They have an extraordinary leader in Michael Dowling. Michael dowling ran health care for the state of new york, social services for the state of new york. He worked with my father, came for one year, wound up staying with my father for 12 years in state service. He is one of the really beautiful and brilliant leaders in this state and it is a pleasure to be with him. I want to say to all the people of northwell who have done extraordinary jobs, thank you so much for having us today. To my right is Melissa Derosa, secretary to the governor. To her right is what is your name . Mariah kennedy cuomo, who is part of my team and it is a pleasure to have her with me today. I will be mentioning more about that in a second. Today is sunday. That is a fact. I know these days tend to run one into the other, but today is sunday. And i like to focus on the facts in this situation because facts are what is most important. A lot of people have opinions and a lot of theories, but senator Daniel Patrick moynihan, who was a great senator from new york, everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Lets give the people in the state the updated facts. This is the chart of total hospitalizations. We have been watching this 24 hours a day for what seems like most of our lives, but it has only been about 40 days. The total hospitalization rate is down again in the state of new york. We are down to 16,000. If you look at the numbers, we were at 18,000 people hospitalized for a time. It flattened there for a while. It paused there. Then it went down to 17,000. This is a low from our high point of 16,000. The big question of whether we have passed the apex, past the high point and it turned out the high point was not a point, but the high point was a plateau. We got up to a high point and then we stayed at that level for a while. But, if the data holds, and if this trend holds, we are past the high point and all indications are we are on a descent. Whether or not the descent continues depends on the what we do. But right now, we are on a dissent. We are on a descent. Hospitalizations numbers are down. The three day average of hospitalization rate is down. I was speaking to michael and that is what he is seeing in his Hospital System. That is what Emergency Rooms across the state are saying, that they see the maximum inflow is less than what it was. So that all tracks with what the numbers are saying. The number of intubations, which the number of intubations, which i watch carefully because intubations are the numbers of people put on ventilators and the number of people put on ventilators who dont make it, so this is an important chart to look at and the fact that those numbers are down is important. This is a reality check. With all the good news and the reductions, we still have 1300 people that yesterday came in and tested positive and were hospitalized. 1300 is a lot of people coming into the Hospital System without diagnosis. Less than it had been, so that is good news, but it is still 1300 people who are testing positive and need hospitalization. We have been watching the spread of the virus from the new york city area and there have been little outbursts on long island and upstate new york and we have been jumping on those outbursts, but overall, we have controlled it and the numbers are about the same. Westchester and rockland, where we had real problems the first problem was in westchester county, new rochelle. Westchester, rockland, upstate new york, only about 7 of the cases. So we are watching for potential spread in other parts of the state. So far, we have contained it and we have controlled it. Nursing homes are still our number one concern. The nursing home is the optimum feeding ground for this virus. Vulnerable people in a congregate facility, in a congregate setting, where it can spread like fire through dry grass. We have had really disturbing situations in Nursing Homes and we are still most concerned about the Nursing Homes. The worst news of all for us to and anth every day everyday tragedy, we lost another 507 new yorkers. Those are not just very large numbers we see. Every number is a face, a family, a brother, a sister, a mother, a father, and people who are in pain today and will be in pain for a long time. So we remember them in our thoughts and prayers. But, on this sunday, a day of reflection, thank you from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of all new yorkers, for the people at northwell have done, the entire team, talk about a team effort, this is the team effort. To all of our Health Care Workers across the state, one million Health Care Workers, 445,000 hospital workers, the 160,000 nursing home workers, they have made all the difference in the world. A crisis like this, it tends to bring out the best and the worst in people. And certain people can break your heart in their response to this. But on the other hand, other people can rise to the occasion and give you such a sense of confidence in the human spirit and the healthcare workers have done that. I have been looking at this chart for 40 days and it looks like a bar chart, it looks like numbers and a line. I dont see it as a bar chart as we have been going through this. For me, it was a mountain that kept building and building and building and you didnt know where the top of the mountain