To the governor 20102011 and was the top assistant in the Attorney Generals Office when i worked there. Former federal prosecutor and he mcandrews and forbes. Robert mahica, the budget director. It gives me great joy that she will be helping us out. When i was her age, i came and worked with my father in this room as special assistant to the governor. For one dollar a year. My father never gave me the dollar per year. I will give you the dollar a year. She is not working for obvious reasons and she is here to help and that is a joy to me. Melissa derosa, who everybody knows, worked for president obama. Shes been working with me for seven years. She is the current secretary to the governor Larry Schwartz, former deputy county executive of suffolk and former county executive of westchester, former secretary to the governor patterson and former secretary to the governor under Governor Cuomo, 20112015. And bill mullrow, special assistant to the governor. The reason i wanted you to meet these people, its like putting the band back together, but its also the most Competent Group of government professionals you could put together to address this difficult time. I have worked with these people for 30 years. We have gone through all sorts of different situations together like superstorm sandy, the ebola virus, we have had problems with we built airports, roads, bridges. So they are just the best team you could have working on behalf of the state of new york. I think them all very much for their help and their assistance and their volunteerism. Most of them are not getting paid. Youre getting one dollar. The increase in the number of cases continues. That is what we are watching every day. They see it as an upward trajectory. I see it as a wave that will break at one point in the question is what is the point of the break and when the wave breaks, does it crash over the Healthcare System . Thats what we have been talking about. Two tracks simultaneously, reduce the spread of the rate of the virus, the rate of the spread of the virus. You will not really control the spread but you can reduce the rate of the spread so you can handle it in your hospital system. Thats what every state is doing and thats what this is all about. How do you reduce the rate of spread . Reduce the density, do more testing, isolate the people who test positive. The second track is increase Hospital Capacity as quickly as you can so that, at the apex of the wave, you have the Hospital Capacity for the people who will need the Hospital Capacity which are the Vulnerable People that we have been talking about. Reducing the spread, density control we have taken every action that government can take, close gyms, theaters and other high density businesses and nonessential employees, social distancing, matildas law. This is about protecting Vulnerable People, older people, senior citizens, compromised immune and underlying illnesses. Those are the people who are vulnerable here. Thats the focus of all of this. The greatest density control issue now is in new york city. I saw the issue myself. I told new york city that i want to plan and yesterday i said i want to plan on how they will control and reduce the density i want the state to be able to approve the plan. It has the focus on young people and the gathering of young people. I have said it before you can get it and the numbers show you can do it if you are young and you can transmit it. It is reckless and its violative of your civic duty as a citizen as far as im concerned. If new york city needs legislation to enact their plan once we prove it, i would ask new york city to pass that legislation quickly. If they have a problem passing legislation, they should let me know. In reducing the spread, increase the testing capacitywhen you identify someone positive, isolate that person. What we have done on testing is important. March 13 is when the state got the authority to start testing. Until then, the federal government controlled all the testing and it was going through that bottleneck of the federal government. It had to go through the fda and the cdc. I said decentralize that task and let the states do it. March 13, the fda allowed the state to start testing. In 10 days, we have gone from testing 1000 People Per Day to 16,000 People Per Day. How much is that . That is more than any other state in the United States is testing. Thats more per capita than south korea which was the Gold Standard of testing. They were doing 20,000 per day on a much larger population, about double the population of new york. So we are doing 16,000 which, compared to china, south korea per capita is even higher. In short, we are doing more testing than anyone. Kudos to the team that put that testing in place and the nurses and the doctors, god bless them, for being out there every day and doing it. Also, our numbers will be higher on positives because we are doing more tests. We have multiple locations working now and we will increase those locations. Second tract, increase Hospital Capacity, increase the number of beds. We have 50 50 3000. We may need 110,000. We need 3000 icu beds. That is my greatest concern because that is where we need ventilators to turn those icu beds into beds for people suffering from the virus. Today we are issuing an emergency order that says to all hospitals, you must increase your capacity by 50 . You must. Mandatory directive from the state. Find more beds, use more rooms. You must increase your capacity 50 . We would ask you to try to increase your capacity 100 , ok . We have 53,000, we need 110,000. If they increased the capacity 100 , that solves the mathematical projection, right . I think it is unreasonable to say to every hospital basically double your capacity. I dont think it is unreasonable to say try to reach 100 increase, but you must reach a 50 increase. 