>> briefings from governors in congress and are daily call-in program washington journal. during your coronavirus crisis and if you miss any of our live coverage, what anytime on demand at c-span.org/coronavirus. earlier today, new york governor andrew cuomo gave a briefing on the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic. he announced regions in new york that are entering phase i of reopening today and the guidelines businesses must follow.

>> morning. happy friday. you guys look tired today. don't worry, it's friday. you young guys out stamina. friday, you will have the weekend off. no you won't, that's right. let's take a look and see where we are today. total number of hospitalizations, down. the way we like to see. rolling average down, the way we like to see it and changing intimations down, that's the way we like to see it. number of new cases, we don't like to see that but it's only up a tech and again, these numbers tend to bounce but it's been a slow decline. no doubt about that and you see there's been several plateaus in thedecline . we are very curious to find out where that number lines

up. how low the new cases go. we've done a lot of research as you know. those new cases mostly coming from people who are at home so we're talking about homes spread more than at work, more than first responders, more than essential personnel and that's the hardest place to control the spread is when a person is literally at home . there are very few precautions. it's all about personal behavior. that'swhere those cases are coming from . number of deaths is down but still painful, 132 we are right about where we were and we started this. number of lives lost, we go right back to march 27 and that's when we really first started this miserable journey. good news again, we look at

new york, our curve is down . congratulations new yorkers and actually occur in the rest of the nation isup . so while cases are increasing across the country, the number of cases in new york are actually going down and that's remarkable in some ways because we had more cases than anyone else. not because there's anything particular in the air in new york but because we had people coming from your bringing the virus at a time when no one knew the virus had moved from china to europe and we had 3 million europeans come january, february and march before we get the ban on european travel those flights came to the east coast and they landed at jfk airport.

so the problem had nothing to do with us but we would were then tasked with resolving it new yorkers stepped up to the plate and have done a great job. the question now is on reopening . we're going to open half the regions in the state today. five regions out of 10. they are the regions that meet the numerical criteria. there's no politics to this judgment. there's no arbitrary nature to this judgment. it's all on the numbers. seven criteria which recently measure the infection rate, hospitalization rate, testing rate etc. and that how the decision is made for those regions that don't qualify to open today we are extending what's called the new york pause quarter which is the closedown of services and institutions that have been closed down. if a region it's its benchmark at any time, regardless of the cost order, then that region can open

area where opening phase i in those five regions today. just some points on each of those industries, residential commercial instruction open, indoor construction and outdoor, masks must be worn by employees when they are 60 from one another so they must all have masks. the employer must providethe masks . and any gloves, and equipment that the employees need on that worksite must be provided by the employer. there's no private meetings for retail businesses. curbside pickup starts, the employee and the purchaser and the vehicle must be wearing a mask. anyone in the vehicle must be wearing a mask and gloves are preferred but they're not mandated area and the employer, the store owner must make hand sanitizer available.

if curbside pickup is not practical, then in-store pickup is available. but it is in-store pickup. it is not in-store shopping. in-store pickup because worksite is not practical, requires ordering ahead. social distancing in the store no more than 50 percent maximum occupancy of that store for people coming there to pick up. patrons must wear a mask or employees must wear a mask. both are preferred. handsanitizer have to be made available . for an individual behavior, people asked well, what am i supposed to be doing as an individual area and i'm not a store owner and i don't work construction. i understand as an employee what my requirements are just what do i do in normallife ?

you're in public and you're within six feet of another person, where a mask. that is a requirement. curbside or in-store pickup, wear a mask and socially distance . store owners should not let you in the store for an in-store pickup if you don't have a mask . the exception is less than two years old. or some people for medical reasons hand wear a mask. in an spectacular manufacturing setting the employee must wear a mask whenever they can't socially distance and the employer has to meet certain precautions which they said they would when they reopened under this. in private, people asked what should i do? when you have our best advice , but in private is private,

what you do in your home, what you do with your personal relationships, your friendships , we talk about exposure to senior citizens and how you should be careful to vulnerable populations but there are no government requirements on what you do in your home. the responsibility for local officials and what we call the regional control center, local officials have been forced into business compliance andsocial distancing . these businesses are opening subject to saying they will comply with safety precautions. localofficials have to make sure they are followed . as well as social distancing guidelines for individuals . the original control center will have a daily morning meeting where they review and monitor the infection testing and hospitalization rates and i can't stress thisenough . we are starting to turn the valve . one of my favorite graphics, not saying a heck of a lot.

