You are reading

Cuomo Believes New York Will Be Able to Avoid a Shutdown

Governor Andrew Cuomo (Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

Dec. 18, 2020 By Allie Griffin

Governor Andrew Cuomo believes New York will be able to avoid a second COVID-related shutdown, he announced today.

“I believe we can avoid a shutdown and I believe we will avoid a shutdown — I’ll go that far,” Cuomo said during a press briefing Friday.

He said that a second shutdown of the economy — like the PAUSE order he imposed that shuttered all nonessential businesses in the spring — is “totally avoidable.”

Cuomo said two key issues must be addressed to avoid a shutdown— hospitals in the state must be able to manage an increase in COVID-19 patients and New Yorkers need to slow the spread of the virus.

On the first point, no hospital in the state has indicated that it will reach above 85 percent of its capacity within three weeks, by Jan. 8, he said.

The governor previously announced that the state would shutdown a region if its seven-day average hospitalization growth rate shows that the region will hit 90 percent — indicating critical hospital capacity — within three weeks.

Downstate has roughly 31,000 hospital beds available after local hospitals shifted to crisis management and increased their capacity by 25 percent.

“I believe hospitals are going to be able to manage this,” Cuomo said. “We learned a lot in the spring.”

Cuomo said individual New Yorkers have also learned a lot from the springtime, when the pandemic reached its peak.

“I also believe New Yorkers can slow the spread,” he said. “I believe New Yorkers can flatten the curve because I saw them do it.”

He added that people have learned to be cautious when celebrating holidays after Thanksgiving led to an increase in coronavirus cases across the state.

“New Yorkers are smart,” Cuomo said. “I think they’re going to learn from Thanksgiving and I think you’ll see a smarter response through the holidays.”

Cuomo said New Yorkers should adopt a new state mantra of “slow the spread, stop the shutdown.”

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Deadly Belt Parkway crash claims lives of Springfield Gardens man and Manhattan mother: NYPD

A Springfield Gardens man and a passenger in his car died after they were involved in a multi-vehicle chain-reaction crash on the Belt Parkway near Kennedy Airport on the morning of Saturday, July 5.

Noah Thompson, 24, of 179th Street, was behind the wheel of a white BMW 428i traveling eastbound on the Belt Parkway in Howard Beach at 6:05 a.m. when he failed to navigate the roadway approaching the Nassau Expressway exit.

Far Rockaway man indicted for killing neighbor, wounding another in May double shooting: NYPD

A Queens grand jury indicted a Far Rockaway man for allegedly gunning down a neighbor and shooting another as he ran for his life in late May.

Navaldo Brown, 33, of Grassmere Terrace, was arrested and booked at the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway on Tuesday, July 1, and he was arraigned in Queens Supreme Court later that day on an indictment charging his with murder in the second degree, attempted murder in the second degree and other related crimes and is being held without bail.