was. Those numbers kept growing and we kept going up the mountain and we kept wondering where is the peak, where is the apex, what is the high point and when does it stop. And we get to the mountain and it is not a point, it plateaus and it plateaus at a very high rate, which means every day those Health Care Workers have to come in and they are seeing a tremendous number of people come in the door, overwhelming the capacity of the hospital. Remember, we asked hospital to we asked hospitals to increase their capacity 50 . So if a hospital had a 100 bed capacity, now they had a 150 bed capacity. And it stuck at that very high level on that plateau, and it was day after day after day. People who were at their max and had given it all. But they did it, they got us through the plateau, and now they are getting us down the other side and we just pray to god it remains down on the other but the skill, the courage, and the love of our Health Care Workers, of our first responders, of our police, of our essential workers, they have really gotten us through all of this. We also want to thank our neighbors. 95,000 medical professionals who agreed to help in this state and outside of this state, who said they would come and help us. And i want to thank the other states and communities who we put out a call for help and we got help from all across the country. It reminds me in that post9 11 time when we needed help and other communities in the northeast needed help, and people came from all across the nation and they just wanted to help, and they just showed up. That is what happened here. When i talk about seeing the best and the worst in people in a time of crisis, that outpouring of generosity im sure you felt the same gave us such a sense of confidence that we are not in it alone and humanity and the love of the American People was there for us. And i said we need your help today, but new yorkers also never forget. And thank you for the help, and we will be there when you need us. And we will be there when anyone needs us. Right now, our neighbors in massachusetts are looking at an increase in cases. I spoke to Governor Charlie Baker yesterday. They may need 400 ventilators, and we know how important ventilators are. If their numbers keep going up and if they have to scramble, i said you were there for us, we are going to be there for you. If they need 400 ventilators, we have already identified them and we will bring them over on 24 hours notice. And we wish them well, and anything they need, we are going to be there. So, the recent news is good. We are on the other side of the plateau and the numbers are coming down. But, that is good news only compared to the terrible news that we were living with, which was that constant increase. And remember, you still have 1300 people who walked into the hospitals yesterday testing positive. So it is no time to get cocky, and it is no time to get arrogant, right . We still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. And this virus has been ahead of us every step of the way. We have been playing catchup from day one in this situation. So it is no time to relax. And this is only halftime in this entire situation. We showed that we can control the beast, and when you close down, you can actually slow that infection rate, but it is only halftime. We still have to make sure that we keep that beast under control, we keep that infection rate down, we keep that hospitalization rate down, as we now all get very eager to get on with life and move on. So, it is not over. And we have a whole second phase and in this second phase, first, do no harm. Dont jeopardize what you have already accomplished by seeing that infection rate increase. We have to be smarter, especially when it comes to the new frontier of testing and how we test and how aggressively and how we get better organized. And then when we talk about rebuilding, we have to talk about not just rebuilding, but lets learn from this horrific experience. And lets take these lessons forward, and how do we build back better than before . I dont want to have gone all through this and then just say we are reopening. No, we have to open for a Better Future than we have ever had. And we have to learn from this. As we go through this, remember, i know people are eager to get on with life. We have slowed the infection rate down to. 9 . 9 means one person infects. 9 of a person. Him less than one. That means the virus is slowing. If one person is infecting 1. 2 people, the virus is increasing, and is an epidemic and an outbreak, and is out of control. So we have a very small margin of error here as we navigate going forward. Any plan that is going to start to reopen the economy has to be based on data, and that means it has to be based on testing. And this is a new world for all of us, testing. How do you get testing up to scale . We are going to do that in the most aggressive way in the nation, where we are going to sample people in this state, thousands of people in this state, across the state, to find out if they have the antibodies. That will tell us for the first time what percent of the population actually has had the coronavirus and is now at least shortterm immune to the virus. This will be the first true snapshot of what we are really dealing with. And we are going to be doing that over the next