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 SUNDAY GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO CORONAVIRUS BRIEFING. By John F. Bailey, April 26, 2020 UPDATED 5:33 P.M. EDT:

The Hospitalization Rate declined to 1,000 new hospitalizations Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said ALONG with all other key coronavirus statistics in the state. “To put it in focus, we had 367 deaths Saturday, which is horrific.”

The Curve of infections across the state declined to the level of March 1^st, he said (when the New York spread of the disease began its rapid rise), hospitalizations declined, patients put on incubation were negative. The Governor said the current requirement to stay at home and closings statewide was in effect until May 15.

At that time, if Hospitalization Rate had been declining for 14 days, he said the state would begin the process oF reopening which would be begin with construction and manufacturing businesses  in yet-to-be-selected upstate counties with the lowest infection rates in the northern tier, North Country or central NY regions. He did not name how many counties could open, or when the openings might start.

The News Release from the Governor’s press office added this detail:

• ” Phase one will include opening construction and manufacturing functions with low risk.
• Phase two will open certain industries based on priority and risk level. Businesses considered “more essential” with inherent low risks of infection in the workplace and to customers will be prioritized, followed by other businesses considered “less essential” or those that present a higher risk of infection spread. As the infection rate declines, the pace of reopening businesses will be increased.
• The region must not open attractions or businesses that would draw a large number of visitors from outside the local area.
• There will be two weeks in between each phase to monitor the effects of the re-opening and ensure hospitalization and infection rates are not increasing.
• This plan will be implemented with multi-state coordination, especially in downstate New York. The plan will also coordinate the opening of transportation systems, parks, schools, beaches and businesses with special attention on summer activities for downstate, public housing and low-income communities, food banks and child care.
• The phased re-opening will also be based on individual business and industry plans that include new measures to protect employees and consumers, make the physical work space safer and implement processes that lower risk of infection in the business. The state is consulting with local leaders in each region and industry to formulate these plans.”

 The counties SELECTED FOR OPENING would be monitored for two weeks to see if the spread of the virus which the governor said would likely happen, but the infection rate would have to contained below the one person infecting 1.2 other person ration, because that very slight increase would cause an outbreak. Currently the downstate New York Metropolitan area has a 1 person with the virus infecting .8 of a person contrasted to the upstate average of .9 a person, the governor said, reviewing the ways spread is increased.

The Governor did not say what would be done if there was an outbreak in infected counties. After the upstate counties selected for opening performance was evaluated there would be more analysis of the highly vulnerable downstate New York Metropolitan area.

This could possibly mean a Westchester-New York City-Nassau-Suffolk Openings in mid to late June, (but the Governor did not give a possible date, that is purely made by WPCNR looking at the calendar.) The Governor also noted that large events attracting many people would have to be curtailed, distanced or continue to be not allowed to avoid spiking an outbreak, but those big festivals are part of the analysis of all factors in the NY Metro area opening.

On the issue of Schools reopening, the governor said many districts are contemplating summer school to make up for lost time in their districts.  The Governor alluded to the computer learning at home as very innovative, that was used to keep learning going, but summer is being considered by districts. He said there had not been a decision on when schools would be reopened, or when school budgets might be voted on or how. 

He went into these details on how the New York Metropolitan area would reopen: Businesses would be allowed to open first on a city need basis and the businesses’ abilities to redesign work spaces, schedules and technology use to maintain safe social distancing within the firms. Last businesses to open would be hospitality, restaurants and hotels, because they presented the most problems with spreading the diseases. All businesses opening would have to submit a plan how redesigning, reimaging how their workers will work in a reimagined environment to keep coronavirus from flaring up again.

He told the story of the L train tunnel that opens tomorrow in Manhattan, and how that was built in less than 15 months because New York did it differently.

 Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the innovative L tunnel project is complete – six months earlier than the original proposal that would have shut down service, and three months ahead of the new innovative plan announced in January 2019, after the Governor convened a panel of engineering experts who determined a disruptive total shutdown was unnecessary. Completion came through under budget, saving more than $100 million in project costs. Beginning Monday, April 27, L train service will resume its previous service schedules with adjustments under the MTA Essential Service Plan. 

