June 30, 2020
Albany, NY

Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Calls into NY1 with Pat Kiernan

Announces Individuals Traveling to New York from Eight Additional States - California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee - Will be Required to Quarantine for 14 Days

1 Percent of Yesterday's COVID-19 Tests were Positive

13 COVID-19 Deaths in New York State Yesterday

Governor Cuomo: "We now have 16 states that meet the formula for quarantine. That has gone way up. Now California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee - they hit the quarantine threshold. So 16 states are now subject to the quarantine in New York. That's a very significant problem."

Cuomo: "Second, in New York City we have a compliance issue and it's real. You look at people on the sidewalks, you look at people by bars, you're seeing the congregations that we were so good at preventing for so long and I'm going to have a message for the people of New York City specifically: Don't forget the discipline. Don't forget the masks. Don't forget to socially distance. That's what brought us down and that will create a problem again."

Cuomo: "Tonight, we're going to have State Police, we're going to have Department of Health monitors, we're going to have State Liquor Authority monitors. They're going to be looking all throughout the city to see if New Yorkers are complying."

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo called into NY1 with Pat Kiernan to discuss New York's latest efforts to combat COVID-19. He announced eight additional states meet the metrics to qualify for the travel advisory requiring individuals who have traveled to New York from those states, all of which have significant community spread, to quarantine for 14 days. The newly-added states are California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee. The quarantine applies to any person arriving from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or a state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.

The full, updated list of states on the travel advisory is below:

  • Alabama
  • Arkansas
  • Arizona
  • California
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Iowa
  • Idaho
  • Louisiana
  • Mississippi
  • North Carolina
  • Nevada
  • South Carolina
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah

The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

AUIO is the interview is available here.

A rush transcript of the interview is available below:

Pat Kiernan: We have on the phone Governor Cuomo. We have seen what's happened in other states and you remain very concerned.

Governor Cuomo: Yes, good to be with you, Pat. First of all, we've never seen what's going on today. They're going to write books about this and this is going to go into the history of this country. We've never been here before and it only gets more complex. Good news is our house is doing very well. Bad news is the neighbors home is on fire. We need to be concerned.

In New York we did the impossible. We went from the worst infection rate to the best infection rate. Our numbers are arguably the best in the United States of America right now. Last night, the numbers were good again. We lost 13 people to coronavirus, but that's just about as low as it's been. At our high point we lost 800 people per day. The infection rate is about 1 percent, which is where it's supposed to be.

Our numbers are doing very, very well. The problem we have is two-fold. Number one: The virus is raging all across the nation and that's because we have a federal government that just missed this. They denied it in the first place, let's be honest. They refused to solve it because they don't admit it.

If you don't admit you have a problem, you're not going to come up with a solution. We're trying to keep the infection out of New York. Remember the way the infection started in New York is it came from Europe, came on airplanes through our airports. Now we have all these other states that are highly infected. We're afraid that they're going to fly into New York and cause the same problem and it's only getting worse.

We now have 16 states that meet the formula for quarantine. That has gone way up. Now California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee - they hit the quarantine threshold. So 16 states are now subject to the quarantine in New York. That's a very significant problem.

Second, in New York City we have a compliance issue and it's real. You look at people on the sidewalks, you look at people by bars, you're seeing the congregations that we were so good at preventing for so long and I'm going to have a message for the people of New York City specifically: Don't forget the discipline. Don't forget the masks. Don't forget to socially distance. That's what brought us down and that will create a problem again.

Tonight, we're going to have State Police, we're going to have Department of Health monitors, we're going to have State Liquor Authority monitors. They're going to be looking all throughout the city to see if New Yorkers are complying. I've said to the local governments in New York, also on Long Island we have an issue, they have to enforce the compliance, Pat.

I don't want to be hard edge, but it's the law and I need the local governments to do the compliance. I know there's a lot going on in the NYPD now, but they have to enforce it.

Pat Kiernan: Are you sending in State Police and State Liquor Authority because you're not happy with what the NYPD has done?

Governor Cuomo: Because I'm trying to gauge how bad the non-compliance is. If the non-compliance is continuing, then we have to think about what we do on phase 3 which New York City is supposed to enter on Monday. If we already have a compliance issue, then opening up venues that will only further aggravate that issue would be a mistake.

