WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS REPORT. From the Governor’s Press Office. (Edited) March 28, 2020:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo confirmed 7,681 additional cases of novel coronavirus statewide, 17% more than yesterday (44,637) , bringing the statewide total to 52,318 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 52,318 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown (Hudson Valley Counties in Bold)

County	Total Positive	New Positive
Albany	195	8
Allegany	2	0
Broome	23	5
Cattaraugus	1	1
Cayuga	2	0
Chautauqua	5	4
Chemung	12	1
Chenango	8	4
Clinton	12	1
Columbia	22	2
Cortland	5	1
Delaware	8	0
Dutchess	262	37
Erie	318	99
Essex	4	0
Franklin	4	2
Fulton	1	0
Genesee	7	1
Greene	7	1
Hamilton	2	0
Herkimer	9	0
Jefferson	6	3
Livingston	5	2
Madison	19	2
Monroe	192	32
Montgomery	5	0
Nassau	5537	880
Niagara	33	10
NYC	29766	4368
Oneida	23	10
Onondaga	129	14
Ontario	16	2
Orange	1101	190
Orleans	3	0
Oswego	7	3
Otsego	7	2
Putnam	131	20
Rensselaer	38	3
Rockland	1896	439
Saratoga	96	14
Schenectady	72	6
Schoharie	5	2
Schuyler	1	1
St. Lawrence	8	5
Steuben	13	1
Suffolk	4138	753
Sullivan	72	8
Tioga	4	2
Tompkins	45	19
Ulster	128	29
Warren	13	5
Washington	6	0
Wayne	12	1
Westchester	7875	688
Wyoming	7	0

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo is issuing an executive order to move the presidential primary election from April 28 to June 23rd, aligning it with the congressional and legislative primaries in New York.

Governor Cuomo also issued an executive order to enable the tax filing deadline for personal and corporate taxes to be pushed back to July 15. The Federal government took similar action earlier this month.

The Governor also announced that the State Department of Health Wadsworth Lab is working in partnership with others labs to evaluate antibody testing that is designed to help very sick COVID-19 patients. 

The Governor also announced three new sites – South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island, Westchester Square in the Bronx and Health Alliance in Ulster County – to serve as a place for emergency beds. The three new sites will add 695 more beds to the state’s capacity. Additionally, in a new approach, the State will begin designating some facilities only for COVID-19 patients.

The state has identified three sites – South Beach Psychiatric Facility in Staten Island, Westchester Square in the Bronx and SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn – that will provide more than 600 beds specifically for COVID-19 patients.

Following a conversation with President Trump this morning, Governor Cuomo also announced the federal government has approved four new sites for temporary hospitals for construction by the Army Corps of Engineers – the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the Aqueduct Racetrack facility in Queens, CUNY Staten Island and the New York Expo Center in the Bronx – adding an additional 4,000 beds to the state’s capacity.

The Governor toured the four sites yesterday. These temporary hospital sites are part of the Governor’s goal of having a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in each New York City borough as well as in Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties. (Editor’s Note: these three counties are growing rapidly in the number of coronavirus-positive cases)

“Every emergency situation is unique, but the number one rule is always plan ahead and be proactive — and that’s exactly what we have been trying to do,” Governor Cuomo said. “Our mission is to be prepared and have the proper equipment, supplies, facilities and personnel when the apex hits. We are continuing to advance emergency measures that reduce density as much as possible, and to that end we are going to delay the presidential primary election until June because it’s not wise to be bringing large numbers of people to one place to vote.”

The Governor also announced that the first 1,000-bed temporary hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is expected to open on Monday. The temporary hospital site was constructed in one week.

The Governor also announced that the Empire State Development Board of Directors approved $7.5 million in COVID-19 Business Counseling support to 70 non-profit partners across New York State. The funding will enable these organizations to provide small businesses with necessary guidance to secure disaster assistance, such as Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to 24 Entrepreneurship Assistance Centers and up to 23 Small Business Development Centers will receive $5 million, with an additional $2.5 million awarded to up to 23 Community Development Financial Institutions.

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. Transcript From the Governor’s Press Office. (Edited)March 28, 2020:

Earlier today Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes.

AUDIO is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor’s interview is available below:

Chris Hayes: . I want to start on the ventilator issue. The president seems to think the estimate of needing 30,000 ventilators he feels is too high, that you’re over estimating how much you’re going to need. What’s your response to that?

Governor Cuomo: Yeah, well, Chris, listening to your lead-in and thank you for having me. You’re exactly right. This comes down to ventilators. And by the way, it did in China, it did in South Korea, it did in Italy and it did as soon as the numbers started to break here. And it is unusual. The number of ventilators we have in our health care system when you add up all the hospitals in the State of New York is about 4,000. We need about 40,000 here.

