By Janet Ekstract
NEW YORK (TURKISH JOURNAL) – In his Monday daily briefing, New York’s Governor Cuomo said on May 15, New York is “prepared to intelligently reopen.” He cautioned that it’s not wise to bring major attractions into states that would involve large gatherings of people, encouraging the virus to spread. Cuomo said all regions won’t be opening in New York that only some regions will begin the reopening process. The governor met with local officials to participate in a briefing about how some regions will reopen.
The governor cautioned that some states “haven’t made people part of the plan.” He said: “We’re not at a point where government is going to solve anything, frankly.” Cuomo related that he’s proud of the fact that he got New Yorkers involved in New York PAUSE early on. He added: “I got the people involved in this situation to a greater degree than they’ve been involved in modern history.” Cuomo reiterated that unless people had been “engaged and bought into this, this would have never happened.” He was referring to the reality: “People had to understand the facts and people had to engage in governing themselves in a way they hadn’t in decades.”
In terms of the government aka Trump administration taking responsiblity for the coronavirus pandemic, Cuomo said: “I’m still trying to figure out when society got to a place where people accepted incompetence from officials.” He added: “This is not an abstract issue, you’re talking about people’s lives and their health and the health of their children.” The governor stressed: “People need to be part of this.” He emphasized that how quickly New York is able to reopen depends on “how people react and how people behave.” The governor made it clear that people must understand “this is not the floodgates, go back and do everything you were doing before.” The emphasis, he said must be on keeping the infection rate below 1 and that the rate of hospitalizations “must be manageable.” He reiterated that these two issues will inform the reopening going forward.
Cuomo said: “People need to understand now how we reopen.” He explained: “Hold me accountable, hold your local officials accountable.” He pointed out that we’re “going from phase one and highlighted that the reopening phase is “locally driven, regionally driven and regionally designed.” The governor made it clear that regions will be “approved to reopen with certain state conditions.” He said that local governments may add additional conditions but that the reopening will be done on a “region by region basis.” Cuomo commented: “I also believe if we actually learn from this moment, we talk about reimagining New York, so we build back better and we’re going to do that. I also think this is a moment that could change history in this country.” The governor added: “You had a wakeup call in this country and a moment in history that people have never gone through. It was an unprecedented action of the people, informed and engaged to really care and act on what they learned.” Cuomo added: “I think this is a moment that could change history in this country.”