50 increase, we only at 75,000 beds. We still have a problem between 75000 and 110,000. Once you secure the bed, you have to secure the staff. You will have staff getting sick and need to be replaced. You create these new beds. You dont have the staff for those new beds now. They dont exist. Your staffing is your number of beds. If you increase your beds, you need to increase your staff. We are going to the entire retired community, Health Care Professionals who are licensed, registered, and we are saying, we want you to enlist to help. It is not a mandatory directive. This is just a request. We put it out. We have gotten really good response. There are hundreds of thousands of Health Care Professionals who are licensed and registered in the state, but we have 30,000 responses to date. I am doing an emergency executive order for all nurses who are registered to enlist, and the department of Financial Services is sending a directive to Insurance Companies health Insurance Companies employ many nurses, doctors, etc. , in the insurance business. We are saying to the Insurance Companies, we dont need them in the entrance is messed now. We would like them to help in hospitals because this is not about assessing insurance claims at this point, this is about saving lives. When we get to assessing insurance claims, we can handle it then. Supplies are the ongoing challenge nationwide. Masks, ppe, ventilators are the number one precious commodity. This is happening on an ad hoc basis. We are competing with other states, as i have said. We have made certain strides. We have a full team working on it. We are very aggressive. We are talking to other countries around the world. We are talking to companies. We have new york manufacturers really stepping up to the plate and converting factories, etc. But this is not the way to do it. This is ad hoc i am competing with other states on their prices. Yet manufacturers who sit there in california offers them four dollars and they say california offered four dollars. I offered five dollars and other states offered six dollars. It is not the way to do it. I was speaking to governor jb pritzker yesterday about this. Why are we competing. Let the federal government put in place the federal defense production act. It does not nationalize any industry. All it does is say to a factory, you must produce this quantity. That is all it does. I understand the voluntary Publicprivate Partnership and a lot of Good Companies are coming forward and saying, let us help. But it cannot just be pay who wants to help, let me know. We need to know what the numbers of what we need produced and who is going to produce that and when. I get that a lot of people are stepping up and doing good things. Theyre doing it here in new york, too, but you cannot run this operation that way. It cannot just be based on we are waiting for people to come forward with offers and if you happen to get a lot of offers on gloves, then you have a lot of gloves. But if you get no offers on masks, then you dont have masks. The federal defense production act just says you compel a company, manufacture, this many by this date. Yes, it is associative government power on private sector companies. Yes. But so what . This is a national emergency. You are paying the private sector company. They are going to produce a good and they are going to get paid. By the way, they are going to get paid handsomely. You cannot continue to do these supplies on an ad hoc basis. We have had success securing supplies. We are going to be dispatching them across the state today. These are the number of goods that are going up. You heard on the news that especially in new york city, theyre worried about running out of supplies. Again, this wont get us through the entire situation but this is a significant amount of supplies that will be going out. New york city, for example, 430,000 surgical masks, 72,000 gowns, 98,000 face shields. Masks, which are very precious not come about seven dollars a mask. These are significant supplies. We have been having some success in gathering them and we are distributing them. This should make a difference. Well, it will make a difference. Not until the end of the crisis, but shortterm. Hospital capacity. I am on my way down to the center today. I want to make sure the hospitals are getting up right away. We will use stony brook, westchester. President trump to deliver yesterday before the series of requests in the morning, he did the briefing in the afternoon, and he responded to those requests. That is government working. That is government working quickly. I think him for it. It makes a difference to new york. We are getting the emergency hospitals. Those are 1000 beds right there with the equipment, with the ventilators, with the staffing. So that is a big deal. The president declared what is called a major disaster declaration that allows fema to so that is a big deal. The president declared what is called a major disaster declaration that allows fema to help us. There is normally 75 25 split between the cost of those services. Federal government pays 75 , the state pays 25 . I said to the president , i cannot pay the 25 . We just dont have those kinds of resources. The federal government has the authority to waive that 25 so the federal government pays all 100 . That