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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS REPORT. From Governor Andrew Cuomo. April 2, 2020. 8:30 P.M.:
Tens of thousands of selfless healthcare workers have answered our urgent call to join New York’s active healthcare force, including 21,000 people who live out of state. It’s inspiring, and I personally promise that when the time comes, New York will repay the favor. We will never forget how the people of our country came to the aid of New York when we needed it, and we deeply appreciate it. Are you a qualified healthcare professional? Enlist here.
The temporary hospital facility at the Javits Center will now treat COVID-19 patients, Governor Andrew announced this evening.
The growing number of Coronavirus cases are threatening the capacity of our hospital system. The original plan for the Javits Center was to use it for non-COVID patients in order to free up beds at other hospitals.
However, the number of COVID patients has increased to the point that it is prudent for Javits to support and care for COVID patients. I asked President Trump this morning to consider this request and stressed the urgent need and he agreed to it.
The state now has over 92,000 cases; there are 884 new cases in Westchester for a current total of 11,567 out of 39,000 people tested in the county.
268 people with confirmed White Plains addresses have tested positive for the virus up from 248 yesterday ( Editor’s note: Increase 8%, below Westchester County rate).
As we have said, the local municipal numbers lag behind the broader county numbers due to the delay in the county receiving the necessary data from the state. Over time the lag has only gotten worse.
Despite this we have determined that we will continue to provide you with the numbers that we receive each day.
When and if the county provided municipal numbers have “caught up” to the overall numbers we will let you know, until then that you should not come to conclusions, positive or negative based on one day’s report.
The crime rate in White Plains has been very low for several years and it is even lower now.
We continue to patrol and enforce our laws and respond to resident complaints. Sanitation is picking up trash on a normal schedule; the streets and garages are being cleaned, building codes and city laws and ordinances continue to be enforced. The city remains at work.
One area of concern is domestic violence.
Although we haven’t seen a spike in these cases, current living conditions may make it difficult for people to seek help.
We want to make it clear that if you or someone you know, is in a dangerous situation you should contact the police, the investigative and victim support services remain in place and we are here to help. No one should live in fear in their home. Alternatively, My Sister’s Place operates a 24 hour hotline- that number is 1-800-298-7233.
Tomorrow at 7 we are paying tribute to all our essential workers with a focus, of course on our medical personnel. Come to your door window balcony or driveway and make some noise to show how much what they are doing matters to us.
Remember we are standing together by staying apart
Helpful links:
Westchester County Coronavirus information
NY State Coronavirus Information
White Plains Hospital Coronavirus Information
If you are experiencing symptoms associated with coronavirus, please call either the White Plains Hospital Hotline at (914) 681-2900 or the NYS Dept of Health Hotline at 1-888-364-3065. Professional staff will screen you over the phone by asking you a series of questions and assess your need for testing
WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From the Governor’s Press Office. April 2, 2020:
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its unprecedented negative impact on the global economy, the Enacted Budget maintains vital services and programs, while ensuring sustainability to weather this downtown, authorizes a reduction in spending by $10 billion and empowers the State Budget Director to develop a plan for across the board reductions and implement that plan as necessary over the course of the year.
The budget also puts in place mechanisms to control spending through the year if revenues fall even further, and raise spending if either revenues come in higher than expected or the federal government delivers support that offsets the state’s revenue losses.
All funds spending is estimated to total approximately $177 billion and state operating spending is authorized up to $105.8 billion,
However in the absence of additional federal assistance or a faster than anticipated economic recovery, spending will initially total $95.8 billion.
Realigning School Aid
Due to the extraordinary challenges from our COVID-19 health crisis, creating a $10 billion loss in revenue to the State, support for schools will remain nearly flat for a total of $27.9 billion in school aid.
Redesigning Medicaid and Health Care
The FY 2021 Enacted Budget advances reforms to the Medicaid program that will ensure it remains financially viable for the future so it can continue to provide high-quality care to more than six million New Yorkers.
