Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that Arizona and Maryland have been added to New York's COVID-19 travel advisory. No areas have been removed. The advisory requires individuals who have traveled to New York from areas with significant community spread to quarantine for 14 days. The quarantine applies to any person arriving from an area with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or an area with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Hello guys. I am joined by, guys being gender neutral. I'm joined by Melissa DeRosa, Robert Mujica, Beth Garvey, Gareth Rhodes. Dr. Zucker is on the phone. Let me go through the numbers and then we'll take it from there.
We track two distinct populations: We track statewide numbers, which we've always been doing and recently we've been tracking the red zones. Red zones are micro-clusters. Other states don't track micro-clusters. New York is unique in this regard. Other states just give you a statewide number. We do so much testing and it's so targeted that we can focus in on micro-clusters, small areas that generate higher rates of infection so we can focus on them. Our micro-clusters have the higher infection rate in our State, but the rate of infection in our micro-cluster, our red zone, is lower than most states statewide number. The relativity is important here.
What we consider a priority area, a high infection rate, other states do not consider a high infection rate. As a matter of fact, most states would welcome the infection rate in our red zones. The positivity rate in the red zones is 2.9. That is down from where it has been and down greatly from where it started. Red zones are Brooklyn, Queens, Rockland and Orange as you know. The number in statewide without the over sample in the red zones is 1.2. The positivity rate with the over sample is 1.3.
12 New Yorkers passed away yesterday. They're in our thoughts and prayers. 942 were hospitalized, which is about where it was. 194 in ICU, about where it was. 99 intubated, which is about where it was. The infection rate, by region: New York, 1.3; Capital District, .8; Central New York, 2.1; but the County of Cortland had a 7 percent infection rate and there is at least one micro-cluster there that we are dealing with related to a SUNY school.
Finger Lakes, 1.4; Long Island, .9; Mid-Hudson, 1.7 - that's with Orange and Rockland, by the way, so that's good. Mohawk Valley, .4; North Country, 1.3; Southern Tier, 1.8; Western New York, 1.2. Orange County, 1.8; Rockland, 2; Queens County, 1.4; Brooklyn County, 1.8.
COVID is now the third leading cause of death in America. COVID has killed more Americans than stroke, than lower respiratory disease, than Alzheimer's, than diabetes or kidney disease. The President said COVID effects virtually nobody. Maybe we shouldn't be afraid of COVID and it was a hoax. That was a lie.
State enforcement is proceeding with local law enforcement. Cooperation with local law enforcement has been better and we thank them. Not universal, but better and we thank them.
We are going to extend the commercial eviction and foreclosure moratorium through January 1. That will now align with our residential eviction moratorium rule so they both are extended until January 1.
As far as travel advisory, we are now in a situation where 43 states are on our travel advisory. This is really a bizarre outcome. New York had the highest infection rate. We now have 43 states on our quarantine list. It just shows you how different the situation is now - 43 states on the list.
Connecticut and New Jersey have seen spikes and infection. I'm going to be speaking with the governors today about how we can help them with their spikes. There is no practical way to quarantine New York from New Jersey and Connecticut. There are just too many interchanges. There are too many interconnections. There are too many people who live in one place and work in the other. It would have a disastrous effect on the economy and remember what we're fighting, this public health pandemic, we're also fighting to open up the economy, so we're going to be working with Connecticut and New Jersey to see how we can help them with their spikes and also talk to Connecticut and New Jersey about making it clear that to the extent travel among the states or between the states is not essential, it should be avoided, and I'll have more to say on that tomorrow.
The fall, as we said you're going to see the viral rate increase. That is where we are. Scientists have said that. We have been prepared for it. We developed a more sophisticated strategy, more sophisticated testing. A micro-strategy has been developed in response to the anticipation of the increase in the fall. Many other states, federal government disregarded the scientific community. We never have, and now they're caught by surprise by the viral increase, and that's why we have 43 states on our quarantine list.
We'll see this through the fall. Micro-clusters will pop up. We will attack them. We will abate them and another micro-cluster will pop up somewhere else and we will attack it and we will abate it and then another micro-cluster will pop up. Welcome to the fall. That is going to be what is happening.
The current micro-clusters in Queens and in Brooklyn, we've been working with not just in terms of analyzing data which is what we normally did, but these areas are so small, we work in partnership with the local communities and organizations to find out exactly where the spread is coming from and abating it and we've had good success with that. Tomorrow we will be listing changes to those micro-clusters/Red Zones which will be a product of both sound analysis of the data and a coordinated strategy with those communities to bring the number down. And we hope to have a progress to announce tomorrow because you have seen progress in the numbers, which again validates the approach. Nobody wants restrictions imposed - COVID-fatigue, we want open, get back to normal, but the only way to stop an ember from becoming a flame is by affirmative intervention. That is a fact and we have done it, I believe, better than any other state, and I believe that is shown by the numbers, right? Highest infection rate to literally one of the lowest. And the interventions and the affirmative actions are welcomed by no one because everybody wants to get back to life as normal, but we're not in life as normal, and that is the painful reality of the situation.
The numbers in New York, I mentioned this yesterday, "What does 1 percent mean?" Stories will say "New York today is at 1 percent," and then people say to me, "What does that mean?" And that's why I say context is important, and I tease my reporter friends, "No-Context-Campbell." The numbers don't mean anything without context, and that's why you're going to get and receive today the list of infection rates in states, so there'll be a context. But again, you start at the top, states like Nevada 45 percent, South Dakota 37 percent, Idaho 28 percent. The bottom of the list is Maine, at 0.3. Maine does a different testing protocol than we do - I don't believe they do daily testing, I think they do periodic testing. And then you have Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, which are all about 1.1, so that's the relative context for the numbers.
And the next chapter, after the fall chapter is going to be the vaccination chapter - it is, I believe, a challenge that the federal government doesn't even realize. I believe they're in denial again; I believe it's going to be much, much harder than they think. The federal government believes their role is to have the scientific community develop a possible vaccine and stand up in the Rose Garden, hold up a vial and say, "Here it is. Here's the vaccine. We did it - we solved COVID." That will be another lie - that will be if anything the beginning of the end. That vaccine then has to work; that vaccine then has to be trusted; that vaccine then has to be administered 328 times in this country, possibly 650 times in this country, if it's the vaccine that says two dosages are required. So, it's a long way - a long way before this is over, and to give Americans false hope about the expeditious resolution, it just plays into their denial which has going on from day one and it's why this virus is ravaged this country worse than most of our counterpart countries. Because denial doesn't work; lying doesn't work; the truth always catches up to you - and the truth has caught up to the federal administration, and Americans are dying because of it.
October 21, 2020 at 12:45AM
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Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Announces Travel Advisory Requiring 14-Day Quarantine - ny.gov
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