week, and the new York State Department of health will be running that. Theres also another set of tests which are called diagnostic testing. Diagnostic testing is whether a person is positive or negative. And we are coming up the scale on this, even though it is very, very hard. Northwell is leading the parade on this, and i just looked at some of the technology they are bringing in. All of these different manufacturers who make different machines to run different tests, and its a number of big manufacturers. And northwell is bringing in as many as they can, but this has to be brought to scale. Nobody has done testing at this level ever. And we have to do this in partnership with the federal government because there are all sorts of logistical questions and supply chain questions and people cant get certain chemicals they need to do tests, and the chemicals are made in other countries. So, we have to do this with the federal government. I spoke to the head of the cdc yesterday and he was very smart and very informed. And we talked about how we can do this together. Talk about being smart, the federal government is talking about passing another piece of legislation which would help in the reopening. And they want to help small businesses, and that is great. They also have to help State Governments and local governments, which have not been supported in the previous legislation. Everyone is saying, well, it is up to the states to come up with a reopening plan, its up to the governors, its up to the governors. Fine. That is true, and right, and legal. But the governors in the states have to have resources. And yes, you have to help small businesses, you have to help the airlines, you have to help all of these private sector interests as well as citizens. But if you dont help the State Government and local government, then how are we supposed to have the finances to reopen . And if you dont give state and local government support, we are the ones who support the schools, we support the police, we support the fire, we support the hospital workers, we support the transit workers. So if you starve state and local government, all that means is we have to turn around and reduce funding to the people who we are funding. If we dont get federal assistance, you are looking at education cuts of close to 50 in the state of new york. Where School Districts would only get half of the aid they got from the state last year. You are talking about cuts to hospitals from the state. I mean, how ludicrous would it be to now cut hospital funding from State Governments . So, the governors, bipartisan, democrat and republican, in this crazy and political environment where you cant get democrats and republicans to agree on anything, all the governors agree and have said to washington, make sure you fund the states in any next bill you pass. And we asked for 500 billion, again, on a nonpartisan basis. We also must remember as we go forward what we have done so well thus far. The mutuality and discipline that we have shown. I have many School Districts in the state, over 700 School Districts. They are calling, saying they want to open up their local schools, they want to make these decisions, local officials are calling, we have beaches, we have parks, we have businesses, we want to make decisions. I understand the pressure that the local School Districts are under. I understand the pressure that the local officials are under. I understand the mounting political pressure. You know, people see those numbers come down, they are like, ok, lets go. Let me get out of my house. I get it. But, we have to stay smart, and we have to stay united. Now is no time, as i said, to get arrogant. We are working with our regional states, our partners, new jersey, connecticut, etc. , the surrounding states. We are coordinating with them and we have to continue to do that. The weather is getting warmer, the numbers are coming down, cabin fever is getting worse i believe that is going to be a documented disease when this is over, cabin fever. But we have to stay smart and we have to stay coordinated. We have been working with the new jersey and connecticut, because whatever one state does affects other states. Right . You live in nasau, you live in suffolk, you live in new york city, you can get in your car and go to new jersey, you can be in connecticut in a matter of minutes. So it is very important to plan accordingly. It is not that we can be on the same page for everything, but at least lets know what each other is doing. For example, on state parks, we are coordinating what our policies are because you can see people go from one state to another. I was in albany yesterday, talked to a couple who drove up from queens for thai food. To albany. And i said, you came up for thai food from queens . That is a 2. 