Medicaid spending will increase by 3%, or about $500 million ensuring continuing high-quality care for the 30 percent of New Yorkers who rely on Medicaid for health care. Spending growth is now back in line with targets established by the Governor in 2012 that kept New York State’s Medicaid spending growth to less than half the national average, saving taxpayers more than $19 billion.
Many of these reforms were developed and unanimously endorsed by the Medicaid Redesign Team II, a cross section of health care providers, labor, local government and other industry stakeholders. They were tasked with reforming the system, and their recommendations stuck to the Governor’s guidelines that they must have zero impact on local government and zero impact on beneficiaries.
The reforms included in the FY 2021 Enacted Budget include a transformation of the hospital reimbursement structure to better support services to the uninsured, increases investments in primary care to avoid more costly hospitalizations, and new requirements that enhance oversight of managed care and transportation.
The reforms also address managed long-term care, by far the fastest growing sector of Medicaid. These include aligning New York State’s eligibility requirements with those of other states for new applicants for Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program and Personal Care Services and enhancing reporting requirements for both programs; capping statewide enrollment in managed long-term care to incentivize plans to assist in ensuring appropriate enrollment; and creating a statewide independent assessor to achieve efficiencies by removing duplicative efforts to determining eligibility and enrollment in the managed long-term care program.
GOVERNOR CUOMO DETAILS DEPLOYMENT OF SUPPLIES–AS “APEX” APPROACHESWestchester County went up 884 cases of coronavirus overnight to 11,567. The Governor expressed concern over the percentage of growth in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.GOVERNOR CUOM0 UP-TO-THE MINUTE BRIEFING ON THE CORONAVIRUS FRONT. EXPRESSES OPTIMISM THAT INCUBATIONS ARE LEVELING OFF, CONCERN ABOUT STRESS ON SUPPLIES AND IN THE FOLLOWING TWO CLIPS SAYS HOW THE STATE WILL DEPLOY SUPPLIES AS APPEX OF THE VIRUS APPROACHES. HE FIGURES ANYWHERE FROM 7 TO 30 SAYS, BUT FEELS IT WILL BE MORE LIKE 7 DAYS FROM NOW RATHER THAN LATER. The Governor said “at the present rate of burn, the state has 6 days supply of ventilators,” (for ICU patients), and when they run out ventilators will be moved from upstate hospitals as needed to downstate areas.GOVERNOR CUOMO SITUATION ROOM: GOVERNOR DISCUSSES THE THURSDAY SPREAD OF THE CORONAVIRUS AS OF 12 NOON EDTGovernor Cuomo, preparing for the APEX of the coronavirus , asked companies in the clothing business to call the Empire State Development Corporation, 212-803-3100, if they could manufacture medical supplies. The Governor said the state would pay to retrofit the company machines and pay for the products they manufacture. Time is of the essence.
Wrap-up from the Governor’s Press Office, 4:15 PM. April 2, 2020 (EDITED)
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the State Department of Health has approved Northwell’s protocol allowing BiPAP machines to be converted into ventilators.
The State has purchased 3,000 BiPAP machines from Philips in Pittsburgh, and 750 machines are already in stock and will be distributed to hospitals.
The State has already taken a number of extraordinary measures to acquire more ventilators and build the State’s stockpile, including tracking where all the ventilators are located in New York and shifting their locations to meet the highest need and ending elective surgeries. If necessary, hospitals may also use anesthesia machine ventilators or use a “splitting” protocol where one ventilator is used for two patients using separate tubes.
Governor Cuomo said the State has begun conducting a hospital-by-hospital survey on a nightly basis to take inventory of every hospital’s supplies.
Additionally, all hospitals are being asked to contribute the supplies they don’t currently need to a central stockpile to be distributed to hospitals with the greatest need.
The Governor also announced that 21,000 out-of-state individuals have volunteered to work in New York’s healthcare system on a temporary basis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To date, 85,400 health professionals in New York have signed up to volunteer as part of the State’s surge healthcare force.
The Governor announced that, through June 1, 2020, consumers and businesses experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 may defer paying premiums under individual and small group health insurance policies.
