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Release: Cuomo offers covid19 update for Wednesday, September 30, 2020. Transcript included.
NYSNYS News

For Immediate Release: 9/30/2020
GOVERNOR ANDREW M. CUOMO


GOVERNOR CUOMO UPDATES NEW YORKERS ON STATE'S PROGRESS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Top 20 Hotspot ZIP Codes Have 5.5 Percent Positivity Rate

Statewide Positivity Excluding Hotspot ZIP Codes is 0.82 Percent; 1.02 Percent with Hotspot ZIP Codes Included

DFS Extends Emergency Regulation Requiring Insurance Companies to Waive Out-Of-Pocket Costs for In-Network Mental Health Services for Frontline Essential Workers During COVID-19 Until November 27

9 COVID-19 Deaths in New York State Yesterday

SLA and State Police Task Force Visits 1,114 Establishments; Observes 4 Establishments Not in Compliance

Confirms 1,000 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 458,649; New Cases in 49 Counties

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today updated New Yorkers on the state's progress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

"We're dealing with the cluster situation. We've had clusters in the past stemming from factories, churches, bars and other locations. Remember we started with New Rochelle, the first hotspot in the United States, which stemmed from someone who attended a religious gathering and then a wedding. And that was the first super spreader event, so we're quite familiar with this, and when there's a cluster, we are very aggressive on it and we're oversampling in the clusters," Governor Cuomo said. "We've deployed rapid testing machines. So you have two infection rates that you want to pay attention to: the statewide numbers and then the cluster numbers. All of this is a stark reminder that we need to stay smart and vigilant - wear a mask, socially distance, follow the public health guidance - because this thing is not over."

New York State continues to track clusters with a particular focus on the top 20 ZIP codes in which there have been hotspots. Within the 20 hotspot ZIP codes, the average rate of positive tests is 5.5 percent. The rate of positive tests for the remainder of New York State, not counting the top 20 ZIP codes, is 0.82 percent. The rate of positive tests for all of New York State, including the top 20 ZIP codes, is 1.02 percent. These 20 ZIP codes contained 23 percent of all positive cases in New York State yesterday, but represent only 6 percent of the state's population.

The Governor noted that 20 hotspot ZIP codes reported an average 5.5 percent positivity rate. Areas that had high positivity rates will be subject of focused testing efforts including access to rapid testing machines. These ZIP codes include:

REGION
COUNTY
ZIP
% POSITIVE
TESTS
POSITIVES
Mid-Hudson
Rockland
10952
17%
200
34
Mid-Hudson
Rockland
10977
14%
350
50
NYC
Kings
11230
8%
342
29
NYC
Kings
11204
6%
223
13
NYC
Kings
11219
5%
260
12
NYC
Kings
11223
4%
253
11
NYC
Kings
11229
4%
286
11
NYC
Kings
11210
4%
182
7
NYC
Kings
11234
4%
279
10
NYC
Bronx
10465
4%
140
5
NYC
New York
10040
4%
198
7
Mid-Hudson
Orange
10950
3%
86
3
NYC
Queens
11374
3%
151
5
NYC
Richmond
10306
3%
152
5
NYC
Richmond
10304
3%
185
6
Long Island
Suffolk
11717
3%
125
4
Long Island
Nassau
11580
3%
138
4
NYC
Queens
11691
3%
255
7
Long Island
Suffolk
11746
3%
183
5
NYC
Bronx
10462
3%
266
7

The Governor also announced the New York State Department of Financial Services will extend an emergency regulation requiring New York health insurers to waive out-of-pocket costs, including cost-sharing, deductibles, copayments and coinsurance, for in-network mental health services for New York's frontline essential workers during COVID-19 until November 27. The extension of this emergency regulation helps to ensure that cost-sharing is not a barrier to in-network mental health services during COVID-19 for health care workers, first responders, transit workers, food services workers, retail workers at essential businesses, and other frontline essential employees, who are required to directly interact with the public while working during this continuing public health emergency. Governor Cuomo first announced the State's directive requiring New York insurers to waive out-of-pocket costs for in-network mental health services for frontline essential workers during COVID-19 in May.

