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“FLAT IS NOT GREAT. WE DON’T WANT TO SEE FLAT,” GOVERNOR REPORTS. 1,000 NEW HOSPITALIZATIONS SUNDAY.
15.1% HAVE TESTED POSITIVE FOR HAVING CORONA VIRUS IN WESTCHESTER-ROCKLAND IN ANTI-BODY TEST.
CORPORATIONS STEP UP TO BUY MILK AND TURN IT INTO YOGURT, CHEESE, FOR NEW YORK FOOD BANKS. HUNGER PROBLEM SOARING IN STATE. 200% increase in food bank demand in Westchester.
WPCNR MONDAY GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO BRIEFING. By John F. Bailey. April 27, 2020:
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo reported the number of new Hospitalizations for Corona Virus was flat on Sunday, staying at 1,000 new hospitalizations a day. There were 337 deaths reported Sunday from the disease, in the news conference, he pointed out the number of deaths in New York City had been held to ½% of the New York City population. He said the daily death rate “continued still tragically high.”
The Governor reported the second week of results of the ongoing anti-bodies survey,on 7,500 people tested at random that showed the percentage of persons by New York region who have had the coronavirus. 14.9% have tested positive in the 7,500 sampled across state the last two weeks. Here is the breakdown for the New York metropolitan area for percentage of persons with coronavirus antibodies:
Long Island-14% positive
New York City-24.7% positive
Westchester-Rockland- 15.1% positive
Rest of the State: 3.2%
He noted the Latino population has the most corona virus cases 10% higher, and he wants to find out why.
He outlined what upstate Counties hoping to be cleared for opening should be doing now: developing policies in the following areas.
- Confirming they had fit the CDC standards for Reopening.
- Businesses (construction and manufacturing) they would reopen.
- Business practices the businesses selected would put in place to maintain social distancing, work practices, policies to avoid spread of the coronavirus
- Analysis of hospital capacity to handle increase in coronavirus cases
- Testing program: For the Disease, Auto-Body Testing.
- Tracing contacts of new coronavirus cases
- Isolation policies of new coronavirus cases.
- How they plan to bring back schools, transportation and introduce testing in those places
- Stage no large scale “nuisance” attractions (that would attract people coming into the area.
- Establish a Rapid Control Room to monitor the “Dials” of leading daily statistics the state uses to be aware of the disease progress. This “Control Room” would have to be a board of professionals “where everybody agrees on the numbers.”
- Finally the county plans would have to “fit in with the state standards,” and meet the state approval.
The governor announced the state had a very serious hunger problem, and that he was devoting $25 Million to store up food banks. He announced that Cabrel and Chobani and three other organizations were going to purchase excess milk from New York farmers who have been dumping milk because they could not sell it. The rescued milk would be turned into milk products such as yogurt , sour cream, cheese and distributed to food banks. He requested philanthropies to help.
In the news release just out, he says, ” 200 percent increase in Westchester, 100 percent increase New York City, 40 percent on Long Island, 40 to 60 percent across Upstate New York. So we’re going to commit $25 million for emergency funding for those food banks. I’m also asking philanthropies to help.”
He said that testing would be extended to 1,000 firefighters and 1,000 police in various counties.: “We’re going to be doing a survey of New York City fire department and New York City police department. This week, 1,000 and 1,000 respectively, just to find out again with the antibody testing, what is the infection rate. NYPD was out there every day and they paid a terrible toll. The attendance rate is now good again, many were out sick.
But we want to know exactly where those frontline workers are, if they have been infected, we want to make sure people are getting help and we want to know exactly what happened.
We’ll also be doing 3,000 healthcare workers, these are hospital staff, nursing staff, doctors who are in the emergency rooms, to find out their situation. And we’ll be doing 1,000 transit workers. These are the bus drivers, the train operators, who keep the public transit system working and we want to do testing to find out how they’re doing. “
The Governor said he was going to discuss with Westchester County Executive George Latimer the possibility of keeping the Westchester County Center extra beds available in the fall to fight a possible flu outbreak in the autumn or a return of the coronavirus. The Governor said he would discuss keeping the Javitts Center open for use as a hospital backup facility for the same reason.
In closing his daily report, Governor Cuomo thanked Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear:
“Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear stood up, said to his senior senator in the state, Mitch McConnell that Mitch McConnell was wrong on saying he wouldn’t provide funding to state and local governments and wrong in saying states should go bankrupt.
It is hard for a governor, especially Andy, who is a relatively new governor, to stand up to a senior official and speak truth to power. That is hard. Takes guts. Takes courage. And you don’t get that from a typical politician. So, it warms my heart to see an elected official who is not a typical politician. Thank you, Governor.”