is what the president is doing. I appreciate that. I also asked for the fda to expedite the approval of an experimental drug that we are working on here in the state of new york, which i will tell you more about in a moment. The president also did that. The fda gave the new York State Department of Health Approval to use on a Compassionate Care basis, a drug that we think has real possibility. On the drug therapy, tuesday, were going to start the hydroxychloroquine with the zithromax, the drug combination president has been talking about. The fda approved new York State Department of health to proceed with an experimental drug. Again, on a Compassionate Care basis. But what it does is it takes the plasma from a person who has been infected with the virus, processes the plasma, and injects the antibodies into a person who is sick. There have been tests that show when a person is injected with the antibodies, that then stimulates and promotes their immune system against that disease. It is only a trial. It is a trial for people who are in serious condition, but the new York State Department of health has been working on this with some of new yorks best health care agencies, and we think it shows promise and were going to be starting that this week. There is also work on a syria logical on a serological drug where you test the antibodies of a person and see if they have the virus already. We all believe thousands and thousands of people have had the virus and self resolve. If you knew that, you would know who is now immune to the virus and who you can send back to work, etc. We are also working on that. The numbers today, total tested up to 78,000. Tested overnight, 24 hour period, 16,000. As of yesterday, about 25 of all the testing nationwide is being produced right here. The number of positive cases, we are up to 20,000 statewide. 5000 new cases. Which is obviously significant increase, and as i say, that trajectory is going up. The wave is still going up. We have a lot of work to do to get that rate down and get the Hospital Capacity up. You see it spreading across the state the way it has spread across the nation. That will continue, my guess is, every day. We have right now on hospitalizations, 13 are being hospitalized. None of these numbers are good, but relatively, that is a good number. Remember, it is the rate of hospitalizations and the rate of people needing icu beds. 13 is down. It has gone as high as 20 , 21 , hovered around 18 , 17 . 13 is a good number. Of that number, 24 require the icu beds. The icu beds are very important because those are the ventilators. Most impacted states, you can see that new york far and away has the bulk of the problem, and that is relevant to the federal government, that is relevant for the congressional delegation, that is arguing for federal funds. Fund the need. Fund the need. New york, we have 20,000 cases and new jersey, 1900, california has 1800. So proportionately, in absolute terms, new york has by far the greatest need in the nation. Again, to keep this in perspective, Johns Hopkins has studied every case from the beginning, 349,000 cases. Death toll worldwide is 15,000, right . Get infected,ill but few will actually pass away from this disease. Also, this is all evolving and all evolutionary. We are still figuring it out. There has to be a balance or parallel tracks that we are going down. We are talking about Public Health. We are talking about isolation. Were are talking about protecting lives. There also has to be a parallel track that talks about economic viability. I take total responsibility for shutting off the economy in terms of essential workers. But we also have to start to plan the pivot back to economic functionality, right . You cant stop the economy forever. So we have to start to think about, does everyone stay out of work . Should young people go back to work sooner . Can we test for those who had the virus, resolved, and are now immune and can they start to go back to work . There is a theory of risk stratification dr. Katz from Yale University is working on, which is actually interesting to me, but which says, isolate people that really isolate the Vulnerable People. Dont isolate everyone because some people, most people are not vulnerable to it. If you isolate all people, you may be exposing the more Vulnerable People by bringing in a person who is healthier and stronger and who may have been exposed to the virus, right . Can you get to a point where the healthy the people who are most likely not going to be affected can go to work . Remember, you study the numbers across the countries that have been infected. The survival rate for those who have been infected is like 98 , right . A lot of people get it, very few people die from it. So how do we start to calculate that in . We implemented new york pause, which stopped the essential workers, etc. , and we have to start thinking about new york forward. And steve cohen and bill, who ive worked with for 30 years and now in the private sector, theyre going to start to think about this, how do you restart or transition to a restart of the economy . And how do you dovetail that with the Public Health strategy . As you are identifying people who have had the virus and have resolved, can they start to go back to work . Can younger people start to go back to work because theyre much more tolerant to the effect of the virus . So how do you you turned off the engine quickly. How do you now start or begin to restart or plan the restart of that economic engine . Separate task, but something that we have to focus