starting to turn the activity valve. watch what happens to the infection rate testing rate, hospitalization rate if those numbers are to move, slow down on the activity level. that required you to monitor the impact of this increase in public activity. you will see an increase. we expect to see an increase. but that increase has to be monitored and has to be controlled. we thought about the infection rate, rate of transmission. when the rate of transmission it's 1.1, you're headed towards a bad place. so monitor that rate daily and correct immediately if you see an increase in those numbers.beaches, we thought

about coordinating with other states. and this is has happened in other parts of the country, other parts of the world also . we are one multistate region. what one state does will affect other states. that is probably nowhere more clear than when it comes to opening beaches. one state doesn't open beaches, another state does open beaches. you will see people flood that state. georgia opened barbershops, people drove from out-of-state to georgia to get a haircut. if new jersey opens beaches for connecticut opens beaches and we didn't open beaches, you would see a flood of people to connecticut's new jersey. and our relationship and responsibility to our other state neighboring states is

important. we want what's best for new york but we want what's best fornew yorkers , not in new york interest to have new yorkers going to a jersey beach is now going to be overcrowded because you have people from new york and new jersey going to that beach. it's not in our interest that people going to connecticut beaches, if those because i'm then going to be overcrowded so we work with new jersey and connecticut. we come up with an agreement that a common all needs. and it was done in good faith . the agreement is new york, new jersey, connecticut, delaware will all be opening beaches for the memorial day weekend . states will have different specific rules about what happens on that beach. the low will be plus or minus

a rule, is in the same ballpark. there opening friday of memorial day weekend. he is, that includes local beaches, make sure it does not include pools, pools are close. but no more than 50 percent. and that will be done parking areas, entrance areas, areas . no group contact activities. no volleyball,no football , nothing likethat . areas of social gathering will be closed. areas, etc. social distancing will be enforced for employees and visitors. masks must be worn by employees and visitors must have masks and wear them when they can't socially distance. at this point since sessions will not be operating, we

don't want long lines of people waiting on concessions , before concession stands and to ensure that staff levels are adequate to enforce thesemeasures . on the beaches that are controlled by cities, towns, counties, municipal beaches, municipal lakes, the local government can decide to open or stay close. if they choose to open, they must adopt the states requirements at a minimum and the chief executive can decide to do that. if they want to impose additional requirements above and beyond the state requirements they are free to do that . that will be done by a whole new message. and those decisions should be made by the local, by

wednesday, may 20. so we can plan accordingly. if a locality doesn't open beaches, we need to know that because then we will have more demand on the state beaches in that area if they do open beaches, we need to know that also. just understand the flow of traffic and where we have to step up . against, beaches will be friday immortal day. last point, reopening must be smart and we have to keep this in focus. remember, learn from the lessons that are around us. we've seen other countries open. we seem cities open. we seen them then close because the activity level went up too high too fast area we've seen countries like germany that are reopening but they're seeing that infection rates go up

and their monitoring very closely expect the rates to go up. it has to go out at a rate that we can control. the risk is the activity level increases quickly and then the virus spreads quickly. you overwhelm the help system etc. so this has to be monitored very closely. a lot of it is going to flow along the local governments and we need them to really step up here. on the compliance of businesses and forindividuals , the testing and tracing is one of the key monitors on that dashboard. they all meet the minimum testing and tracing requirements but they have to do it also has to be done every day is a adjustable operational challenge. we're working with them to do that but that has to be done every day and the monitoring of all the indicators again,

and quick reactions. these indicators will be online or everyone, not just for local governments, there on the website i would suggest everyone look at them, look at them for their company. theregion so they know exactly where they are every day updated daily . and how this goes is up to all of us. stone the stone across the morass as my father used to say. you're going through a morass and we are in a morass, the area find stone, find a firm footing and step onto that stone. can you find the next stone, then you find the next area that's what we've been doing. it's reopening, it is the most dated data-driven specific science driven reopening that has been done.

it's all about the numbers and facts. that's right. second stone is now you start to reopen, do it intelligently and do it with discipline and not with emotion. and government has to be there and the government has to perform. but to be up to all of us, it means it has to be up to each of us at the same time. and that is very important here. each of us understand our responsibility area and that's how this hasworked from day one . governments, governments, governments. it's about what people have decided to do in this situation. how do we been her, when they like the history books are going to write about how new york turned back her. that was done by new yorkers, not agovernmental . no government could tell 19 million people stay at home.