The governor said he had no problem with professional sports teams playing a season if there were no fans in the stands. He suggested they work out a way to earn revenue without ticket sales to fans (no spectators in the stands) make a deal with players to lower their contracts, and receive payments presumably from media fees for the games He said he had talked to sports owners about this possibility and declined to name them.

He said he was looking into acquiring dairy products now being disposed of by NY farmers, which he said was because schools had stopped purchasing dairy for their food programs ( because schools are closed). Governor Cuomo is seeking to have the product now being destroyed being purchased by the state for food progrms across the state to bolster the food programs now helping feed families in need due to the coronoavirus chaos.

He observed the anxiety of the public and the need to deal with the “coronavirus toxicity” toll on New York lives. He said domestic violence was up statewide, and employment issues, bills due, taking care of children, lack of ability to socialize has created tremendous personal problems which would have to be dealt with by the services sector and charitable organizations and professionals.

He said as reopening comes, it is up to how New Yorkers behave that will determine whether reopening is successful and the virus does not return.

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LATIMER ON THE GROWTH IN WESTCHESTER CORONAVIRUS CASES THIS WEEK— BAILEY ON THE WESTCHESTER INFECTION RATE–NASSAU-SUFFOLK LEADERS

TONIGHT ON WHITE PLAINS TV, CH. 45 FIOS COUNTYWIDE, AND CABLEVISION CH. 76 WHITE PLAINS NEW YORK USA AND www.wpcommunitymedia.org

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WPCNR THURSDAY GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO CORONAVIRUS REPORT. By John F. Bailey:

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s opening word in today’s Albany Coronavirus  Report was “grim.”

He said the Hospitalization Rate was continuing down or flat averaging 1,300 patients a day the last three days. The “flat” nature of the Hospitalization Rate was hard to “read, “not great news.”

When pressed in the reporters’ “Q. & A.” (after the briefing) questioning the Governor on why three weeks of flattening the curve and a flattening Hospitalization rate, wasn’t that “enough,” the Governor said he did not have an “Infection Rate,” he did not have an certain “Hospitalization Rate” direction. When asked how much information he needed to reopen the state, the Governor said it depends on the numbers  direction to make the reopen call.

The Governor reported he was launching a state investigation of nursing home performance to see how many homes  violated the state regulations during the coronavirus infections affecting nursing homes across the state. 

At today’s Briefing, a reporter query on nursing home complaints of equipment shortages, a member of the Cuomo team said the state had distributed to nursing homes alone  as of two weeks ago, 417,000 surgical masks, 105,000 surgical gowns, 423,000 sets of gloves, among other items. The governor explained that there were shortages all over the country of this equipment.

The Director of the New York State Department of Health said he would get the figures on how many nursing home patients were transferred out of nursing homes to a hospital (since nursing homes are required to transfer residents whom they could not care appropriately for to do so.).

 Asked what went “wrong” (with nursing homes) by another correspondent, the Governor said “Nothing went wrong,” attributing it to the suddenness of the situations, as he has said often, saying it was a stressful situation due to the unprecedented spread of the virus.

Mr. Cuomo reported the way forward again was heavy testing, and tracing before and after the reopening.

He reported the first results of such information gathering initiatives — the state effort to survey at random persons throughout the state beginning two days ago by health department personnel Monday in order to determine the “Infection rate” across the state.

The Governor early in the coronavirus growth, recalled that the only certainty was the Hospitalization Rate, which showed how fast the COVID-19 virus was spreading. “I said I needed to have the Infection Rate.”

 Mr. Cuomo  said the first “Infection Rate” rate statewide of persons  so far, showed that those who had had virus and were no longer infected was 13.9%.

He noted the New York Metropolitan Area had a 12% Infection Rate in Westchester with New York Boroughs a 22% infection rate. The survey was of persons interviewed outside of their homes in grocery and box stores.  Whites had the lowest incidents of infection (now cured), while minorities had the most due, the governor theorized because of their urban dense locations.

