Cuomo Backtracks On New York Closing Down
Gov. Andrew Cuomo seems to be backtracking on shutting several areas of New York.
During a press conference on COVID-19 on Monday, Gov Cuomo indicated another statewide “pause” order could be put in motion to delay the spread of COVID-19.
“We could potentially do a NY Pause,” Cuomo noted on Monday during his COVID-19 briefing. “The hospitalization rate is increasing dramatically.”
Cuomo pointed to other states such as California, when another “pause” order could be seen, Cuomo’s favorite term for the closure of nonessential companies.
Later on Monday, the Governor’s staff issued a press release. He announced that Cuomo’s COVID-19 Winter Plan has an “Emergency Stop” policy. It is in effect that would close down areas of New York State.
“In addition to the 3 existing micro-cluster zone levels (Yellow Precautionary, Orange Warning, and Red), New York will also add a new ‘Emergency Stop’ level, which will effectively put that area under the NY Pause guidelines, if needed to preserve hospital capacity.”
Cuomo says the primary focus on the hospitalization rate and hospital capacity is on Thursday.
In a press release, Cuomo added that they’re struggling with spikes in hospitalizations on a wide scale of things. But, they’re doing significantly better than virtually any other state in the nation. The estimated number of hospital beds in the state is 53,000. With 35,000 beds occupied, and about 4,000 people suffering from COVID. And that they had about 19,000 people hospitalized with COVID at their height, to put this latest growth in context.
Cuomo added that the touch tracing in New York showed that pubs, cafes, gyms, salons, and other firms were not the largest cause of the rise in cases of COVID-19 in the New York States.
“At this point, you don’t control the activity of the overwhelming majority that’s causing the spread. The government cannot control that. The gyms, salons, the protocols are working. They’re a little percentage of the increase,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo also said the current touch tracing data from New York reveals that 70 percent of new COVID-19 events come from families and small gatherings, or “living room spread.”
“It’s not just mass gatherings causing the spread anymore. The virus is now literally spreading in households,” Governor Cuomo said. When you remove other socialization opportunities, individuals can change their actions and continue to unite in their homes. We are now seeing the results of that with a large number of instances occurring in families and informal gatherings.