don't go to work. where a mass. socially distance, but not government action. that's social action. those are people who choose to do the responsible thing. i think because we gave them the facts they reacted intelligently. they responded responsibly and we have to continue that. with this virus i just want to say on a personal level i want to makesure everybody understands . this, the facts here have been changing and the facts have only been getting more negative. this started that it was only going to attack vulnerable people. seniors, people with comorbidities. i was speaking to a doctor today about a young person who passed away of a stroke from covid-19. nothing else, it was a stroke . no respiratory illness but what happened?

apparently the virus can affect the heart and deliver and other organs decides the lungs and we didn't know that. children weren't going to be infected. except now we are studying 100 cases with children where they are in fact affected by the virus. and some of them very serious and that 100 cases, i'll wager that going to only go up and is going to be much more widespread than anyone thinks so the amount of personal responsibility here. keep oneself safe, to keep one's family safe. i cannot stress highly enough . do not underestimate this virus and do not play with this virus. i can be asymptomatic and not

know that i have thevirus . but i can put my hand down on this table today. you can come touch this table three hours from now and pick up the virus . i can walk into a store to pick up a package, not know that i have the virus. put my hand on stainless steel counter. you can come in the store the next day, put your hand on thatcounter and pick up the virus . i don't care how diligent the store owner is area and how many masks you wear. at how powerful this virus is . well, it's only old people. number tell that to the families who have an eight-year-old and a seven-year-old in thehospital . tell that to the 21-year-old girls family where the 21-year-old girl passed away.

everyone is vulnerable to this virus. everyone. and government can't keep you safe. only you can keep yourself safe. but when you keep yourself safe and i keep myself safe, that's the way we keep allof us safe . that's the story of life and it's the story of where we are today and it's the story of being new york top which is tough, but it's smart and united and disciplined and it's being loving and responsible for one another. questions? [inaudible] it's recently been brought to our attention that ... [inaudible] and 320

more deaths and they're concerned about policy. first of all staff are telling me that they're being moved around so they're afraid that there's a staffing shortage so the nurses and staff ... [inaudible] they also are concerned because they are having problems social distancing. >> ... >> ..

the basic point is what we have been talking about saying that this nursing homes in the prisons than any congregate facility. there's no doubt when you have a congregation of people that is a place where the virus can transfer, whether it's a meet processing plant with 1000 employees. it wasn't about the meet assessing plans, it was just 1000 employees. we have an agricultural plant in madison county and it was about the density of the employees because you had for two around. we started this with a hotspot in new rochelle westchester before they called it a hotspot. it was the first one in the country. was one person, a super spreader, new term, who was with a couple hundred people at a gathering and dozens got sick so the congregate facilities of people. that's all it is.

wherever you have the density of a gathering of people that is a problematic area. nursing homes are worse but if you have a community group home and you have six people living in the house that is a place where you want to watch. six people in the house is not as bad as 1000 people in the prison were 308 nursing home but anyplace for you have a gathering. on the moving of staff, i don't know if that is right or wrong or normal operating procedure or not but we can check. i just don't know. >> we need to get the test to nursing home staff and essential workers. does new york have the current capacity to test as many as you were requiring and it's if not

how can you get there and when? the president told you he would be helping with the supply chain. >> there is lot more. let's unpack it one at a time. we will check was that the staffing policy if there was a change. on the testing we are doing more united states. we are doing more testing per-capita than many countries on the globe. and we are ramping up dramatically and quickly. we have to test staff at and nursing homes. we have the most aggressive requirement. i understand that. to test for every staff member. week and that is the most aggressive but this is the most larval population. testing is much more available

than it's ever been in the state. there are parts of the state where we have more testing capacity than people are using. we have tried through his and drugstores that are performing tests who say they don't have enough clients coming in believe it or not. we are getting more testing kits. we are sending about 120,000 down to the nursing homes now. it is something we have to do when we will do but this is one of those situations that's been done before. very hard to do but we have to do it and we will do it jeff: we have done before. as far as that goes federal government is doing, the federal government is helping the supply chain with the national manufacturers. the way this works is the end-user, let's say a nursing home or a drive-in or pharmacy, they are implementing the tests.

he purchased the test from a national manufacture and they purchase the machine from the national manufacture. there are a number of machines and depending on the machine you purchase you need to test kit that works for that machine so it starts to get complicated. you can have six or different -- six or seven different types of machines that you bought in each machine has its own test kit. it's like when you buy a and you have to buy the cartridge for that. some of the national manufacturers can provide test kits. they are just with testing in the federal government is working on the supply-chain issues for those national manufacturers. it's working much better than it has but i don't think anything -- i don't think anyone would say we are there yet reads. do we have the capacity in new york right now to test all nursing home staff? >> yes.