5 hour ride. They said yeah, we had to get out of the house. I said, just for thai food . Queens, they have good thai food, im from queens. It just shows how people need to get out and do something. So, we get it. Nerk in new jersey they are closed, in connecticut they are open. New york, our beaches are closed. In new jersey, the state beaches are closed. Some of the local beaches are open. Connecticut, they are open. Connecticut marinas are open. And new jersey and new york also. So, staying coordinated with our partners is very important. And it is important within the state also. I get the political pressure that everybody is under. I get the political pressure that local officials are under. But we have to be smart and we have to be coordinated. People have to have the best government from government officials in the state of new york. Government matters today, in a way it has not mattered in decades. And it is important that government sends the right signal and one message and there is no confusion. Because if people dont have confidence in government right now, if they think there is chaos or confusion or politics, that would be a terrible message to send. We have done a great job as government officials. All of us. Democrat, republican, state, local. We have to keep doing it. And now is not the time to send mixed messages. And also on a very parochial level, i get that in the conversations ive had a, people feel political pressure. Heres the simple answer. The states Emergency Powers now govern in this emergency. Blame me. Blame me. Somebodys complaining about a beach, somebodys complaining about whatever, businesses open, schools open, blame me. Its true. Its right. Its the state law. And i dont have any issue with that. So, blame me. Also, as we are planning the reopening, lets set the bar a little higher. And lets all start to think about this now. What did we learn during this . Personally, what did we learn. Socially, what did we learn . Collectively, what did we learn . And how do we incorporate that into our reopening . Right . How do we have a Better Health care system when we reopen . How do we have a better transportation system, better telecommuting, a smarter Telemedicine Program . Better technology and education . How do we have more social equity . You can see the disparate effect of this disease and how it reinforced the disparity in the inequity in society. How do we remedy that . And how are we more cohesive as a community for having gone through this . Right . So, it is not just reopen. It is not just build it back. It is advanced. Use this as a moment in time where they look back and they write the history books and they say boy, they went through a terrible time but they actually learned from it and they improved from it, they moved forward. We had 9 11. Yes, we built back. We built back different. We built back smarter. We had hurricane sandy. Devastated long island. I was governor. I didnt say we want to replace. I said we are going to learn how to do a new grid system. Were going to learn how to do better infrastructure. And we did. Long island today is better for having gone through hurricane sandy, as terrible as that was. We have to do the same thing here. How do we come back even better . So, the long and the short of it is thank you to all new yorkers for all the good work, to our Health Care Workers, a special thank you to the police, the fire, to the transit workers. The economy has not been closed down. Right . All the essential services have still been functioning. You still could go to a Grocery Store and get food. Lord knows you could go to a Health Care Institution and get health care. The transportation work, the buses work, all these people who kept everything working, we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. But also remember, we still have more to do. And new yorkers know that because new yorkers are tough. But tough doesnt mean just tough. Tough is easy. Its tough but smart, but disciplined, but unified, and but loving. And that is who we are as new yorkers. Last point, on a personal point, i have my daughter mariah who is with me, and she is the third daughter for me, and she just came home, if you will. She was quarantined. Now i have all three daughters with me. And they cant appreciate this, but it is such a comfort to me personally to have them home. You know, when your child is not at home, especially at a difficult time like this, you are always wondering, where are they, are they ok, are they doing whats right . And every instinct is you want to be able to protect them. And when they are not there, you have this constant hole in your heart, this constant question as you are going through the day. You are trying to do everything you have to do, but you still have this question in the back of your mind, where is mariah . How is she . So that they are now, all three with me, gives me a great sense of comfort. And in this crazy situation we are in, but for the craziness, i would never have my three daughters with me again. You know, 25, 25, 22 years old. The last thing they want to do is hang out with pop, right . They have places to go, people to see. You know, they are taking life by the horns. So i get this beautiful Silver Lining in the midst of this hell where my daughters are with me again. And we get to celebrate family, and we get to bring back traditions, and we get to enjoy each other and have really indepth conversations that we havent had in years. Right . And reconnect in a way we havent had the opportunity in years. Today is sunday, and i come from an Italian American household where we had a great tradition on sundays, the family had to come together at the table, you had to be there, they called it dinner but it started at 2 00 in the afternoon. I dont really know why they called it dinner. But everybody was at the