Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Announces New Record High Number of COVID-19 Tests Reported to New York State

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that 100,022 test results were reported to New York State yesterday—a new record high. Hospitalizations dropped to 429, a new low since March 16, and intubations dropped to 47, a new low since March 14. New York State's infection rate has been below 1 percent for 23 straight days. 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, everyone. Happy Sunday. I'm joined on the phone by Melissa DeRosa, Howard Zucker, Jim Malatras and Gareth Rhodes.

Let me give you some numbers to start. Today is day 183. Yesterday we did 100,000 tests. That's the most tests that we have ever done in a single day. On that number of tests, 100,000, the infection rate was .69. That is great, great news. That's the 23rd day we're under 1 percent so that is really great news, especially when you consider what's going on around the country and around the world which I'll get to in a minute.

Eight New Yorkers passed away yesterday. They're in our thoughts and prayers. 429 hospitalized - that's down by about 30. That number is a new low since March 16, the 429 New Yorkers hospitalized. 12 COVID patients in ICU - that's down a couple. 47 patients intubated, down 1, but the number of intubated is also a new low since mid-March so you have, the number of intubated are a new low, the number hospitalized are a new low, highest level of tests, 100,000, and the infection rate .69, 23 days under 1 percent.

So the state is doing extraordinarily well and again, kudos to all New Yorkers because there is no mystery as to how this happens. It's a social action. We talk about social action. This is social action. This is the community of the people of the State of New York acting out of mutuality and concern for one another - community action. Worked at it all my life but never seen it on this scale before and it's all good.

Western New York for those of you who are interested, we've been watching Western New York. It has been, we have a caution flag up on Western New York. The infection rate yesterday was 1.6 percent. That's still the highest in the state. Every other region was below 1 percent. We've started a focused testing effort with rapid turnaround. We set up eight sites. We did 1,000 people. Those numbers for 1 day show about a 3.4 percent infection rate for one day. That is a very high number but that is not a random number. These are people who decided to come in to be tested. Normally you get a high infection rate under those circumstances because these are people who think they may be infected, right? That tends to be the driving motivation for people who show up so 3.4 is high but again it's not random.

What is interesting is you do see different geographic variations. The City of Buffalo was at 5.5; the County of Erie, 1.5; County of Niagara, 2.9; Chautauqua, 1.5. So we're going to use that information and continue testing and start to focus on those geographic areas that are showing higher numbers.

In general, we have not hit what people talked about as the second wave. The second wave discussion was on the theory that the virus would mutate and come back and that was going to be the second wave parallel to the 1918 flu pandemic. We're still in the first wave but what we're seeing across the world and across the nation is a difficulty in the first wave. It's a rebounding of the first wave, right? And it's the one wave going back and forth and we're still struggling with that first wave. And it's troubling. You look at places in Europe, you have France, you have Spain, you have Germany that are seeing numbers tick up, parts in this country where you're seeing numbers tick up. New York is very much the exception to what's going on around the world with COVID and I'm very pleased with the progress. All New Yorkers should be but we have to protect that progress and what you see again going on around the country and around the world should keep us on high alert. We're especially seeing the challenges that will come in the fall when people start to go back to school.

Colleges are opening - colleges open sooner than K-12 and high schools. And colleges are having issues. There are already 25 colleges across the country that are having significant issues, over 250 cases. The 25 colleges are all around the country. It's Florida, it's Texas, it's North Carolina. It's also Michigan. It's also the state of Washington. So colleges to me are very much a canary in the coalmine. Colleges very much show what happens when you bring back a concentration of people. Even with all the precautions. Even with everything we know, because you still run into human behavior. I've spoken to a number of college presidents, private college presidents, and I've said to them, look, I get it, you go back to college, you want to see your friends, part of the college experience is socializing, I know many people who are on this phone call when they were in college, they socialized, I know many of them went to parties, many of them consumed alcohol and did all those things. I studied when I was in college but I know not everyone was in the library when I was there. I understand, and I understand that colleges want to have a good relationship with the student body, but if the students act irresponsibly or the precautions are not in place, then the virus will spread and more dramatic action is going to have to be taken and needs to be taken. And if there is an outbreak on a college it's a concern for the college but it's also a concern for that community, local community and for the state.

We have a new chancellor of the State University System of New York and he happens to be on the phone with us, Jim Malatras. SUNY, I think, is lucky because Jim has been involved with the entire COVID management system from day one so he gets it clearly. He's brought that orientation to SUNY - he's action today at Oneonta that I think is right and we have him on the phone and I'd like him to speak about the situation at Oneonta and the actions he's taking today. Chancellor Malatras?