>> yes or no is the federal government going to help on the supply-chain? >> asked the federal government. >> i didn't mean to cut you off. >> if i could just punctuate the governor's point since we announced last sunday rhodri wired to test a week for nursing home staff reports with commercial staff by lap or in quest to get additional capacity in the state thousand tests per day to be dedicated just to nursing home staff. that's 200,000 tests a week that we have now secured that will be dedicated to going to the nursing home issue. we understand everyone would like to -- we can't and there's not the capacity for that which is why they will have to go to the drive-thru and if they can accommodate the standard on their own work with us through the capacity that we have now reserved for commercial labs. >> there are 300 labs that operate in this state.

wadsworth, we are proud of but there are 300 labs and we need all 300 labs operational to meet this volume are the only way you get the volume of this kind is all those labs are at maximum capacity. no one lab comes anywhere near that even with all 300 labs working and doing seven days a week. you are still not at the level you need and those 300 labs will say they will have a rob him on the backend getting the supplies and that's where the federal government comes in. >> in its blame the rationale for a reopening the beaches in putting the public health that peril lacks what are the calculations? >> the calculation is, i'm trying to work with conformity or surrounding states.

they were going to open beaches and if new york did not open beaches you would see an influx of people to the jersey shore, connecticut etc.. that would put new yorkers in jeopardy their because if it's 50% of occupancy you're fine. the problem is if you overcrowded and if other states were opening in new york wasn't you would have millions of people from new york flooding those beaches and there would be a problem and that would help anyone. the safeguard is this. first we open with safeguards, 50% etc.. second if there is a problem and the locals do not enforce those regulations we will close those beaches immediately.

>> governor murphy forced her hand by announcing yesterday that -- . >> we have talked about everything on a daily basis. we knew exactly what was going to do. there is jurisdiction in new york. we are not opening our beaches. if we don't open our beaches people will go to new jersey beaches, i promise you that. they will go to connecticut beaches and then you have a situation where you have 4 million new yorkers going to jersey beaches, connecticut beaches and what happens to those beaches? who cares, they are in new jersey and connecticut create and those are new yorkers at those beaches so i think this plan makes the most sense. is there a risk that the locals won't enforce the rules?

i guess ortley beach will get overwhelmed and they can't enforce the rules, yes that is a risk and we have eyes wide open and if that happens we will close the beach the next day. yes, yes. >> just to be clear we have a multistate agreement in place with governor murphy. that wasn't something that they announced and we didn't agree upon. we were in agreement with us and connecticut prior to governor murphy's statement yesterday. >> i think connecticut has always -- the beaches. >> the connecticut teaches robbers opened. >> is there a way that the state can give guidance to local governments and how they can keep businesses in check and also there is a web site that

the state has where you can submit complaints against it businesses that are not complying with health standards. >> first of all the local governments have the guidelines on compliance and the business owners and any business that opens today and the reason they can open they sign a compliance agreement and that compliance agreement is kept on the premises. if there is a violation it should be enforced by the local government. they have that this is owner who agree to operate under the following conditions and they therefore violated that agreement and they can be closed on that basis. to the extent we get any complaints we forward them to the local government. rob robbed you want to add anything? >> governments have been enforcing this since the beginning of the pause orders

and they'll continue to enforce under those same guidelines. now they have the guidelines and they will continue to enforce those the same as they had before and as the governor said all of the complaint to come to the hotline and the local governments so they can enforce them. >> a reporter can trigger your ability to actually implement cuts in local government and school districts. we don't have that today. what are you going to do? >> what am i going to do about what john? >> are you going to implement a 20% cut? >> i hold the belief, i have faith in humanity and the certain level of common sense and i believe washington despite their dysfunction and politics will ultimately provide funding

for state and local government. i do not believe, even if you decide common sense, the survival instinct of a politician who has two run for re-election this year in this state or any state affected by covid which is most states they will not come home for re-election. if they don't provide funding for state and local government because they would have created a devastating circumstance in their state. if we have to cut schools, police, fire, hospitals because washington didn't provide reasonable funding when they did they allowed millionaires and billionaires and rich corporations but they aren't going to fund the police and fire? i don't think any washington official is going to come home

