By Janet Ekstract
NEW YORK (TURKISH JOURNAL) – In his Tuesday press briefing, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said : “It’s time to wake up America.” The governor added: “The White House has been in denial on coronavirus from the get go.” Cuomo reiterated the reason New York is doing so well is thanks to 95% compliance on wearing masks and stricter social distancing.
The New York governor implemented strict guidelines from the initial total lockdown mode while urging New Yorkers to wear masks and social distance accompanied by a media campaign and a video contest about the pandemic. It is because of more drastic measures that Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took New York from its COVID peak to where it is now – just 850 hospitalizations and over three days just eight deaths.
Cuomo emphasized that 32 states are now seeing increased COVID cases and that two major issues for New York are that local governments are not making sure New Yorkers are in compliance on masks. The second issue that will affect New York is COVID spread across states and interstate travel which Cuomo said is definitely “problematic.”
New York’s governor lashed out at the federal government on testing and testing sites pointing out that the Trump administration is responsible for the lack in testing with only 41 testing sites available nationwide. Cuomo asked how can that be when “in New York City, we have 750 testing sites. He said: “From Day One they told you they didn’t believe it was a problem,” referring to testing and the COVID outbreak. The governor added that New York is an example for the rest of the country: “We have the lowest level of hospitalizations since this nightmare began.”
He made it clear that local government officials have to stop being afraid to enforce the wearing of masks and that it is absolutely necessary to combat virus spread in the future. Cuomo also said: “We will help any state in the U.S.A” that needs help. The governor outlined a series of steps that New York will be taking to ensure that COVID does not spread indoors. One of those steps is to use HEPA filters which are known to be capable of killing COVID. The plan is to use them in large malls, offices and businesses as well. He NASA had been studying the use of these filters and that studies are being completed.
The outspoken governor had a message for President Trump: “To the president, I say, today, if you want to help stop COVID-19, start telling the people of this country the truth.” He said it’s the responsibility of the leader to get people to comply and Cuomo suggested: “Sign an executive order directing everyone to wear a mask.” He added: Let the president “put a mask on it.” He also thanked New Yorkers for being diligent in their compliance with social distancing and mask wearing – adding: “A mask only works if you wear it.”
Cuomo said: “I understand enforcement of compliance is difficult but it’s the law.” He stated that “it only takes one person to infect everyone.” He warned that if proper steps are not taken throughout the rest of the country that the “economic equation” will get worse. The governor commented that “we don’t know what will happen tomorrow and we don’t know when it will stop.” He said that New York is moving into Phase 3 and that steps are being taken to find out how indoor dining can be made safer. So far, Cuomo said that outside dining has been successful. One of the top risks and the way the virus was transmitted in New York over a three-month period from December to March was through international travel, the governor said, and that Europe had been the primary source of the virus during that time.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s main point was that the federal government never informed any state about that and said: “It was just a total miss by the federal government.” Cuomo’s parting words to President Trump: “I implore the president to get into the game.”