Chancellor Malatras: Thank you, Governor. Thank you, everyone. We have had reports of several large parties of our students at Oneonta last week, and unfortunately because of those larger gatherings, there were several students who were symptomatic of COVID and upon testing we found that 20 were positive for the COVID virus. As a result, we deployed the SUNY Upstate Medical Team to down to SUNY Oneonta, one of our premier medical research facilities to test all students, the nearly 3,000 or so at Oneonta, which began on Friday and right now as of this morning we have 71 positive confirmed cases up from 20. And because of our efforts, we're confirming another 34 tests, so we're about 105 positive tests at SUNY Oneonta, which is about 3 percent of the total student and faculty population that are on campus at SUNY Oneonta this year. As a result of the increase of tests - the positive tests for COVID - we are going to be closing the SUNY Oneonta campus for two weeks for instruction and we will assess the situation working with the state and local health departments after two weeks. I want to thank the Governor and Commissioner Zucker; they've deployed case investigators and contact tracers to help with the situation and the state is deploying a SWAT team to come into the Oneonta community to set up three rapid results testing facilities so that any resident of the Oneonta community can be tested. It's a 15-minute test. The hotline will be, and the locations will be, released on Monday and we will start testing on Wednesday because many of the students, of course, live off-campus. There's a lot of interaction in the community. There's a private college nearby, so we want to manage the, any potential spread and address it immediately. But we're taking this action because we think it's necessary in order to show folks that this can spread quickly and we have to address it quickly­­ - and the other piece that we wanted to mention, because the Governor mentioned it, we understand students are coming back, we understand people want to party. But individual responsibility plays into the collective good, so your individual actions have enormous consequences on everyone else in your college community. Five students in Oneonta have been suspended for holding parties against the college policy. Three organizations, campus organizations, have been suspended and that goes along - we're going to be tough not because we want to ruin their fun, but this is a different time and this goes to what other campuses have been doing. We had to suspend 43 students at SUNY Plattsburgh for similar things because we have to address this during the new-normal. So, we will be doing that today. We're going to be meeting with the local community leaders and the school to go discuss that at 1 p.m. today, so thank you, Governor.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you very much, Jim. And just to echo what Mr. Malatras discussed— and this should be a message to the private colleges also. I understand college life. Jim said, "students like to party." I never used the expression "party;" I said "socialize," which I thought was a more appropriate term to use in the academic setting. But we understand that and I understand the tension between the school administration and the student population, but if you— the lesson is always the same. If you are not prepared, if you don't have the right precautions, or if you don't enforce the precautions, then the virus spreads and then you have to take more dramatic action which is more disruptive and generates a more energy, a more negative energy. So private colleges, I think if you are slow to enforce the rules, then the virus will spread and then you will have to take more dramatic action. If a private college doesn't take the dramatic action, the local health department can make the college take close-down procedures. If the local community doesn't do it, the state can do it. A 3 percent infection rate, you know, that's a high infection rate in a congregate situation. Three percent is high in a dense environment, like a dense urban environment where you have people taking public transportation; it's a crowded environment. Three percent is high, so I think the Chancellor is doing the exact right thing at Oneonta and I think he's taking the right actions across SUNY, and I think the private colleges should really follow the example. As I said before, I think the colleges are the canary in the coal mine. I think what we're seeing at colleges we're going to see at the K-12 setting when those schools start to reopen. I know there's a lot of conversation in districts across the state. I speak to many school administrators, many parents about this. They have to have the right plan in place. Look at the colleges. Look at what's going on. Have the right plan and be in a position to actually implement the plan. Some school districts were having conversations about testing and what they'll do in terms of testing.

It's one thing to have a plan that says you're going to do X number of tests. It's another thing to actually have the capacity to do that number of tests. So it's not just the plan. It's the implementation of the plan, right? And bureaucracies are not the best change-oriented systems and this is a major change for a bureaucracy and this is a test that has to be completed quickly so it's an entirely new system, an entirely new task that has to be completed very quickly so a plan on paper is one thing. Being able to do it is a second question that has to be asked and my advice to the K-12 is the same - air on the side of caution. Air on the side of caution. If you go to in-person education and you are not prepared or you can't actually implement the plan and do it on day one, you will see the numbers go up and then you'll see more disruption. So air on the side of caution, smart plan you can implement, and if you're not ready, better you start when you are ready. You know? Everybody is anxious to get back to school. I get it. But everybody should be anxious to get back to a safe school, right? We're opening safe schools this year - that's what we're doing. Not just schools - we're opening safe schools. With that, Dr. Zucker has an announcement and then we'll take questions. Dr. Zucker?

Dr. Howard Zucker: Thank you, Governor. With flu season around the corner, the Department of Health will put out regulations tomorrow saying that all deaths involving respiratory illnesses need to be tested for COVID-19 and for the flu. This will maintain the integrity of our data. It will remove any reporting of presumed cases. This is very important information to have. I want to add that I urge everyone to get their flu shot unless there's a medical reason not to do so. Every year I urge people to get their flu shot and this year is no different, especially with the COVID-19 virus that's circulating the community, so we will have those regulations out tomorrow. Thank you, Governor.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you, Doctor. I'm ready for my flu shot whenever you're ready. I will take it without grimacing. Like I did that test with the nasal swab.