April 17, 2020
Albany, NY

Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Issues Executive Order Directing All NYS Public and Private Labs to Coordinate with State DOH to Prioritize Diagnostic Testing

Part of State's Efforts to Ramp Up Testing, A Key Component of the Governor's Blueprint to Un-Pause New York

Reiterates Call for Federal Government to Provide Unrestricted Funding to States

Launches Awareness Campaign Encouraging Low-Income New Yorkers to Claim Their Economic Impact Payments Under the CARES Act

Confirms 7,358 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 229,642; New Cases in 50 Counties

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced he will issue an Executive Order directing all public and private labs in New York to coordinate with the State Department of Health to prioritize coronavirus diagnostic testing. This action is part of the State's efforts to ramp up testing, a key component of the Governor's blueprint to un-Pause New York. The Executive Order will help ensure the 301 laboratories and hospitals in the state that are licensed to perform virology operate in a coordinated fashion to overcome the testing challenges that every state in the nation is now facing.

The Governor also reiterated his call for the federal government to provide unrestricted funding to the states to help stabilize the economy and allow the states to perform reopening functions. The federal government has passed three bills to address this crisis, including the federal CARES Act, all of which contained zero funding to offset drastic state revenue shortfalls.


https://www.youtube.com/embed/323_X2YQs5I

The Governor also launched an awareness campaign encouraging low-income New Yorkers to claim their Economic Impact Payments under the CARES Act. The Act provides $1,200 payments to individuals making below $75,000 and $2,400 payments to married couples making below $150,000. However, taxpayers will only receive their payments automatically if they filed 2018 or 2019 federal tax returns. Because the federal filing threshold is roughly $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for married couples, hundreds of thousands of the lowest income New Yorkers who are not required to file returns will not receive their payments unless they provide their information to the IRS.

To support the Governor's awareness campaign, the Department of Taxation and Finance launched an Economic Impact Payment information: what you need to know web page and will do direct outreach to taxpayers who may not automatically receive the payments they're owed. The Tax Department will also partner with the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, NYS Division of Veterans' Services, the Department of Labor and local community organizations to raise awareness and ensure action is taken by those who need this benefit most.

"As we work over the next several months to un-pause New York, the testing and tracing is going to be our guidepost," Governor Cuomo said. "No state is currently capable of doing the large-scale COVID testing that is needed. We have 300 laboratories and hospitals across the state that do virology testing and we must coordinate them to become one system -- like we did with the hospitals -- to get our testing capacity where it needs to be. I am going to issue an Executive Order that says the Department of Health will coordinate all of these labs so we can ramp up testing and get more people back to work."


As we work over the next several months to un-pause New York, the testing and tracing is going to be our guidepost.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Finally, the Governor confirmed 7,358 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 229,642 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 229,642 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

County

Total Positive

New Positive

Albany

619

38

Allegany

29

1

Broome

178

11

Cattaraugus

34

2

Cayuga

36

0

Chautauqua

25

1

Chemung

71

1

Chenango

76

3

Clinton

47

1

Columbia

101

2

Cortland

25

1

Delaware

48

1

Dutchess

2,142

57

Erie

1,929

79

Essex

15

3

Franklin

13

0

Fulton

27

2

Genesee

83

5

Greene

77

3

Hamilton

3

0

Herkimer

46

3

Jefferson

50

2

Lewis

8

0

Livingston

34

2

Madison

105

0

Monroe

975

43

Montgomery

33

1

Nassau

28,539

767

Niagara

227

11

NYC

127,352

4,206

Oneida

261

12

Onondaga

483

21

Ontario

67

2

Orange

6,084

196

Orleans

34

0

Oswego

45

1

Otsego

44

0

Putnam

578

5

Rensselaer

150

13

Rockland

8,987

235

Saratoga

236

5

Schenectady

250

5

Schoharie

20

0

Schuyler

6

0

Seneca

18

0

St. Lawrence

96

3

Steuben

154

0

Suffolk

25,035

853

Sullivan

505

68

Tioga

30

3

Tompkins

117

1

Ulster

788

27

Warren

91

10

Washington

48

2

Wayne

49

0

Westchester

22,476

648

Wyoming

35

1

Yates

8

1

Contact the Governor’s Press Office

Translations

বাংলা অনুবাদ
Tradiksyon kreyòl ayisyen
Перевод на русский язык
Traducción al español

Contact the Governor's Press Office

Contact us by phone:

Albany: (518) 474 - 8418
New York City: (212) 681 - 4640