This is a disease that is a respiratory disease. People are on the ventilators and the ventilators are a matter of life and death. And they’re on ventilators longer with this disease than most other diseases. The average length of stay on a ventilator is about four to five days. Here it’s about 20 days. Which is one of the reasons why you need so many.

The president says 30,000 sounds high. You know, I don’t know what the basis is. I don’t know have a medical degree. So what I do is I just study the numbers and the science and the data and I follow the data. We have McKinsey & Company, we have and Weill-Cornell medical center, I talked to the World Health Organization, look at the models of China, look at the models of South Korea, look at the models of Italy and look at the models of the numbers in my state, you see it takes you to 40,000 ICU beds, with ventilators, and 140,000 hospital beds.

That’s what the numbers say at apex. So I plan by the numbers. And I don’t know how to do it any other way, Chris.

Chris Hayes: Where are you right now?

Governor Cuomo: We’re scrambling to buy them all across the globe. One of the things that has happened here is because the states were left on their own to purchase, in a cruel irony, the states are bidding against other states, Chris, for the same materials and they’re actually bidding up the price.

So I’ll get an order for ventilators and I’ll have a company say I’ll send you 5,000 ventilators in three weeks and then they call me back and they say sorry, I sold them to Illinois or California or Florida. That’s the situation we’re in.

I need about 30,000. we’re about halfway there, counting orders that we have. We’ve gotten 4,000 from the federal government. I had 4,000 in our hospital system. we bought about 7,000 and then we have a scattering of orders which may or may not come in.

One other point on something you mentioned. I applaud the president for using the Defense Production Act. I said last week he should have used it. This is not a time to be bargaining with corporations or relying on the volunteerism of corporations. We need these ventilators and we need them now. Not when the corporation decides it’s convenient for them to do the design and to put a new line in operation. You’re talking about my possible apex is 14 days away. If I don’t have the ventilators in 14 days, Chris, people die.

Chris Hayes:  So, if you get too many ventilators, what’s the worst thing in the world that happens?

Governor Cuomo: The difference is somebody who’s been out there and somebody who’s been through it and somebody who hasn’t, right? I used to be in the federal government as you know, I was HUD secretary and I’ve done floods, hurricanes, all sorts of disasters.

Yeah, maybe send out too much equipment. So what? The real crime and the heartburn is if you have too little. So, and I’m not even taking an aggressive model. I have a reasonable numeric model based on our numbers and again, you have a whole world of data going back to China. And we’re just asking for what we need for our reasonable model. I’m not — because many of these I’m paying with state money. And these ventilators, they’re about $25,000 each, Chris. So I’m not eager to buy more ventilators than I have to

Chris Hayes: Do you think what came out of Washington today (the Coronavirus Relief legislation) is sufficient for the kind of hole that New York is going to be looking at?

Governor Cuomo: No, it’s not even close. Look, the bill, they all applauded themselves. The bill did a lot of good — the unemployment insurance is good, the small business aid is good, the health care aid is good.

But they left out a very important function, which are the state governments and local governments.

You know, my economy is shut down like everybody else’s. I have no revenue, and all I have are expenses. And none of the aid went to a state government.

Now, it’s not like it’s my money and I’m going to go out and buy something. If you starve the state government, where — what I fund is education. And I fund health care. So when I have no budget, Chris, it means I have to turn around and cut schools all across my state and cut health care all across my state.

It makes no sense. Now, you know, states don’t have a voting constituency, right? You can’t come and hand me a big check so it’s not as politically advantageous when you do a bill in Washington. But I think it was shortsighted and I think they say they’re going come back but you know, who knows.

Chris Hayes: There’s been, I think the state announced the release of some prisoners in New York State. What steps are you taking to deal with that? Are you considering trying to decarcerate some of these places to get out ahead of that?

Governor Cuomo:  For example, we’re releasing people who are in jails because they violated parole for non-serious reasons. And wherever we can get people out of jails, out of prisons now we are. We also put in additional protections in the prisons to try to protect both the workers and the prisoners.

Chris Hayes:You just touted bail reform. You’re not trying to do that right now? There is reporting that you are.

Governor Cuomo: No, there is a discussion back and forth between the houses. It was a sweeping bill we did on bail reform and many times when you make a change, a basic change in a complex system, you have to go back and do some fine tuning. And that’s what we’re dealing with between the houses of the legislature but that’s usual. You go near a system like education or health care or the criminal justice system and you change the major gear in the system. You then often have to come back and make some other adjustments to make it work.

Chris Hayes: The relationship between this President and governors has been tempestuous in many cases. How does that hit your ears as you are in up to your neck in this crisis and you hear the governor — the President essentially saying everybody has to be sufficiently appreciative or they won’t get the help they need?