table. Spaghetti and meatballs every sunday. I started my tomato sauce before i left. We are going to go back, we are going to sit at the table, have our spaghetti and meatballs on sunday, and i know what im going to talk to them about. My daughters, mariah and mariah brought her boyfriend, who is also here. The boyfriend is very nice, and we like the boyfriend. Advice to fathers the answer on what you think of the boyfriend is always, i like the boyfriend. Always. Because there are only two options. Either you like the boyfriend, in which case you say i like the boyfriend, or you dont like the boyfriend. But you can never say you dont like the boyfriend. I learned this lesson the hard way. Otherwise it triggers nds. It is not documented, but it is a psychological condition where if you say as a father, i dont like him, natural defiance syndrome kicks in and then they like the boyfriend more because he is opposed by the father. So, the answer has to be i like the boyfriend. In this case, i actually like the boyfriend. But even if you dont like the boyfriend, the answer can only be that i like the boyfriend. But we are going to be at dinner with the boyfriend ,and we are going to have our spaghetti and our meatballs. They wont eat the spaghetti and the meatballs because when i cook it, they wont eat it. But they are on the dish and thats all i can ask. But im going to tell them, im going to recall to them how important that meal was on sundays, to have the family together, to take the time, to sit and to talk and to reconnect. People talk about the italians and they love the food. Yeah, they love the food, but the food was the magnet to get the family to the table. Right . It was just the device to get people to spend two hours at the table. And thats where you talked and you went through the week. And i used to do it at my grandfathers house. My father, mother, my kids, all the siblings would go to my grandfathers house. My grandfathers name was andrea. Im named after him, andrew. And at the end of the meal, my grandfather would always say, he was at the head of the table and he would say ok, that was my vacation. And then he would get up and they would do whatever they were doing. I never understood what he meant. Him him him later in life, i said to my father, who was his son, i said, what did grandpa mean, that was my vacation . He said, well, your grandfather never had a day off. He ran the Grocery Store seven days a week. And he was saying that was his vacation. He never took a vacation. And everybody would take a vacation on tv, in the tv commercials. That was his vacation. The three hours at the table for dinner with his family, that was his vacation. And then he would go back to run the store. You think of how our immigrants work in this country. And wherever the immigrants are from, what that whole immigrant philosophy and drive does for us and i will end where i started. You think of all the essential workers. We had to stayathome. Im tired of staying at home. Yeah, think of all the people, all the essential workers who had to go out there every day and work in the middle of this, who frankly would have much rather stayed home. And they didnt know what the virus was, and they are out there working with the public, exposing themselves. Why do we have a higher rate of infection among africanamericans, latinos, etc. . Well, who are the essential workers . We have a higher rate of infection among the essential workers, because they were out there driving the buses and they were out there driving the trains, and they were out there running the hospitals and the Emergency Rooms and the nurses and the police officers. They didnt get to stay home. And they got sicker and they died, more than anyone else. Because they were there honoring their responsibility to their job and to public service. And lets remember that. And lets remember them. Yeah, we are all going through a tough time, and it is a tough time. But a lot of people have shown a lack of courage and a lot of beauty. And theyve had very tough lives. And lets appreciate them at the same time. Any questions for myself or Michael Dowling or Melissa Derosa . No questions for Mariah Kennedy cuomo because that would be trouble. Im just kidding. Do you have any idea why it is a few days behind . The health department. Online. I dont know why the tracker would not be uptodate. That is the first ive heard of it. But i will check. The numbers i just gave you are the uptodate numbers. I can check whether they do not have that on their website. Do you have a concrete sense of when you Start Testing . Of approvingtatus standard testing . The fda has approved the states Antibody Tests. That is what we will be rolling out this week. Survey of anyest state population that has been done. We will take thousands of Antibody Tests over this next week all across the state to give us a real snapshot and baseline of exactly how many people were infected by coronavirus and have the antibodies. We will have the first real statistical number on exactly where we are as a population. They talk about herd immunity and if action infection rates and we are all trying to extrapolate from that. But we have not had hard data on where we are. It is diagnostic testing. Do you do that large Antibody Testing . It tells you if you are past the virus. Each complicated