In the Q.A., with the Governor turning reporters loose on their own to follow the new protocol of one question at a time and no shouting simultaneously. The reporters did well. Questions were miked in the Red Room, and this seemed to bolster their confidence, as well as making the conference more informative and fast moving.

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  MIKE BLOOMBERG TO FUND, ORGANIZE, TRAIN, DISPATCH, TRACING PROGRAM JURISDICTIONALLY COORDINATED IN NY-CT-NJ

HIRING 35,000 MEDICAL STUDENTS AS TRACERS TO THE HOT SPOTS.

CURVE CONTINUES ON A SLOW DESCENT.

THE TRUMP & CUOMO TEAM :

“VERY PRODUCTIVE MEETING”. $1.3 BILLION FOR NY FOR TRACING, AGREEMENT ON FUNDING STATE REVENUE LOSSES. CONGRESS NEXT STOP

“NOT THE TIME FOR BABY STEPS,” CUOMO TELLS CONGRESS.

BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS, TRANSIT HAVE TO OPEN SIMULTANEOUSLY.

WPCNR WEDNESDAY GOVERNOR CUOMO CORONAVIRUS BRIEFING By John F. Bailey, April 22, 2020:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo told his news conference on coronavirus this morning on Day 53 of the New York State coronavirus pandemic, “We are in a much better place. The downward curve is on descent, the Hospitalization Rate of new cases continues down.

Intubations of patients (to ventilators) lowest it has been. Now, the governor said it remains to be seen “how long” it will take to get to an acceptably low level of new hospitalizations to open, “3 weeks to 6 weeks?”

The Goveronor focused on the 474 new deaths reported yesterday. He said whether the curve continues down we will know by how people behave: “You will see the results in the number of hsopitalizations in just a few days… your effort is how we get out of this. Truth and facts that’s how we operate in New York.”

Though the curve of coronavirus infections is going down, the governor said, “Don’t be too cocky. I’m not going to make the decision to reopen on political pressure to reopen. We can’t make the wrong decision. Now is not the time to act stupid. More people will die if we are not smart. That is not who we are.”

He said he had a “productive meeting at the White House yesterday. We spoke truth and facts and made a plan going forward, meeting with The President and his political team. They don’t like me much politically, but when you’re in a foxhole, you may not care for the guy in the foxhole next to you, but you protect the person next to you and charge up the hill. That was the sense of the meeting.”

The Governor said the President agreed to the states doing the testing, and the government would fund the money for supplies to ramp up the testing, about 40,000 tests a week., and $1.3 Billlion to fund the tracing program that Governor Cuomo feels is essential to stopping coronavirus from reigniting before any opening of the New York State economy takes place. Agreement on reimbursing New York State for its lost revenues was also agreed on, and is up to congress.

Mr. Cuomo said the first two relief bills passed by Congress were great, “I get that.” But he pointed out again the revenue losses that left New York and other states facing massive cuts to education, health, and local municipalities Mr. Cuomo said the congress has to act on a third bill to make states solvent: “Now is not the time to take baby steps.”

The Governor announced plans to hire 35,000 medical students to act as tracers who would follow coronavirus positives from places of work to where they lived to trace what other populations they may have infected.

He said Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York, has volunteered to head up the Tracing Program, select and train the force of student “Tracers.” Governor Cuomo said that the Tracing Program would also trace in New Jersey, resources being split between the two states. Mr. Bloomberg is donating $20 Million to the Tracing Program.

In a news release at 2:15 PM from the Governor’s office more details:

“Mike Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies have committed organizational support and technical assistance to help build and execute this new program. The contact tracing program will be done in coordination with the downstate region as well as New Jersey and Connecticut and will serve as an important resource to gather best practices and as a model that can be replicated across the nation. There has never been a contact tracing program implemented at this scale either in New York or anywhere in the United States. The program will launch immediately.

Bloomberg Philanthropies has committed $10.5 million, along with organizational support and technical assistance, to help build and execute this new program.