Yesterday, the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force visited 1,114 establishments in New York City and Long Island and observed 4 establishments that were not in compliance with state requirements. A county breakdown of yesterday's observed violations is below:

Brooklyn - 1
Nassau - 3

Today's data is summarized briefly below:

Patient Hospitalization - 605 (+34)
Patients Newly Admitted - 100
Hospital Counties - 38
Number ICU - 144 (-3)
Number ICU with Intubation - 67 (+6)
Total Discharges - 76,754 (+63)
Deaths - 9
Total Deaths - 25,479

Of the 97,960 test results reported to New York State yesterday, 1,000, or 1.02 percent, were positive. Each region's percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows:

REGION
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Capital Region
0.9%
0.9%
0.5%
Central New York
0.8%
1.7%
0.4%
Finger Lakes
0.6%
0.9%
0.3%
Long Island
1.2%
1.2%
1.3%
Mid-Hudson
3.1%
2.0%
2.4%
Mohawk Valley
1.2%
0.8%
0.3%
New York City
1.6%
1.3%
1.2%
North Country
0.4%
0.2%
0.2%
Southern Tier
3.6%
1.9%
0.6%
Western New York
0.9%
1.3%
1.1%

Each New York City borough's percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows:

BOROUGH
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Bronx
1.0%
1.0%
1.1%
Brooklyn
2.6%
1.7%
1.8%
Manhattan
0.8%
0.7%
0.6%
Queens
1.6%
1.5%
1.2%
Staten Island
1.3%
1.6%
2.2%

The Governor also confirmed 1,000 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 458,649 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 458,649 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
3,120
4
Allegany
114
6
Broome
1,673
31
Cattaraugus
276
5
Cayuga
220
1
Chautauqua
590
5
Chemung
510
18
Chenango
253
2
Clinton
162
0
Columbia
595
3
Cortland
184
3
Delaware
136
0
Dutchess
5,137
7
Erie
11,500
55
Essex
169
1
Franklin
66
0
Fulton
339
0
Genesee
330
3
Greene
325
2
Hamilton
15
0
Herkimer
338
1
Jefferson
172
2
Lewis
50
0
Livingston
208
1
Madison
497
0
Monroe
6,085
11
Montgomery
235
1
Nassau
46,857
66
Niagara
1,788
5
NYC
244,041
446
Oneida
2,436
4
Onondaga
4,424
15
Ontario
475
0
Orange
12,143
21
Orleans
336
1
Oswego
503
4
Otsego
341
1
Putnam
1,617
5
Rensselaer
919
3
Rockland
15,452
110
Saratoga
1,066
6
Schenectady
1,410
5
Schoharie
85
0
Schuyler
43
0
Seneca
107
0
St. Lawrence
327
2
Steuben
453
3
Suffolk
46,517
53
Sullivan
1,604
4
Tioga
249
7
Tompkins
421
4
Ulster
2,280
8
Warren
391
5
Washington
302
1
Wayne
323
2
Westchester
38,239
57
Wyoming
137
0
Yates
64
0

Yesterday, there were 9 deaths due to COVID-19 in New York State, bringing the total to 25,479. A geographic breakdown is as follows, by county of residence:

Deaths by County of Residence
County
New Deaths
Allegany
2
Chemung
1
Essex
1
Kings
2
Queens
2
Suffolk
1

****

For Immediate Release: 9/30/2020
GOVERNOR ANDREW M. CUOMO


AUDIO & RUSH TRANSCRIPT: GOVERNOR CUOMO UPDATES NEW YORKERS ON STATE'S PROGRESS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Top 20 Hotspot ZIP Codes Have 5.5 Percent Positivity Rate

Statewide Positivity Excluding Hotspot ZIP Codes is 0.82 Percent; 1.02 Percent with Hotspot ZIP Codes Included

DFS Extends Emergency Regulation Requiring Insurance Companies to Waive Out-Of-Pocket Costs for In-Network Mental Health Services for Frontline Essential Workers During COVID-19 Until November 27

9 COVID-19 Deaths in New York State Yesterday

SLA and State Police Task Force Visits 1,114 Establishments; Observes 4 Establishments Not in Compliance

Confirms 1,000 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 458,649; New Cases in 49 Counties

Governor Cuomo: "The infection rate in the state outside of the hotspot zip codes is .82 which is very good."

Cuomo: "The local governments must do compliance. I've said that a number of times. It is a State law and the localities must enforce it. ... I understand the sensitivities of this political environment and no one wants to enforce a law because then you make the other person unhappy and nobody wants anyone unhappy. You know what makes people really unhappy? Dying makes people really unhappy. Loss of a loved one makes people really unhappy. Their child going to school and getting COVID makes people really unhappy. The infection rate going up and then having to close businesses makes people really unhappy."

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo updated New Yorkers on the state's progress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Hey guys, "guys" being gender-neutral, good morning, joined by Melissa DeRosa, Robert Mujica, Dr. Zucker, Gareth Rhodes, Jim Malatras, Beth Garvey.