on. I offered my personal opinion yesterday. I separate my personal opinion from the facts. You can disregard my personal opinion. You can disregard facts. But they are still facts. I said, dont be reactive, be productive, be proactive. A few people have said to me afterward, what did that mean . It happens to me often. Look, this can go on for several months, ok . Nobody can tell you it is four months, six months, eight months, nine months. But it is several months. We all have to now confront that that is a new reality. That is not going to change. Youre not going to turn on the news tomorrow morning and theyre going to say, surprise, surprise, this is all now resolved in two weeks. That is not going to happen. So deal with this reality. Understand the negative effects of this. Which i have spoken to personally because these are personally negative effects. You dont feel them governmentally, you feel them personally. You feel them in your own life. And dont underestimate the Emotional Trauma and dont underestimate the pain of isolation. It is real. This is not the human condition. Not to be comforted, not to be close, to be afraid and you cant hug someone. Billy and steve walked in today, i have not seen them in months. I cant shake their hands. I cant hug them. This is unnatural. My daughter came up. I cant even really give her the embrace and the kiss that i want to give her. This is all unnatural. And disorienting. And it is not you. It is everyone. It is the condition. And we are going to have time. The question is, how do we use this time positively . Also at the same time, we have to learn from this experience because we were not ready to deal with this and other situations will happen. Other situations will happen. And lets at least learn from this to be prepared for the next situation, as dramatic as this one has been. Also, finding the silver lining, positive. Life is going to be quieter for a matter of months. Everything will function, life will function, everything will normal operations. There wont be chaos. The stores will have groceries. Gas stations will have gasoline. There is no reason for extraordinary anxiety. But it is going to change. You wont be at work. You cant be sitting in restaurants. Youre not going to be going to birthday parties. You dont have to go to business conferences on the weekends. Less noise. You know what . That can be a good thing in some ways. You have more time. You have more flexibility. You can do some of those things that you havent done that you kept saying, oh, i would love to be able to, i would love to be able to. Well, now you can. You have more time with family. Yes, i get family in cramped quarters can be difficult, but it is also the most precious commodity. For myself, this young lady is with me. She would never be here otherwise. You know, i am dad. The last thing you want to be when you are in caras position is hang out with the old man and hang out with dad and hear the bad dad jokes. It comes at the holidays or when i give them heavy guilt, but i am now going to be with cara literally for a few months. What a beautiful gift that is, right . I would never have had that chance. And that is precious. And then after this is over, she is gone. She has flown the nest. She is going to go do her thing. But this crazy situation, as crazy as it is, gave me this beautiful gift. So one door closes, another door opens. Think about that. And as i said, normal operations will continue. As ive said from day one, the level of anxiety was not connected to the facts. There is no chaos. The net effect, many people will get the virus, but few will be truly endangered. Hold both of those facts in your hands. Many will get it, up to 80 may get it, but few are truly endangered and we know who they are. Realize the timeframe that we are expecting, make peace with it, and find a way to help each other through this situation because it is hard for everyone. And the goal for me, socially distant, but spiritually connected. How do you achieve socially distant, but spiritually connected . I dont have the answer, but i know the question. Questions, comments . [indiscernible] how does that matchup . Gov. Cuomo look, the number of tests will be a calibration at one point. I believe new york citys actions was more on the availability of gowns and equipment. And that is a situation that we are all struggling with. Were just going to send them a big shipment. But i can see local calibrations that different localities are making or hospitals are making on protocols within their hospitals. But we have to get the bottom line remains. We cannot handle the wave at the high point. The wave has to come down. And that is density control and new york city, give me a plan, especially for the parks and young people, and that is testing. And were doing more than anyplace in the country but testing, isolation, testingisolation. Reporter can you give us some sense of density control . Gov. Cuomo we have not done the plan yet. I said yesterday i wanted a plan in 24 hours. I had a conversation with the mayor. I had a conversation with the City Council Speaker cory johnson. We talked to a number of things. I said put it on a piece of paper because in truth, whatever i get from new york city, i then want to do in westchester, nassau, suffolk. I dont people sing in new york city, well, i will just get in the car and go to westchester or getting a car and go to nassau. That is why geographic template has been very important. But i havent gotten it yet. We had a conversation on parameters, but i actually won a plan on