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Cuomo, at his daily briefing on Monday, April 20, warned that New York needs to "watch the dial," with one positive New York COVID-19 patient now infecting less than one person (.9) on average now. He says if social distancing isn't maintained, it could quickly increase to 1.2, which he said would overwhelm the hospital system. (See first image above.)
There were 478 more COVID-19 deaths in New York, bringing the total to 13,896 since the outbreak began. There have been 242,786 confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York, with 16,303 still hospitalized with the virus.
“That number is still horrifically high,” Cuomo said. “The optimist can look and say ‘well the hospitalizations are going down,’ but that’s still 478 New Yorkers who died from this terrible virus.”
Cuomo cautioned that with the weather beginning to turn, New Yorkers should continue to stay the course and remain social distancing, or else they risk of making the infection rate rise back into pandemic levels.
Cuomo announced he is starting a “Reimagine New York Task Force” with Westchester County Executive George Latimer, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, which will help shape how downstate New York moves forward.
“We have to do no harm. We can’t let the infection rate go up,” he said. “It’s all about testing and watching the dial. We know what’s going to happen now.
"The weather is getting warmer, and people want to get out of the house and be more active … and there’s a sanity quotient to it. I know you can only tell people to stay inside and lock the door for so long.”
Cuomo reiterated that schools would remain closed, and regardless of what individual school districts say, buildings will remain closed until the state says otherwise.
“Schools are closed,” he said. “There is no plan to reopen schools. I wouldn’t be surprised if some have heard that local schools had plans to reopen, but by law, they cannot reopen. If they want to reopen they can’t because it violates the plan we have in place.
“No school will reopen. We have to make a plan to reopen schools that’s within the right of the public health standards. It would involve sanitizing and a whole elaborate plan. No schools will reopen.”
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