Today is day 214. We did 97,000 tests yesterday. We're dealing with the cluster situation. We've had clusters in the past as we've discussed, factories, churches, bars, restaurants, weddings. Remember we started with New Rochelle, first hotspot in the United States which came from a religious gathering and then attending a wedding and that was the first super spreader event so we're quite familiar with this. So when there's a cluster we are very aggressive on it and we're oversampling in this cluster. We've deployed rapid testing machines, etcetera, so you have two infections really that you want to pay attention to - the statewide numbers and then the cluster numbers, okay, because we're analyzing the clusters separately.

The cluster is about 20 hotspot zip codes. Again, 20 zip codes, that's out of a universe of 1,740 zip codes, just to put the size of it in perspective. The 20 zip codes are the same ones we were looking at yesterday, Rockland, Kings, Orange primarily and a little bit in Nassau. Rockland, the number one zip code in Rockland was 10952. It was a 17 percent positivity. Second one was 10977 and that was a 14 percent positivity. You then go to Kings, Brooklyn 11230, 8 percent; Brooklyn 11204, 6 percent; Brooklyn 11219, 5 percent; Brooklyn 11223, 4 percent; Brooklyn 11229, 4 percent, Brooklyn 11210, 4 percent; Brooklyn 11234, 4 percent.

The overall positivity rate in all 20 is 5.5 percent. That's about 5 times the infection rate statewide. The infection rate in the state outside of the hotspot zip codes is .82 which is very good. If you include the oversample in those hot spot zip codes in the overall state number which be definition is going to skew it because you've oversampled the zip codes that have average of 5 percent it's 1.02 but it's those hotspots that we have to watch because if you don't, if you don't control a cluster, a cluster becomes community spread. If we didn't control the New Rochelle hotspot early on, it would've become community spread. If you remember, we created a containment zone around New Rochelle, which was actually an unfortunate use of words. "Containment zone" scared people. It made it sound like we were containing people in the zone. We didn't do that. It was a containment zone meant to describe containing the virus. People were afraid to come and go, but I called it a containment zone, which was not the best choice of words when people are anxious. But drew a circle around New Rochelle and then we did a lot of testing, etc. So, we're going to be just as aggressive with this cluster.

These 20 hotspot zip codes have 23 percent of all the positive cases reported in the state, but they're only 6 percent of the population. Just to give you an idea of how different these zip codes are. Nine New Yorkers passed away yesterday; they're in our thoughts and prayers. 605 were hospitalized; 144 were in ICU; 67 were intubated. If you look across the state — Capital District: .5, great. Central New York: .4, great. Finger Lakes: .3, great. Long Island: 1.3, not great. New York City: 1.2, not great. Hudson Valley: 2.4. Really not great, but that's going to be Orange and Rockland. Mohawk Valley: .3; North Country: .2; Southern Tier: .6; Western New York: 1.1, not great.

Rockland: 6.5.; Orange: 1.9; Brooklyn: 1.8. And what's driving Orange, Rockland, Brooklyn are the hotspot zip codes. Now, I spoke to the leaders of the Orthodox community this morning and we had a good conversation. I have worked closely with the Orthodox community for many years on many unique issues. The Orthodox community in Orange, Rockland, Brooklyn has presented in the past unique issues in terms of housing, in terms of education. We've had community issues, especially in New York City with the surrounding community, so I've worked with them on a number of issues. I explained the situation frankly and candidly and we had a good exchange. The — I think it's fair to say that the leaders of the community understand and they're going to take action and we're going to come up with an action plan. There will be a second discussion at 3 o'clock this afternoon with the Health Commissioner Dr. Zucker, who's on the phone to come up with an action plan.

How do we educate the public? How do we use the media? How do we use the newspapers that circulate in the community, the radio stations in the community? How do we have community meetings? How do we get the word out? We have another religious holiday coming up this Friday and how do we make sure that we have a different sense of behavior? And they have said that they are committed to taking a more aggressive stance. We talked through the myth of herd immunity. The President has spread misinformation about herd immunity. We're nowhere near herd immunity. Senator Rand Paul went through this with Dr. Fauci, and Rand Paul was just wrong on all the facts that New York has herd immunity. New York City: we have about 18, 19 percent infection rate. Herd immunity: you need about a 50 to 60 percent infection rate. To get from 18 to 50 or 60 percent- a lot of people have to die to get to that percentage. And all that means is that the majority has been infected; the remainder, if they get infected, they have a possibility to die. And with this disease now we're learning people can get infected a second time. The scientists were wrong. "If you're infected once, you have the antibodies and you can't get reinfected." Now we're finding out that you can. Sweden tried herd immunity and it was a debacle extraordinaire and they then reversed themselves. That's the only place that really tried it.