Governor Cuomo: Chris, by the question, I would be doing my state a disservice if I now attack the president, right? Let me just say this, I probably have been the number one critic of President Trump since he got into office and we’ve had some real battles and his tweets, has tweeted nasty stuff about me and about my family. On this situation, I said to him, look, forget the politics. Let’s put it aside. It’s very simple. I need help. You’re the federal government and this relationship has to work or a lot of people die. You do the right thing by my state and I will be appreciative and vice versa. And that’s how it has been working.

He has been responsive. He’s done a lot of good things. He has the Army Corps of Engineers in our state, FEMA. He waived the 25% state match, which is a big deal. So he has been very helpful and corporative overall and when we have differences I say we have differences. We had a difference on the Defense Production Act, et cetera. I’m not shy when we have a disagreement but when things are working well I say that, also.

This can’t be personal and it can’t be political because literally we are on the cusp of losing thousands of people who did not have to die, Chris. That is what the ventilators are about. They did not have to die. If we do what we have to do.

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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS WESTCHESTER UPDATE. MARCH 27, 2020:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo briefing today reported a 21% increase in Westchester County Coronaviris cases to 7,187. The number of coronavirus positive cases has risen approximtely 48% in two days. from 4,691 to 7,187.

The governor also asked the federal government for help in building four more hospital sites in the New York area in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. Earlier this morning President Trump said he would not send more ventilators to New York because the President believes the Governor has overstated the need.

WPCNR has observed in supermarkets and on the streets and in buildings citizens are not taking the obvious protection of covering their nose and mouths with a face mask, or something as simple as a bandana and scarf combination, and wear gloves at all times for protection from absorbing the virus off railings, tables, doorknobs and of course, social distancing of six feet. And the numbers show persons are not taking this as seriously as they should. YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE IN A CORONOVIRUS WARD.

There has been very little publication of the State CORONAVIRUS MENTAL HEALTH LINE to help those having anxiety issues over family, children, spouses, parents,. You can call

1-844-863-9314 1-844-863-9314 1-844-863-9314

AND TALK OVER YOUR ISSUES WITH A MENTAL HEALTH PROVISIONAL, YOU LEAVE YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER AND A VOLUNTEER PROFESSIONAL WILL CALL YOU BACK

1-

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DISTRICT TEACHERS TEACHING FROM HOME ON COMPUTER. 200 MEALS BEING FURNISHED DAILY AT 4 SCHOOL LOCATIONS. AWAITING WORD FROM STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IF BUDGET VOTES WILL BE HELD AS SCHEDULED. SCHOOL BUDGET MAY EYE ELIMINATING PROPOSED NEW ADDITIONS TO STAFF DEPENDING ON STATE AID, PLUMMETING STATE REVENUES.

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. March 26, 2020:

White Plains Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph Ricca today told WPCNR “he has never been prouder” of White Plains teachers and administrators the way White Plains students are learning at home on computer the last four days,.

The district designed a computer learning system in just four days, a production cooperation between White Plains technical people, principals, and teachers that is working

The Superintendent said the students are participating, they miss their classmates, they miss their teachers and cannot wait to get back to school.

All White Plains Teachers are working from their computers at home teaching their classes for the last four days. Ricca said there were some gliches but the system is working.

On the issue of the district providing day care for first responder and health care workers, allowing both parenters in the family to continue their necessary jobs, Ricca said the day care is being provided by Child Care of Westchester, the White Plains YMCA, and United Preschool Center at the facilities  provided by those organizations, employing professional child care specialists.   

He said about 20 families are participating in the essential personnel day care mandated by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and organized by Westchester County and the child care associations. First Responders and Health Care Workers who want this day care service should call Child Care Services of Westchester at 914-761-3456, Extension 140, or the YMCA at 914-949-8030, or United Preschool Center at 946-4781. Those three services are in White Plains.

Ricca told WPCNR, the White Plains School District has served 1,300 meals to parents in families where their children have been provided breakfast and lunch by the school district. Those meals are picked between  the hours of 10- AM to 2 PM. Those meals are being provided in bags at four locations: White Plains High School, Post Road School, Church Street School and Rochambeau School. They provide approximately 200 meals a day for consumption at home.

On the matter of the School Budget, the Superintendent of Schools said the proposed budget has not been cut in anticipation of any reduced revenues, but Dr. Ricca said the 2021-2022 budget will be impacted by the revenue losses Governor Cuomo estimated at the Governor’s news conference yesterday. Asked what the district might in matter of budget-cutting, he said hiring of additional new employees would be the first possibility the district might consider. Asked in view of the coronavirus social distancing policy in place, whether the district is considering moving the School Budget Election out to beyond May 19 (the scheduled date of the vote), Dr. Ricca  said the district has been asking the State Education Department about that possibility, but the SED has not come back with an answer. Dr. Ricca said if the state is still mandating a social distancing policy and statewide school closures at that time, he thought it would very difficult to hold an election