and present that case to the people they represent. i believe we will receive washington funding due to the survival instinct of political -- >> you have to make the decision on your own. what is your dropdead date for making it? >> what is the drop dead date? the budget that was enacted the first benchmark was comptrollers cash report that comes out today. that report confirms the estimate that the state has made which is that we are down 14% in revenues and we will have $61 billion for the next four years. now that we have those cash numbers we will look at added as the governor mentioned that washington has been talking about the federal bill that provides money and relief in the event that those funds don't occur than we would have to make

those reductions that the governor mentioned we believe that based on the bill that the house put in those funds will be there and in the event that they don't our plan would be for the month of may. have to then put on the plan that could be contingent upon the receipt of federal funds and the absence of federal funds, 90% of the state's spending is in the area of school aid, health care, social services. as the governor pointed out it could be responsible not to provide those resources because those are the types of things that you would have to reduce. >> john, i'm teasing you a little bit because i like to tease you but look i'm not taking the focus off of them. they have to provide, they have to do their job. not do a press release about their job. they have to deliver federal funding to the state of new york and i'm going to hold them accountable.

at one point you have to perform or not perform but when i'm in this building i either pass the budget or not with the legislature. if the budget isn't passed on time and all you guys say you failed and you didn't get it done then you are a bad person. okay, it's binary. for me to say i tried my best. i've really tried and we all worked hard and we stayed up late at night who cares? do you failed. this is the analogue in washington. either the federal official who passed the bill and to care businesses and passed a bill to take care of millionaires and pass the bill to take care of all these other needs either you pass a bill to take care of state and local government and that's police firefighters in schools or you are going to be responsible for cuts. that's a fact and that's the truth and that's where i'm leaving it.

and tongue-in-cheek never underestimate the politicians instinct for self survival and i do not believe they are going to want to come home and defend the fact that they cut police, firefighters, teachers nurses and doctors after those people were designated heroes who save lives during the pandemic which happens to be you karen. >> more important to new yorkers is [inaudible] you said you'd have an answer yesterday. seriously they have to pay for their building month-to-month and they are not getting income. >> did you hear the story about the hairstylist in kingston. barber in kingston was operating in the finance of the closed

order, infected i think over a dozen people. that is an occupation of close proximity. you can't socially distance and do a haircut. maybe mine you could do from 6 feet away but that is by definition an up close and personal occupation but hairstyling is in phase two. phase two. >> there would be reopening support houses. that service falls under the definition of professional service. what is their decision on a phase one timeline? >> the court system? it's providing an essential service and justice is an essential service.

speith people who might become infected and will have to overcome the onus [inaudible] >> the first thing obviously is the contact with the physician if they have the symptoms are concerned that the cautions that the governor mentioned about washing your hands making sure that you are away from other individuals who are sick and the straightforward issues that we have addressed. >> should we have stock files -- stop files? >> each is a little different. if someone has a medical condition if the job iraq who will recommend that they should make sure they have enough medicines on hand in the fair other devices like some people use thermometers and they should

have those on supply so it's each individual but the overall precautions are the things we spoken about all along. this is where the issue of telemedicine comes into play and we are working closely with their health care professionals about that securely in urban areas. >> an editorial comment on the last question. when he asked the doctor was the first thing someone should do when they feel ill the answer is always going to be called the doctor. did you have your hand up? >> can you tell us where the geography of that is? >> all across the state but proportionate to population. right now it's 103 cases in new york. i'll tell you what i'm afraid of.

it's not 103 cases in new york, it's just that we have seen it first and it was deceptive the way it presented. but covid they were all looking for respiratory illnesses. this is not a respiratory illness. this is an inflammation of the blood vessels so it did not look or smell like a covid case. when they went back and checked the overwhelming number of children tested positive or have the antibodies, close to 90%. neither were positive or had the antibodies and i think you will be seeing more of this. there are stories about other romances that are popping up and now they are saying this covid virus does more damage to the body than we were aware of but specifically with children the reason i want this point abundantly clear because this is

not what we were told initially and this is not what i told people initially. we were told it was primarily vulnerable people and the good news is that children seemed unaffected. as a parent that then gave me a false sense of security to now say oh we were wrong about that. you are talking about my child's health now in my child's life. i take this very seriously and assisted big about-face. it was also an about-face if you had the virus and you had the antibodies you are immune and you can go back to work. now, oh maybe not. maybe you are a little immune and maybe we don't know. these are dramatic shifts on this virus and i don't fault anyone because it's a learning process etc. but the more week