paper. Reporter density control measures gov. Cuomo oh yes. This is all in addition. Look, i went there. My density control measures werent enough. That was clear. You could look at a park in brooklyn, manhattan, it almost looked like any saturday any sunny saturday when i went. Reporter to go to marinas question about testing, seems to be much more focus downstate than upstate. Why is that occurring . And also, maybe dr. Zucker, we know the global number of icu beds, but i have to imagine it is more strained locally. What are those numbers specifically down to . Gov. Cuomo you go where the need is, jimmy. You follow the science. You follow the numbers, listen to the data. The majority of our cases are coming out of new york city. So you go where the need is. You go where the numbers are. Dr. Zuker . Do you want to the vast majority of the icu beds are downstate proportional the most a lot of hospital beds are down there so that is pretty much in the city and the metropolitan area around the city. Reporter [indiscernible] dr. Zucker what we have now, as the governor mentioned, we have about 600 individuals in the icu but we have many more icu beds. As the governor said, we have to prepare for the potential for many more patients to come in. Gov. Cuomo i dont care upstate, downstate. This is one state. We are planning for one state. If you get overloaded in albany, then im going use the hospital beds in utica. If i get overloaded in buffalo, im going to use the hospital beds in rochester. If i get overloaded in new york city, im going to use the hospital beds upstate. There is no upstate, downstate here. It is one state. How many beds are currently available [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo do you know the current open bed capacity of icu beds . Dr. Zucker i dont know the exact number, but i have not spoken to some of the hospital leadership. There are beds and theyre working to create more icu beds. Because you can actually turn beds that are a Recovery Room bed into an icu bed. This is what the team that the governor asked the hospital associations to work on and we will have a report from them shortly. Reporter a lot of hospital workers are saying theyre are being told to go without a mask or use a scarf. Is there a resolution to that, or is there any hope . Dr. Zucker ive not heard the specifics about that but i know we have supplies available and as the governor mentioned in the slides, that were providing them with more of the protective equipment, both masks as well as downs. Reporter [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo Larry Schwartz has been working with finding the supplies. They have been doing ordinary job. There is no one in this state today who should be able to who can say legitimately, i cant get a mask. If you cannot get a mask you saw the numbers we are sending out. We just were successful in getting more and today, we can get masks to anyone who needs them, and gowns. I cant promise you next week or the week thereafter, and that is why want to see the federal government do this federal defense production act and stop this ad hoc voluntarism. But today, there is no one who we cant cover. Pardon the pun with the masks. Reporter have there been any additional measures to limit in the spread of the virus in state prisons, jails . Youth facilities . Gov. Cuomo we have different policies we put in place all across the board mirroring the nursing homes, no visitors, same type of policies in prison facilities and other facilities. Reporter [inaudible] gov. Cuomo it is something were are looking at, yes. Reporter basically, the care might be worse than the disease itself. On that,omment especially in light of saying we need to look at starting to restart the economy . You have to walk and chew gum in life. I dont have the luxury, no executive really has the luxury of being onedimensional. Of the measures we have taken to address this Public Health crisis. Weve done things no other state has done but im also very aware it is an unsustainable to run or run this country with the economy closed down. Ofare spending hundreds millions of dollars, you have people laid off. You have to get the economy up and running, so that has to be planned at the same time. Steve and bill will do that. Theres another complication, which is what dr. Katz is talking about. Refinedhave a more Public Health strategy that is also more productive or less destructive to the economy . Could there be a more intelligent Public Health productiveat is more or less destructive for the smart tomeaning is it put kara with me . Is it smart to have college kids coming home, kids staying home from school next to their grandmother . Is that a smart Public Health policy . Should you have stratified the risk . That is the Public Health question, and if you stratify the risk, can people start going back to work and you start to restart the economy . You are doing smart Public Health policy and smart economic policy. I think there is a line, a dot where those two lines cross. You have to identify it and that is what we are going to start a worker. Reporter would you say it is overkill at this point . Gov. Cuomo no. Thoughts oncond actions that i have taken. I would make the same decisions today. I have no Second Thought ongoing to zero nonessential workers. We sat here everyday, jesse, we saw that scale picking up. I turned to the valve the little bit, i turned the valve a little, it made no difference. I turned the valve off. Either way, it still hasnt brought the rate down low enough. Have no Second Thoughts. Im sure