We're going to move into phase 3, I feel good about that. We have a question on indoor dining. If you already have a problem, Pat, that you can't control where you're out of compliance with bars and sidewalks and groups drinking outside, then does it make sense to open indoor dining? Indoor dining across the country has shown to be problematic. There's something about the air conditioning circulating the air and now we're going to be recommending and mandating, in some circumstances, a different type of air filter and an air conditioning system that can actually filter out the COVID virus. But tonight we're going to be monitoring what's happening with the compliance. I want to make a final decision tomorrow on the indoor dining because I want the restaurants to have notice one way or the other, and I want to get a snapshot of tonight what's happening so I make an informed decision tomorrow. I was talking to the State of New Jersey. We do a lot in coordination with New Jersey and Connecticut as you know, many of these activities, you know, if you don't go to a restaurant in New York City you can go to a restaurant in New Jersey, vice versa. So I don't want our state creating a problem for another state. But New Jersey is looking at the same issue and Governor Murphy, I spoke to, they have an issue on indoor dining. He doesn't want to go ahead with it at this point because he's also seeing the federal spread and the lack of compliance. I said I'd make a decision tomorrow so I want to get a snapshot tonight.

Pat Kiernan: Governor it's a busy day in city politics as well. The city budget deadline, one of the things that the mayor has asked for is the authority to borrow more money. He hasn't received that from Albany yet. How do you think the City is going to find its way and finds itself in and can Albany help in some way?

Governor Cuomo: Look in government as in life, the question when somebody says I want to borrow, the question how are you going to pay it back? And do you really need to borrow that much? And what do you think the future business environment is and how much revenue is it going to generate so you can pay it back? Remember, Pat, been here done that. When a local government gets into trouble, the state has to come in to bail them out. New York City got into financial trouble. We went through the 70's. We went through the Financial Control Board. The State had to come in to bail them out. So yeah, borrowing is easy, paying back is hard. And of course nobody wants to make hard decisions in government and budgets and there are people in the New York State legislature who will say just "Spend, spend, spend." I get it but I don't want to then have a de facto bankruptcy where the State is going to have to come in and bail out the debt. And we have a real question in New York City, how fast does the economy come back? How fast until those Broadway theaters reopen and until the concert halls reopen, and we're doing conventions in Javits Center again, and people who moved out to the Hamptons come back or from the Hudson Valley come back to their apartments in New York City? When does that happen? When do people feel the city is safe from the disease, from the looting, et cetera? So these are big decisions and "I want to borrow." Yeah, I know. I focus on the paying back, as do most taxpayers, because if the city can't pay it back then that means that taxpayers are going to have to go into their pocket - and I'm not that eager to do that.

Pat Kiernan: Governor, as we wrap up I want to play the video from your press conference yesterday when you unveiled the COVID mountain. I'm thinking at this point that maybe we want to send this on the road, and send it to Florida and send it to Texas and send it to Arizona, and remind people of what happened here. You made the point yesterday, those areas of the country were so generous to us in sending health care workers are way and you promised to reciprocate. But you don't want to have to be in a position to reciprocate.

Governor Cuomo: You know, Pat, there reason I did that mountain, I think visuals sometimes tell the story. Remember what we went through. We went through hell. 111 days of hell. We did not create the problem. The federal government totally missed it. The virus, they were looking at China, the virus had gone from China to Europe and then came here from Europe. And then meanwhile we were just letting Europeans walk in the door. And we had that terrible spike every day, every day. And then we had to reduce it by our behavior and then we had to endure the long descent. First to New Yorkers, stay disciplined. We don't want to go back there. We did the impossible. I don't want to do the impossible twice. And to the other states, if you don't get this under control, you're going to have to go through that mountain. Many people died and there was a lot of pain so let's learn the lessons. That's what the mountain visualizes. We forget so fast and we go from topic to topic. Don't forget what we did here together and the pain that we went through and let's learn from it.

I go to New York City. I'm going to be there all the time and I say to people on the streets, when I see they don't have a mask, I see these groups of people in front of a bar, what are you thinking? How short a memory? Learn the lesson, give me a break.

Pat Kiernan: We have a pretty short memory sometimes. Governor Cuomo, we look forward to hearing the results of your investigation tonight and your decision on indoor dining tomorrow. Thanks for being with us this morning.

Governor Cuomo: Thanks for having me, Pat. Thanks.

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