The local governments must do compliance. I've said that a number of times. It is a State law and the localities must enforce it. The localities - and we're talking about Orange, Rockland, New York City, Nassau that has a couple of communities affected - they have to enforce the state law. And they're not doing it with enough diligence. Period. It is not up to them to say, "Well we're not going to enforce the mask ordinance, we're going to offer a mask." It's too late in the game to do that. We have done all the public information on masks that you can. We have done dozens of mask public service announcements. Dozens of celebrities. We've spent millions of dollars doing television ads on masks. The cable news is filled with reports on masks. It is not a function for the local government to say to someone, "It would be nice if you wore a mask. Can I give you a mask?" We're passed that point. That's not compliance. That is public education. We're past public education. We've been doing this since February. It's not about public education. Enforce the law. The local governments failure to enforce the law has exacerbated this problem. They've made it worse, not better. It's not that people don't know there's a mask ordinance, they know there's a mask law, they're defying the law and that's when you need to enforce the law.

I understand the sensitivities of this political environment and no one wants to enforce a law because then you make the other person unhappy and nobody wants anyone unhappy. You know what makes people really unhappy? Dying makes people really unhappy. Loss of a loved one makes people really unhappy. Their child going to school and getting COVID makes people really unhappy. The infection rate going up and then having to close businesses makes people really unhappy. So local governments, enforce the law. If you are unwilling to enforce the law, I will enforce the law. The State Police - I don't have the numbers to do statewide enforcement. I have about 5,000 State Troopers. New York City has 35,000 NYPD. If they don't want to enforce the law, I will enforce the law. I would need the local governments to assign a number of their police to the State Police for a task force and then I will enforce it with a task force. And I will ticket people who don't wear masks, because that will save lives at this point. We know how to keep the infection rate down, we're just not doing it in these clusters and that's a failure of the local government. We've seen this with bars, restaurants. I put together a State task force and the compliance went way up. Why? Because people didn't want to be ticketed, and they didn't want to lose their licenses. So, we know that compliance works; we know it. And we know the bars and restaurant situation was much worse until I did a task force that did bars and restaurant compliance because the local governments wouldn't, and the situation got markedly better. Bars and restaurants are a relatively small universe because they're licensed by the State. Mask compliance among the general population is a massive undertaking. They're not doing it, and they have no discretion to change the state law, and when a local government says, "I've warned people. I offered them a mask." No, it's you're breaking State law, local government. Those initial publication efforts are over. So, you are complicit in this situation. You don't want to do it politically. I don't have the personnel. Assign a number of your police to a task force. I will do it in my name and you can blame me. I have no problem with it. I put my head on the pillow knowing I saved lives. That's how I sleep at night and I know we have. I know this type of activity, incompetent ineffective government will cost lives. We've seen it from Trump. He has cost lives. Why does this nation lose more people than any nation on the globe? Because we have an incompetent federal government.

I'm not going to let that happen in the State of New York and I'm not going to let it happen because we have incompetent local government. It's that simple. It's not about politics. It's not about personal - we're well beyond that. It's a matter of life and death. Either you do the job or people die. It has that clarity of situation. It's like in war. Either the troops execute the plan and they win the war and they have as few casualties as possible or they fail to execute the plan and more people die then necessary. Slightly dramatic, but not that dramatic. When you talk about 200,000 people dying. You're talking about 1,000 people dying a day. It is deadly serious. That's where we are.

Final comment on Mr. Trump and the debate yesterday. It was not only the most disrespectful, chaotic debate - as many people reported - to me, it was the most frightening. You had President Trump say at the end of that debate, the results could take months. I want a fair result. His implication is, if it is a fair result he will win. If he doesn't win, then it wasn't the fair result. He's already talking about ballot fraud, ballot fraud, ballot fraud, mail-in fraud. He's been doing it for weeks. He has his Attorney General talking about it.

Let me ask you this: If you believe you were going to win the election, why would you be discrediting the election? Why would you discredit it if you thought you were going to win? If you thought you were going to win, you'd be saying the opposite. I can't wait to count the ballots, because I will win. He sees the polls nation-wide. He knows he's losing. That's why he's discrediting the election already. What he is playing - this is a President, you can say what you want - but he always tells you where he's going.

Where he's going is, he's going to say, there was fraud in the election and therefore he won't accept the results and therefore he's not stepping down. And he's going to create a Constitutional crisis. That's where he's going. When he says there may not be a result for months, that is not a person who thinks he's going to win the election. That is a person who thinks he's going to lose the election and he's not going to settle for it on election night and he's then going to prolong it with allegations of fraud. How the story ultimately ends, we go to the Supreme Court and we count votes and mail-ins and hopefully he has enough friends on the Supreme Court to skew the election his way. That is what he is now telling you.

There is no way a person discredits an election if they believe they're going to win. Freudian principles 101.

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