit workers, first responders, police officers, these are all, in my opinion, heroes of today, because they get up every morning, they go to work so society stays safe and functioning. And we’re doing everything we can to protect them, but we owe them a big thank you. [crosstalk 00:43:37] Thank you guys. Thank you.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo New York COVID-19 Briefing April 7

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