DFS shall consider any liquidity or solvency concerns of the health plans. During this period, health plans will be required to continue to pay claims, not to report late payments to credit rating agencies, and to work with individuals to help them transition to new coverage, i,
f appropriate. In addition, insurers are reminded that they cannot impose late payment fees. Governor Cuomo thanked Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont for his collaboration on this initiative.
The NY State of Health and the New York State Department of Financial Services announced a one-month extension of the special enrollment period through May 15, 2020 to allow uninsured New Yorkers to apply for coverage through NY State of Health or directly to insurers.
If you lost employer coverage, you must apply within 60 days of losing that coverage. Because of a loss of income, New Yorkers may also be eligible for Medicaid, the Essential Plan, subsidized Qualified Health Plans or Child Health Plus.
“We are continuing to plan forward and prepare our healthcare system for when the apex of the curve hits,” Governor Cuomo said. “We are taking extraordinary measures to acquire more personal protective equipment, find beds to increase hospital capacity and recruit staff, but there is still a critical need for all three of these components, and we need all three in order for our hospitals to actually function and provide care.
Finally, the Governor confirmed 8,669 additional cases a 10.3% increase) of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 92,381 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 92,381 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows, local counties in boldface:
In his news conference Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo analyzed the weaknesses of the national health care system and how communoties respond that must change
WPCNR MAYOR’S CORONAVIRUS REPORT: FROM THE MAYOR’S OFFICE:
7 PM EDT APRIL 1, 2020:
The state now has almost 84,000 cases, 10,683 are in Westchester, 35,000 have been tested. There are currently 268 Westchester County residents who are hospitalized, 12,226 are hospitalized statewide.
248 people with confirmed White Plains addresses have tested positive for the virus up from 172 yesterday (31% increase).
As we have said the local municipal numbers lag behind the broader county numbers due to the delay in the county receiving the necessary data from the state. Over time the lag has only gotten worse. Despite this we have determined that we will continue to provide you with the numbers that we receive each day.
When and if the county provided municipal numbers have “caught up” to the overall numbers we will let you know, until then that you should not come to conclusions, positive or negative based on one day’s report.
It’s Census Day! If you have not already done so, please take the time to fill out your census forms. We have received early results on the participation rates of the different communities in Westchester and I am pleased to tell you that we are leading the other major cities. If you haven’t completed your online response why not do so this evening? We’ve got some towns to beat!
As I announced last night, we will be celebrating essential workers who are doing so much for us every day by applauding them from our respective homes this Friday! At the request of White Plains Hospital, we have changed the time to 7pm. Windows, driveways, lawns, balconies and doorways all work, just make sure you stay 6 feet apart!
If you would like to directly express your appreciation for the heroic work being done every day by the people at White Plains Hospital go to wphospital.org/communitylove. If you want to help them stay home!
Remember we are standing together by staying apart
If you are experiencing symptoms associated with coronavirus, please call either the White Plains Hospital Hotline at (914) 681-2900 or the NYS Dept of Health Hotline at 1-888-364-3065. Professional staff will screen you over the phone by asking you a series of questions and assess your need for testing
THE WHITE PLAINS BID HAS PUBLISHED A LIST OF WHITE PLAINS RESTAURANTS WHO DELIVER OR YOU PICK UP MEALS. IT’S GREAT FOR THE OVER-STRESSED, CHILDREN-AT-HOME FAMILY WHO NEED A BREAK.
SAMPLE WHITE PLAINS RESTAURANTS. PREVENT FIRINGS. KEEP THEM GOING:
REDUCE THE HOSPITAL BEDS, PERSONNEL, VENTILATORS NEEDED TO CARE FOR YOU. APEX TO HIT APRIL 30. 83,712 Cases Overnight, up 7,917 rate of increase: 9 1/2%
WESTCHESTER, ROCKLAND, DUTCHESS, NASSAU SUFFOLK COUNTIES RISING FASTER THAN NEW YORK CITY.
WPCNR CORONAVIRUS REPORT. By John F. Bailey. April 1, 2020 UPDATED 4:35 E.D.T.:
Governor Andrew Cuomo today made his most urgent plea to
date for the public to practice maximum social distancing to bring down the growth of Coronavirus
victims to within New York’s present medical hospital and staff capacity to
care for them.