there will be political consequences. I know people are very angry about it. I had a gentleman tell me theres no way this state will ever reelect you because of what you did. Frankly, i dont even care about that. I did the right thing and im proud of it. At the same time, at one point, you have to open the valve. You have to open the valve, because that is oxygen for the economy, and this is not sustainable. Doesnt appear over the weekend there were specific rules on canceling all gatherings. Could you speak to those rules as a recommendation or do you plan on issuing executive order . Gov. Cuomo im not sure what you are referring to. It is a directive, we put it out a couple of days ago. No gatherings including weddings, parties, birthday parties. It is a directive across the board. That was a directive, not a recommendation. Gov. Cuomo you can get married. Just a small which is also very costeffective. Elopement. An reporter [inaudible] legislature is going to do their job, just like the executive is going to do their job, which is our way of honoring the heroes in Public Service today. The police officers, the firefighters, nurses, health workers, the food delivery workers, the pharmacy workers. All those people who have to go out and do their job, right . The legislature will do their job, the executive will do their job. We will pass a budget, and not just a budget. We will pass a budget and address the policy items that we laid out and we discussed because it is not just about passing a budget. There are many policy initiatives i laid out in january and we will pursue all of them. Was if you have a really complex issue that normally would require weeks of , toced detailed negotiation do it right, that, we wont do because i dont want to pass any bills that are not really intelligent that i have to come back and deal with again next year. So if it is a highly complex issue, i get it. Do something to sloppy. Otherwise, no. Reporter [inaudible] want to do i legalizing marijuana. What does bill reform look like . You have different positions on bail reform. You have my proposal i did last year, you have people that are very concerned out there, strong opinions on both sides. I just want to see a resolution and progress, and i want to see it in the budget. You recommended 2. 5 billion that is a structural thing for the budget, but it will really bring the Health Care System down. Can you do that now . Do you agree with those cuts and are you thinking in any other way to get through this . Gov. Cuomo there are Different Things in there, right . Medicaidmany costs in that have absolutely nothing to do with anything we are doing now. Medicaidmany parts of and you have many parts that have grown at financially where there is gross waste. And almost, periodically, you have to go to any of these Government Programs and you have to question every premise. Why are we doing this, why are we doing this, why are we doing this . And you will find there are ways to save money and that is what we are doing here. I want to show you videos the state is running to help communicate to new yorkers the need to stay home, the need to isolate. Because we are trying to get out the message. Ive been saying it. And everyone has been saying it, but we have to do a better job communicating so we are trying a number of vehicles. Oh, i have to do it. I have to do everything myself. Hello, this is robert deniro. We all need to stay home. We need to stop the spread of this virus and we can all money itit together only do together, not just to protect ourselves, but to protect others and all the older people you love. Please, im watching you. Gov. Cuomo danny devito this is danny devito. Im asking you from the bottom of my heart, all over the state of new york, stay home. I mean everybody. We have this virus, this pandemic, and young people can get it. They can transmit it to old people. So Governor Cuomo asked me to ask you to please do us a favor, all of us, and stay home and not spread this virus around. Thank you. Watch a little tv, why dont you . [laughter] gov. Cuomo one more question. Can you talk a little bit about how the infrastructure of new york city, People Living on top of each other, china a giant apartment buildings, subways, how that might be contributing to the spread of coronavirus . Gov. Cuomo density controls density contributes to the spread of the virus. Airborne sneezing, coughing, and density in that i touched this table. The virus could live here for two days. You come tomorrow, im gone, you touched that spot. In new york city, all that density. A lot of people are touching a lot of spots, right . The park bench, grocery counter, you know, just picture the city and daily life, and that is why in denser areas, you will have a in rate of spread them than in more suburban and more rural communities. It is just a function of interaction and proximity. I have to go to the java center. Thank you very much, guys. We are promoting legislators . We are not at that point. Thank you. [indiscernible] gov. Cuomo the total hospitalization number is from the beginning. Where the current number of people gov. Cuomo im sorry, 30 . The 13 . Gov. Cuomo that 13 of hospitalization, that is today. That is compared to like 20 yesterday. Etc. What is the revenue number . Yesterday it was 7 million . Gov. Cuomo i dont know. I will have to call you. Thank you. Thank you. You. Thank you. Gov. Baker good morning. After discussions with health experts, local, and federal officials, and other governors concerning the fight against covid19, and reviewing the