manufacturer has their own test. You have to buy that test from that manufacturer. And then you have to buy the chemicals that go with it. Have 10 different machines from different manufacturers who are all running different tests. Them, you have to go back to the manufacturer and get all of the new supplies to run the tests. That is what gets very complicated. Back and forth with the federal government on this. We have to figure it out. The states can do the test. When i go back to the manufacturers they will say i cannot find the chemicals that are used. How do you get them . They come from china. Or this country. I cannot help them do that. I cannot do an International Supply chain. That is where the federal government has to help. No state can do that. The same manufacturers who are selling to me are selling to chicago, california. Everyone has to do their part. I know it is complex. Everything were doing here is hard. At stake in terms of getting this rolling . You see people across the country saying it is a scam. The president is tweeting out to liberate states. What would you say about the . That . Anyone can say anything. God bless america, as my grandfather would say. Theories. Opinion, notve an everyone can have their own facts. Facts are facts. Opinions are opinions. Some say it is a hoax. God bless america. 600 people died two days ago. Those are real deaths. That is a fact. Hospitals whoin test positive for coronavirus. I dont care what you think or what your opinion is. That is a fact. You cannot say it is a hoax. That is a fact. So, that is a fact. And i will leave that at that. People are anxious. They see the numbers coming down. You exhale a little bit. And they should exhale. Look, i was afraid. Nobody said that we can stop the growth of the virus. People said we think maybe you can if you do socially distance and you close down and you do masks. But nobody said we know for sure. So my fear was always, well do all this, and the virus will still increase. That would have been a really bad place to be. You did everything you could, you closed everything down, and the virus continued to spread. That would have been really frightening. That didnt happen. We controlled the beast. We apexed, we plateaued, it is coming down the other side. That is good news. Ok, so we exhale. We can control the beast. Yes, but the beast is still alive. We did not kill the beast. And the beast can rise up again. We know that. This is a temporary reduction in the virus rate. The virus rate is wholly dependent on what you do. You tell me what you do today, ill tell you the infection rate three days from now. You tell me what you do today, as a society, ill tell you how many people are going to walk into a hospital three days from today. It is purely contingent on what we do. Well, the numbers are down, we have to get out of the house, we have to get back to work, i need the paycheck. I get it. But you go back to where we were, infection rate will go up, the hospitalization rate will go right back up again. So, all this with a calibration. How do you start to reopen, start to increase activity, start to bring people out, make sure they socially distance, etc. , make sure you are doing it intelligently so you start to reopen, but watch that hospitalization rate and that infection rate, because if that starts going up again and you dont immediately correct, or you made such a Dramatic Movement that the virus infection spreads, you could go right back to where you were in one weeks time. And if we went through all of this, and lost all of these people, and forced essential workers and hospital workers to do unbelievable tasks to get us through this crisis, and we recreate the crisis, then shame on us. Michael, you want to speak about that . The machines and the reagents and supply chain . [inaudible] and were continuing to do all that testing. And were continuing to expand the testing capabilities. Then you have antibodies, which is where we had to recalibrate. And were now doing some of the Antibody Testing. We anticipate to getting up to 10,000 tests a day. Were also working with other Health Systems of the region. We collaborated. We have all the people from all the various systems that are getting together. Weve had discussions this morning. And so, all collaborating to make sure we expand the capacity in the Antibody Testing. And the anticipation is we will be able to do hundreds and thousands of tests working with the state. Another side of the Lab Developed on building the capacity to develop the Antibody Testing. The goal is to do the maximum testing as we possibly can. Because thats the way that we can the economy can be reopened and health care can get to be reopened. If you dont do the testing, as the governor said, and you make too quick a move to open too quickly, then you can walk into the scenario that the governor just described. That would be one of the most Dangerous Things that we could ever possibly do. Gov. Cuomo thank you, michael. Remember the context here. The we have accomplished what no one thought could be accomplished. The top experts, the cdc, the president s Coronavirus Task force, they all had multiples of more infections projected and multiples of more deaths projected. Cdc, coronavirus, White House Task force, they were talking about 2 Million People hospitalized