Governor Cuomo TODAY on the two things all New Yorkers should do who are not essential workers should do to help NY MEDICAL PERSONNEL CAN MEET THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE APEX
He is closing New York City Playgrounds, because youth are not complying with the non-organized games such as basketball, soccer that accelerate close contact, keeping open space parks for persons to observe social distanced recreation.
He showed an analysis
by the Mckinsey organization, showing the dramatic need and tremendous benefit
of social distancing and staying at home. The state current
medical ability to care for victims of the corona virus can withstand the rate
of the apex of the predicted virus spread if maximum social distancing is
practiced by the public, the projections showed the state would need 75,000
hospital beds and 25,000 ventilators, which it now has.
The analysis said that if maximum social distancing is not observed the state would need 35,000 more beds (110,000 hospital beds) and 37,000 ventilators, (12,000 more ventilators).
The governor said that if we cannot maximize social distancing and isolate in our homes as much as possible , the state medical force that is sharing facilities, assigning backup personnel and volunteers at the apex of the disease, “ We do not have a chance and will be overwhelmed.”
The governor started the news conference by telling the rest of the nation, that the coronavirus plague was spreading to all but one county in the state, invading cities and rural areas.
New York now has 83,712 cases, up 7,917 from yesterday, an increase of 9-1/2%. (slightly less than the 10% yesterday.)
New York City went up by 4,300 cases to 47,439, a 10% increase
Westchester County cases increased by 7.1% overnight to 10,683.,
Nassau Countywent up 11.8% to 9,554 an increase of 1,010 cases from, 8,544 yesterday
Suffolk County,892 to 7,605 from 6,713, a grim 13.2% increase in cases.
Rockland County is growing in cases and County Executive Ed Day said today ON NEWS 12, “Stay the Hell home.” Rockland’s cases number 3,331, up 16% overnight and according to County Executive Day this is a medical crisis for the county.
Dutchess County is growing, too, up to 547 cases, but the increase rate is not good–13%. Up from 484 yesterday.
He said that the spread being seen in New York will come to cities and towns and rural areas throughout the country and urged the states to work with each other to fight the disease together. The Governor noted that New Jersey now has 18,000 cases and New York is working with the Governor of New Jersey to help as the toll of cases rises there.
He said New York deaths were up overnight and an analysis by the Gates Foundation predicts that New York will see 16,000 die statewide. However the nation as a whole, will see 93,000 dead. As to how long New Yorkers (other than essential workers) have to stay in their homes, he said it could to July. But he emphasized no one knows.
He closed with a look to the future that the nation has to learn and change the way this country handles outbreaks, because, the Governor said:
“This will happen again.”
Today’s County-by-County rundown. Local counties in bold
Today the county supplied us with the following data: There are close to 10,000 positive cases in Westchester County out of over 35,000 tested.
There are currently 275 Westchester County residents who are hospitalized. 172 people with confirmed White Plains addresses have tested positive for the virus up from 156 yesterday.
The specific community numbers lag the county total by several days and do not include individuals for whom the county lacks address information. There have been 25 deaths related to the virus county wide.
There have been many complaints of people discarding disposable gloves, masks or wipes in streets sidewalks and parking lots after using them, presumably while shopping. Stop it!
Last night I announced that Stepinac High School would be hosting an American Red Cross blood drive at Stepinac on Thursday.
It was the hottest ticket in town. Within hours the 50 slots were filled and people continued to offer to donate.
I would like to thank those who signed up and the many who tried to sign up—it speaks volumes about our community and our commitment to each other. Thank you Stepinac and the volunteers who made this happen.
This Friday at 6pm we will be celebrating essential workers who are doing so much for us every day by applauding them from our homes! Windows, driveways, lawns, balconies and doorways all work, just make sure you stay 6 feet apart!
Remember we are standing together by staying apart
Governor Andrew Cuomo details how the Coronavirus Command Center is counterattacking the coronavirus problem statewide. He shares also the news that his brother, the CNN anchor, Chris Cuomo has come down with the virus.
