Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Announces 20 Straight Days with COVID-19 Infection Rate Below 1 Percent

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that New York State's rate of positive COVID-19 tests has been less than 1 percent for 20 straight days. The governor also 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:

Good morning. Andrew Cuomo here joined by Melissa DeRosa, Robert Mujica, Dr. Zucker, Beth Garvey, Gareth Rhodes, Jim Malatras.

We have a number of items to go over so let me do them quickly and then we'll take some questions. Today is day 180. New York conducted 83,000 tests yesterday, .9 percent positive 20th straight day with a positive rate under 1 percent so that's really good news.

Four New Yorkers passed away from COVID yesterday and they're in our thoughts and prayers; 490 hospitalized, 126 in ICU, that's down 10; 52 COVID patients were intubated, that's down 2. So that's very good news and again congratulations to New Yorkers. Stay with it, stay with it, stay with it.

On the enforcement effort, ongoing enforcement efforts on compliance, as you know the State Liquor Authority and the State Police have supplemented actions where the local police have not been doing significant compliance efforts. They've done a really good job, the task force of the SLA and the State Police. They did 1,000 visits yesterday so that's really amazing and they did two violations in Queens, New York City, but what we're finding is compliance is much better than it had been so the establishments are getting the message, following the law and if you notice over time the number of violations has been dropping. That's because the establishments know that we're serious and we've been doing this for a couple of weeks and we've stayed with it and think about it - just one night, 1,000 visits. Look, 99 percent of the establishments were following the law. It was a handful of bad actors. That's what it always is - people who were exploiting the situation and I think they got the message and the numbers suggest they got the message.

Western New York, we have a caution flag out and we're going to fly it a little higher today. The infection rate in Western New York was 2 percent so that's not good news and we're going to deploy a SWAT team from the Department of Health that are going to do additional testing at eight sites. Three in the city of Buffalo, one in Niagara Falls, one in Lockport, one in Williamsville, one in West Seneca; one in Dunkirk with what are called the Abbott testing machines at these sites, which will get same-day results. Literally, within an hour. People will have to make an appointment but we are focusing on Western New York and we're going to continue to focus on it.

We have colleges that are reopening. We're seeing around the country situations where colleges reopen and then have an outbreak of cases. We're going to set a threshold that says if a college has one hundred cases or a number of cases equal to 5 percent of their population or more - whichever is less - they must go to remote learning for two weeks at which time we will reassess the situation. Let me say that one more time because it's a little confusing. One hundred cases for 5 percent. Whichever is less. The 5 percent is the population that are on-site: students and faculty. They must go to remote learning for two weeks and then we'll reassess in consultation with the local health department. We should anticipate clusters. When you have large congregations of people, anticipate a cluster. We know that. Also, that's what we're seeing. You see it around the country. Be prepared for it, get ahead of it. Be prepared for it, get ahead of it. It's what I say to my team five times a day. So, we expect it. We want to be prepared for it. And that's a threshold that we're going to put in place.

We're getting a number of phone calls from some establishments that are raising questions specifically about indoor dining in New York City. We said numerous times: state laws governs openings, reopenings, closings, and there are a number of areas where we're still calibrating the reopening. Casinos, we're working on. Malls, we're working on. Movie theaters, we're working on. Indoor dining in restaurants is an issue that we are reviewing and monitoring on a daily basis. These are fluid situations depending on the facts. We will make determinations at the appropriate time. Numerous people have opinions about what they think is going to happen. I used to have an opinion about what I thought was going to happen, but I turned out to be wrong on every occasion. So now I just keep my opinions to myself and I just follow the facts. But indoor dining in New York City, casinos, malls, movie theaters— we're monitoring the situation, recalibrating the situation, it's governed by the state law as you all very well know, and we'll make a determination at the appropriate time.

There were storms in Texas and Louisiana. We've called them up and offered National Guard assistance or whatever emergency assistance they need and we hope they get through it. So far so good. They've lost one life I believe in Louisiana and we're with them in spirit, but Americans were very good to New Yorkers when we needed help and we gave our word that we would repay it and we're going to live up to that.

We're also expecting storms across the state today— wind storms— literally all across the state. There's a possibility of even tornados touching down, so we're watching that. We've contacted the utility companies. We're anticipating high winds. You know what happens with high winds? Trees fall down, branches break, poles fall down, they hit wires, wires come down, power goes out. Don't be surprised, utility company— and don't say, "Oh. It was a storm. It was an act of God." No. It's an act of the utility company. We pay you to be prepared for the storm and to repair power in a short period of time after the storm.

The, we made a state determination that would allow certain high school sports to commence and we put out guidance and deadlines on that. That does not mean that high school sports must commence. It means they can commence. Can, not must. It's up to the individual school districts to determine if they want to go ahead with a sports program. Different school districts are making different decisions, and that's fine; it's up to them. But we gave guidance as to for those that decide to go forward, this is how you should do it, right?