in this country. Just a month ago. 2 Million People. You know how many hospital beds we have in this country . One million. Their low estimate was for double the Hospital Capacity of the nation. On, like, march 13. Thats what the top experts were predicting. Here in new york state, mckinsey, cornell, columbia, the gates funded operation, they all had multiples of what we did. This is a Great Success story. On everyones behalf. You know, people werent so angry and frustrated right now. This has been a great triumph. What the federal government did, what the states did, with the healthcare workers did. The way americans responded and acted responsibly. It is better than any of the predictors. The president is right when he gets up there and says, the models had to more people dying. President is right. All the experts said that. So, this was heroic efforts that changed that curve. God bless america, but dont under appreciate what you just did, and dont go backwards. That would be a real mistake. I have a three parter. Weddings, funerals, and the president. Weddings, this push about clarifying people being able to marry people now that you are able to marry again. Secondly, efforts to alleviate bodies coming into funeral homes. And thirdly, your faith in the president moving forward. Gov. Cuomo ive taken a lot of actions during this period of time. The action that probably has caused me the most amount of grief is what i said about marriages. Marriages you can now do, you can get a marriage license online, and weve authorized marriages online. By any licensed or legal official who can perform a marriage. So i said yesterday, well, no one has any excuses anymore. Now its a simple yes or more. Will you marry me . Simple yes or no. You lose all those possible excuses. Well, i have to set a wedding date. To do this. You can do it tomorrow. It all online. Its all online. You can get your certificate, get your license, you can do it online, a judge can do it, any official can do it. There are no excuses anymore. Yes or no, will you marry me . Of mad, uglyts comments about that. Of mad,melissa, ill ask her ie knows anything about funeral homes. Do i have faith in the president . Look, what the federal government did working with states as i just said was a phenomenal a compliment. We bent the curve. We flattened the curve. Government did it, people did it, but government facilitates peoples actions, right . We had to double the Hospital Capacity in new york state. Thats what all the experts said. President brought in the army corps of engineers. They built 2500 beds at javits that michael and northwell were operating. That was a phenomenal accomplishment. Close to 1000 people have gone through javits. Luckily, we didnt need the 2500 beds. But all the projections said we did need it, and more, by the way. So, these were just extraordinary efforts and acts of mobilization. And the federal government stepped up and was a great partner. And im the first one to say it. We needed help and they were there. State and local governments were fantastic. The Hospital System was fantastic. New yorkers were fantastic. And that is an undeniable fact. Just look at what they said was going to happen. Cdc, Coronavirus Task force, cornell, mckinsey, all of them, and they had a lineup here and the actual line is down here. What do you owe the variance to . Heroic efforts on behalf of people, as facilitated by government, federal and state. So, that was phase one. Now we have to go forward to phase two. Big challenge is going to be testing. It will not be done perfectly. We cant bring it up to scale in this period of time. I will tell you that. But we can do better working together than working apart. And thats the federalstate partnership. I will do my part as a governor, i know the other governors will do their part. Federal government is involved in testing. They had a whole presentation at the last president ial briefing. We have to Work Together and do the best we can. And we will. And i have faith that we well we will because we have in the past. On the funeral homes, the governor signed an executive order to allow Funeral Directors who are either retired or from outofstate to be able to be to be able to be licensed immediately in new york to help with the backlogs. On the weddings, yesterday, the executive order we did allowed clerks to perform the weddings remotely. Today, the governor signed a new executive order to allow anybody who is licensed to be able to perform weddings so it wont just be limited to clerks. On the website, it will be updated by 2 00 today. The covid tracker. Gov. Cuomo i am also licensed to perform weddings. So im available for online services, special vows that i do. Did you know that . I wouldve assumed it. [laughter] just a followup about the president , and i have another unrelated question. Earlier in your press conference, governors must get up and get the job done. We will be with you all the way. Did you speak with the president recently today, yesterday about this, and has there been any new [indiscernible] for diagnostic testing . Gov. Cuomo we have been talking about i have been having a conversation with the president in the past day about this but weve had conversations about it in the president s right. Hes right. States have to do they have to step up on testing. And