ALBANY – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in his daily press conference, noted President Trump appears to be “spoiling for a fight,” but said “I do not want to fight with the president. There's too much to do, for everyone. There's just too much to do.”
Cuomo today announced the daily death toll was 778 people, up from 671 yesterday, making a new total of 10,834 New Yorkers dead, so far, from COVID-19.
Trump this morning posted on social media that “Cuomo’s been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state’s responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc. I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won’t happen!”
“He's right,” Cuomo said. “I worked very hard to work in partnership. I did call, he did move quickly, and I said that repeatedly. I praised him repeatedly.”
Cuomo said the president's assertion that he has “total authority” is wrong, and can't go unanswered.
“There are laws, there are facts, even in this wild political environment.”
The state of Massachusetts has now joined the coalition of East Coast states designing a plan to reopen that factors in business, transportation, schools and public health. West Coast governors are also working together in a similar fashion.
Cuomo called on FEMA to take over the role of acquiring and administering tests that he says are essential to being able to reopen anywhere in the country.
“I want to get out of the eBay business,” he said, referring to states competing against each other and the federal government for needed supplies and, now, essential testing supplies.
By next week, New York will have the capacity to test up to 2,000 people a day. The state's total population is 19 million. Cuomo argued FEMA has the ability to do much more, and faster, if it takes charge of the national testing.
“Let's give each level of government authority to do what it does best,” he added.
Cuomo said the virus continues to plateau in the state, though the numbers are still high. New hospitalizations are still at 1,649 a day, but that's down from a high of 3,413 on April 2. Intubations are down dramatically, but after 44 days, a total of 10,834 New Yorkers have died.
Cuomo warned that how the state reopens is “everything.”
“We are artificially controlling that curve. You behave differently, you will get a dramatically different result. The worst scenario is, we did all this, we reopen too fast, and we see that number go up again. We've seen it in other countries.”
