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WPCNR TUESDAY CORONAVIRUS CUOMO REPORT. By John F. Bailey. April 21, 2020:
Governor Andrew Cuomo visited Buffalo to deliver his Tuesday briefing where Buffalo is seeing a plateauing of new virus cases, in contrast to downstate in the New York metropolitan area which the governor said is in descent, with new hospitalizations continuing flat.
He said downstate counties are in Descent, Buffalo on Plateau. He now will open state economy by region. He will allow unstressed hospitals upstate to accept elective surgery except Dutchess, Westchester and Rockland. He names 2 to Make the Opening Economy Calls Upstate. Goes to Washington to Talk Tests . 481 New Deaths in NY. Total State Deaths: 14,828.
The Governor again called for the U.S. Government to expedite purchase of Reagents (chemicals required to increase output of coronavirus tests). The governor is traveling to Washington, D.C. today to talk with President Trump on the government taking over responsibility for expediting reagents for the manufacturers of the test machines which evaluate the test swabs for positive or negative presence of the coronavirus.
The governor announced he was lifting the ban on elective surgeries in select upstate hospitals as he promised yesterday, but not in Westchester, Rockland and Dutchess Counties.
He retreated from his stance that the entire New York State would have to reopen as a whole simultaneously, announcing a regional reopening pattern in the state. He appointed Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul to handle the northern tier of the state, and Robert Duffy, former Lieutenant Governor to make decisions on the Finger Lake region of the state.
This afternoon details were released by the press office on the elective surgery resumption which begins on April 28, 2020 if the hospital capacity is over 25 percent for the county and if there have been fewer than 10 new hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients in the county over the past 10 days.
If a hospital is located in a county eligible to resume elective outpatient treatments, but that hospital has a capacity under 25 percent or has had more than 10 new hospitalizations in the past 10 days, that hospital is not eligible to resume elective surgeries.
If a county or hospital that has resumed elective surgery experiences a decrease in hospital capacity below the 25 percent threshold or an increase of 10 or more new hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients, elective surgeries must cease.
Further, patients must test negative for COVID-19 prior to any elective outpatient treatment. The State Department of Health will issue guidance on resuming elective surgeries.
Restrictions on elective surgery will remain in place in Bronx, Queens, Rockland, Nassau, Clinton, Yates, Westchester, Albany, Richmond, Schuyler, Kings, Suffolk, New York, Dutchess, Sullivan, Ulster, Erie, Orange and Rensselaer Counties as the state continues to monitor the rate of new COVID-19 infections in the region.
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Finally, the Governor confirmed 4,178 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 251,690 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 251,690 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows (Metropolitan NY in BOLD TYPEFACE):
| County | Total Positive | New Positive |
| Albany | 704 | 17 |
| Allegany | 30 | 0 |
| Broome | 205 | 6 |
| Cattaraugus | 35 | 1 |
| Cayuga | 36 | 0 |
| Chautauqua | 25 | 0 |
| Chemung | 75 | 2 |
| Chenango | 79 | 1 |
| Clinton | 51 | 0 |
| Columbia | 113 | 2 |
| Cortland | 25 | 0 |
| Delaware | 49 | 0 |
| Dutchess | 2,331 | 47 |
| Erie | 2,147 | 38 |
| Essex | 21 | 1 |
| Franklin | 13 | 0 |
| Fulton | 27 | 0 |
| Genesee | 121 | 2 |
| Greene | 87 | 1 |
| Hamilton | 3 | 0 |
| Herkimer | 50 | 1 |
| Jefferson | 54 | 0 |
| Lewis | 9 | 0 |
| Livingston | 39 | 0 |
| Madison | 106 | 0 |
| Monroe | 1,070 | 16 |
| Montgomery | 37 | 2 |
| Nassau | 31,079 | 402 |
| Niagara | 260 | 5 |
| NYC | 139,325 | 2,519 |
| Oneida | 284 | 5 |
| Onondaga | 514 | 5 |
| Ontario | 72 | 1 |
| Orange | 6,561 | 79 |
| Orleans | 53 | 7 |
| Oswego | 49 | 1 |
| Otsego | 49 | 0 |
| Putnam | 605 | 6 |
| Rensselaer | 183 | 6 |
| Rockland | 9,568 | 111 |
| Saratoga | 257 | 3 |
| Schenectady | 273 | 4 |
| Schoharie | 20 | 0 |
| Schuyler | 7 | 0 |
| Seneca | 18 | 0 |
| St. Lawrence | 120 | 10 |
| Steuben | 170 | 3 |
| Suffolk | 28,154 | 492 |
| Sullivan | 555 | 11 |
| Tioga | 37 | 0 |
| Tompkins | 119 | 0 |
| Ulster | 893 | 16 |
| Warren | 102 | 1 |
| Washington | 68 | 3 |
| Wayne | 51 | 1 |
| Westchester | 24,656 | 350 |
| Wyoming | 36 | 0 |
| Yates | 10 | 0 |
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