the federal government has to step up on testing. Federal government is involved in testing. And they did a whole presentation at the president s president s briefing on testing, and what theyre doing on testing and what they are doing on helping the supply chain, etc. , and thats great. Between the states working with the federal government, we will do the best job we can. What was the president s tweet exactly . He said looks like i was right on ventilators. Our country is now the king of ventilators. Other countries are calling and asking for help. Im right on testing. Governors must be able to step up and get the job done. We will be with you all the way. Gov. Cuomo we will be with you all the way. Great. States must do their part. And the federal government must do its part. Perfect. Thats whats called partnership. I agree. And just a followup on the testing, i know initially there was some rationing of diagnostic testing. What will it look like for Antibody Testing . Who will be able to get the Antibody Testing once that gets wrapped up . Gov. Cuomo the Antibody Testing were doing this week is a random sample. So its not like testing where somebody can ask to be testing. It has to be a random sample that is conducted throughout the state. Thousands of people get tested. So, we know this percentage of the population have the antibodies. That is not a test where a person can call up and say i want to be tested to go to a place. That has to be done on a random sample basis. In terms of the Antibody Testing being added to the diagnostic testing, we now have an Antibody Test that the state can perform. We can do about 2000 tests per day for the state. Thats about 14,000 per week. Sounds like a big number. Its not that big of a number in the total context of a state of 19 Million People. Also, when you talk about testing, just to give it a relative proportionality, we have tested in this state more than any state in the united states. We have tested more than any country has tested, ok, on a per capita basis. So nobody is better at testing than we are. With all the testing weve done since this started, 500,000 tests. Wow, its a lot. Not really. Its been a month and weve done we did 500,000. At that rate, this goes on for three months, we would have tested 1. 5 Million People. We have 9 Million People in the workforce. We have 19 Million People in the population. So, we have to increase that rate. And thats why the partnership with the federal government to get the reagents, etc. , is so important. And that the federal government provides the states with resources to do this. I mean, you have the president saying 15 times, its up to the governors, its up to the governors, its up to the governors. And then theyre going to pass legislation that gives, you know what to states . Zero. Zilch. Nada. Niente. Whatever language you want to say it. Nothing. But then how are the state supposed to do this . You know what happens . Ill tell you exactly what happens. The state has about a 15 billion deficit, somewhere between 10 billion and 15 billion deficit. I dont have any funding to do what i normally do. I normally fund schools. Youll see a 50 cut in education. Youll see it cut to hospitals. In the midst of all of this. I give local governments aid. They pay the police officers. They pay the firefighters. They pay the bus drivers. Public transit. Those are the essential functions that are now working. How can you not fund that . Well, we want to fund a small business. Great, fund small business. Fund the airlines. Fund whatever you want. But how do you not fund the State Government that you know is in charge of reopening this entire nation . Right . So we have to be smart. I want to thank Michael Dowling, again, i want to thank northwell and all the people, not just for todays hospitality, but more importantly, for all the beautiful work that they have done. Thank you very much. [indiscernible] you have the ability to enroll cuts. [indiscernible] cspan has run the clock coverage on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, and its all available on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials, track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch ondemand anytime, unfiltered, at cspan. Org coro navirus. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, the National Constitution centers Jeffrey Rosen on Constitutional Rights during the coronavirus pandemic. Healthlisa shuman, policy Senior Vice President at the American Benefits council. She talks about how the coronavirus pandemic affects employersponsored health care. And stephen morrison, Global Health policy Center Director at the center of for Strategic International studies, hell discuss the role of the World Health Organization and president trumps decision to the who. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern this morning. Join the discussion. Announcer next, louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards updates his states response to the coronavirus outbreak. Gov. Bel edwards welcome to midcity. Welcome to the general midcity. And i want to thank all of you for coming here today so we can share a little bit of what we are doing here today, along with the collaboration with the State Government, the local government, and with the military. Each one of these hearts behind