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Cuomo announced on Thursday, March 19 that he will order all non-essential businesses in New York to have at least 75 percent of their employees work from home. (See first image above.)
The move comes a day after Cuomo had ordered half of a company's employees to work at home.
The move does not affect companies that provide essential services such as food, pharmacies, healthcare, shipping, supplies, etc.
At his daily news briefing in Albany, Cuomo discussed the financial and economic impacts the crisis is having on New Yorkers and announced a 90-day mortgage relief program for those directly affected by COVID-19. (See second image above.)
"There have been major shifts in life in the most emotional, stressful conditions imaginable," Cuomo said. "Understand it for what it is. It's not just you. It has changed everything and it will for the foreseeable future."
"This is tremendously disruptive on so many levels," Cuomo said of the crisis. "It came out of the blue. For me in New York, it reminds me of 9/11, where one moment, which was inconceivable, just changed everything.
"Children who were young at that time but of school-age watched on TV. They didn't know if their parents were coming home. I think it changed their whole outlook on life after 9/11.
"This is a situation like that. Obviously it's of a whole different magnitude, but it's a moment that changes your whole life."
Cuomo also appealed to younger New Yorkers to take the virus seriously and practice social distancing.
"These pictures of young people at beaches, at spring break," Cuomo said. "This is so unintelligent and reckless. I can't even begin to express it."
Cuomo was accompanied at the news conference by his daughter, Michaela Kennedy Cuomo.
"She was deprived of the last few weeks of college which I'm sure was going to be a strict study period," he said, sarcastically. "She was going to go with friends on spring break. Luckily, she made the right decision not to go, with no prompting from me, and I'm proud of her.
Video of Cuomo's appeal to younger people
With a ramp-up in testing, New York now has 4,152 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 1,129 new cases reported in New York City, followed by Westchester (260), Nassau (189), Suffolk (62), Rockland (23), Orange County (19). Eleven new cases were reported in Dutchess. (See third image above.)
There have been 21 deaths from COVID-19 in New York.
A total of 22,284 people have now been tested in New York State, with more than 7,500 tests done in the last 24 hours. For a breakdown by county, see fourth image above.
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