“The numbers indicate we are past the apex of this pandemic, and while we start our work to re-open our economy we must ensure we are doing it in a way that does no harm and does not undo all of the work and sacrifice it has taken to get here,” Governor Cuomo said. “One of the most critical pieces of getting to a new normal is to ramp up testing, but states have a second big task – to put together an army of people to trace each person who tested positive, find out who they contacted and then isolate those people. This partnership with Mike Bloomberg to create an unprecedented, nation-leading contact tracing program will do just that and serve as a model for the rest of the nation.”

“We’re all eager to begin loosening restrictions on our daily lives and our economy. But in order to do that as safely as possible, we first have to put in place systems to identify people who may have been exposed to the virus and support them as they isolate,” said Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP, three-term mayor of New York City. “I’m honored to partner with Governor Cuomo and New York State to help do that, by creating a new contact tracing program on a widespread scale. Coupled with far more testing, it will help us drive the virus into a corner — saving lives and allowing more people to begin getting back to work.”

The Governor announced the coronavirus concentrations are three times higher coronavirus infections communities of minorities that have industrial plants contributing to air pollution that puts the neigborhood residents more at risk.

In the “Q. & A.” the Governor, when queried incessantly on why not reopen because so many people have no pay, have limited cash and needed to get back to work, the Governor said: “The illness is death. It is not about me, it is about we. Speak out as if it was you and your family. Nothing comes before the public health risk.”

On the issue of nursing homes losing licenses and providing care nursing homes were not providing, the governor said he would address this issue more fully Thursday. He patiently explained to reporters all over the nursing home problems, that the state regulated and licensed, but the nursing homes were private they were not state run. The governor did say if the nursing homes could not take care of coronavirus patients appropriately, the state could relieve the concerns of their licenses.

The governor said business, schools, and transit would all open simultaneously in any reopening and repeated his intention yesterday to open gradually across the state.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the New York State Department of Financial Services will direct health insurers to provide cash flow relief to, and ease administrative burdens on, New York State hospitals in response to COVID-19. Relief provided to hospitals during the pandemic includes insurers’ immediate payment of outstanding accounts receivables, suspension of preauthorization requirements for all hospital services, and prohibition of retrospective review of claims.

The Governor insisted on the protocol of one question at a time, not reacting to the tumult of questions until they all quieted.  Then in the guilty diedown of random questions the governor reminded reporters in the “Q. & A,” who were cautioned once more that only one questioner at a time would be taken and he would go one-by-one, but did allow followup questions to the individual reporters in their first-call sequence.

It is unclear at this time the results of the medical tests on treatments that were promised Tuesday.

Finally, the Governor confirmed 5,526 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 257,216 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 257,216 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

County	Total Positive	New Positive
Albany	737	33
Allegany	30	0
Broome	219	14
Cattaraugus	37	2
Cayuga	36	0
Chautauqua	26	1
Chemung	75	0
Chenango	79	0
Clinton	51	0
Columbia	117	4
Cortland	25	0
Delaware	50	1
Dutchess	2,391	60
Erie	2,233	86
Essex	22	1
Franklin	13	0
Fulton	28	1
Genesee	122	1
Greene	87	0
Hamilton	3	0
Herkimer	53	3
Jefferson	54	0
Lewis	9	0
Livingston	39	0
Madison	106	0
Monroe	1112	42
Montgomery	38	1
Nassau	31,555	476
Niagara	268	8
NYC	142,432	3,107
Oneida	301	17
Onondaga	526	12
Ontario	73	1
Orange	6,690	129
Orleans	56	3
Oswego	49	0
Otsego	49	0
Putnam	611	6
Rensselaer	186	3
Rockland	9,699	131
Saratoga	264	7
Schenectady	280	7
Schoharie	20	0
Schuyler	7	0
Seneca	18	0
St. Lawrence	123	3
Steuben	171	1
Suffolk	28,854	700
Sullivan	561	6
Tioga	39	2
Tompkins	119	0
Ulster	913	20
Warren	108	6
Washington	73	5
Wayne	52	1
Westchester	25,276	620
Wyoming	40	4
Yates	11	1

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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.  

.

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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