Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Calls into 1010 Wins Radio with Juliet Papa

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo called into 1010 WINS radio with Juliet Papa to discuss the State's storm response and the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

AUDIO is available here.

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

Juliet Papa: Good morning, Governor. How are you today?

Governor Cuomo: Good morning. I'm very fine. Good to hear your voice, Juliet.

Juliet Papa: Thank you, likewise. So you know yesterday we got cut off. You were driving down to the city. What are you doing? Are you driving back now and what are you observing as you're driving, if you're driving?

Governor Cuomo: Oh, we were cut off. I thought you hung up on me yesterday, Juliet.

Juliet Papa: No, wouldn't do that.

Governor Cuomo: No, I am still in the office, Juliet. I'm still in the office in New York City. It was a long night. Everyone did what they had to do. You know, when things are at their worst, New Yorkers are at their best and everyone did a great job last night. This was a lot of snow but the trains are all up and running. Long Island Rail Road is running, Metro North is running, the subway started again at 5 a.m., so they did a great job. The roads are open and we will have some light snowfall today but more it will be just a digging out, cleaning up. Now we're going to have more snow in upstate New York today so I'm going to start to focus there but no, I am still in the office. I'm going to put in for overtime, though - double and triple overtime, Juliet.

Juliet Papa: There you go. Good luck. You have to speak to the boss about that. Listen, well, you know the groundhog is saying six more weeks of winter, so how do you feel about that? We have more snowstorms coming, and how prepared is, let's say, the transit system? Upstate always seems to get walloped. What do you do? Do you keep National Guard on standby? Do you just, you know, in pandemic times this isn't easy.

Governor Cuomo: Well, you're right. None of it is easy. None of it is easy, Juliet, for all New Yorkers. This is a period of stress, trauma, mental health trauma that will go down in the history books, but the old expression, you know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger - I think we're going to be stronger for it at the end of the day. We have the National Guard stretched thin. We have them doing COVID obviously, we have some in Washington, D.C. doing security for the Capitol, and then we had National Guard working on the snow. Good news is we have learned, we're much better prepared for snowstorms than we were at one time. You know, we now have a one-hundred-year storm twice a year, so we have more equipment, more personnel, more sophistication. You look at the storm yesterday, if that wasnot handled right we would've been closed for days. The right decisions were madeon closing the Long Island Rail Road when they did, and the trains, and the above ground stations, so they could reopen today.

Juliet Papa: Now what about vaccines? You know yesterday, obviously, these were all cancelled and I know you said yesterday that they will be rescheduled. So, do people have to call back in or will they get a call from the location they were going to? How is this going to work?

Governor Cuomo: It depends on the vaccine site. Either they will get called or they'll have to call, but the good news is the State sites will contact them. But there are a lot of different sites doing it, and I can't speak for all of them. The State sites will call back the people and set up the appointment, but it is a State order that all vaccine sites honor the appointment. I don't want anyone to think after everything they went through, the torture to get an appointment, that it's not going to be honored. It will be honored, and that's a State order, whether it's a city site, or a private site, or whoever's running it.

Juliet Papa: And then the sites, the state sites, will be open when?

Governor Cuomo: The state sites will be open tomorrow downstate. Some of the ones upstate are still operating this morning, and we'll see what happens as the day goes through.

Juliet Papa: Okay.

Governor Cuomo: But look, Juliet, if all we have to do - I'll deal with snowstorms and stay up all night all day long as long as we can get this COVID situation under control. Life is relative. Relatively I'll take snowstorms, hurricanes, floods - just let's get COVID over, and let's stop the trauma and the death every day. So, that's still the main priority, obviously.

Juliet Papa: Governor, one final question and I know I asked you about this yesterday and you said, "no, restaurants won't open before the 14th," but you have the Super Bowl coming up on Sunday. So, is there any chance, because restaurants could do pretty good business if they were open for a Super Bowl event or something, so how does that sound to you?

Governor Cuomo: It all sounds good to me. You know everything sounds good to me: vaccinating everyone as quickly as possible sounds good, opening restaurants, it all sounds good. On the vaccines, I'm going to be talking to the White House again today. We just need more supply. Supply, supply, supply, and that's really production by the drug companies. On the restaurants, I've talked to everyone and it's still complicated, Juliet. They have to hire staff. They have to get ready. The local governments need to have people in place to work with them.

We set on Valentine's Day because Valentine's Day is a big day for a restaurant. Then what we did, Juliet, I put a combination package together. We reopened marriage ceremonies. I don't want to get anyone into trouble or any pressure, go to a restaurant on Valentine's Day, propose and you can get married one month later. No pressure, no pressure on anyone, but think about it. It's something to think about.

Juliet Papa: Alright, we'll think about that and good luck with that. And good luck with whenever you head back to Albany. Are you doing a briefing later today?

Governor Cuomo: I will do a briefing later today. We have a meeting with the governors, all the governors. I'm Chairman of something called the National Governor's Association. We have a meeting with the governors and the White House to talk about vaccine distribution, vaccine supply. Then, I'm going to get upstate because they have a snow problem now. Juliet, when I talk about the Valentine's Day and weddings, good luck with that. I hope you're not talking to me, Juliet.

Juliet Papa: Oh no, nothing personal. Strictly business, nothing personal. Listen, Governor, thank you so much for joining us and we'll be tuning in later today for the briefing. Always a pleasure. Thanks again for coming on with us.