Governor Cuomo: "I actually believe that we have been behind on this disease from day one. It was in China in November. We were on notice and we've been behind. It's time to take this seriously, for the federal government to stand up and do its job. There's no country that has dealt with this, not China, not South Korea, that has not nationalized the effort. You look at your report that just went on. All these different cities, all these different states, doing all these different things, we shouldn't have a patchwork quilt. Let the federal government stand up and say here are the rules. This the rule on movie theaters. This the rule on bars, et cetera."
Cuomo: "Here in New York, we make the decisions on the science, on the data, and you look at the increase in the number of cases, and you know you have to do more."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on NBC's the Today Show to discuss New York's plan to combat the novel coronavirus crisis.
AUDIO is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Savannah Guthrie: We're joined now by New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo. Governor Cuomo, good morning. Thank you for taking the time this morning, sir.
Governor Cuomo: Good to be with you, Savannah, Hoda.
Savannah Guthrie: Our first question has to do with this notion of a lockdown. First of all, I'm sure you're aware there's tons of rumors around New York City that the city could be locked down. But we've seen what has happened in places like Italy. If something like that, in other words, a mandatory closure, do you see that as something that might happen in the future?
Governor Cuomo: There's a lot of rumors, a lot of panic, a lot of fear, frankly not justified by the facts, but it's there. In the case of New York, no city in the state can close down without the state government's approval, and no city in the state will do that.
Savannah Guthrie: And what about just in general? Do we anticipate - we were just talking about Vice President Pence who indicated that there were going to be further guidelines. Do you anticipate some more drastic measures? Right now the CDC, for example, is recommending, I believe, no gatherings larger than 50 people. Do you think it's going to get tougher than that?
Governor Cuomo: It has to because the numbers keep going up, right? Here in New York, we make the decisions on the science, on the data, and you look at the increase in the number of cases, and you know you have to do more. I actually believe that we have been behind on this disease from day one. It was in China in November. We were on notice and we've been behind. It's time to take this seriously, for the federal government to stand up and do its job. There's no country that has dealt with this, not China, not South Korea, that has not nationalized the effort. You look at your report that just went on. All these different cities, all these different states, doing all these different things, we shouldn't have a patchwork quilt. Let the federal government stand up and say here are the rules. This the rule on movie theaters. This the rule on bars, et cetera.
Hoda Kotb: Governor Cuomo, let's move forward. Let's talk testing because we've heard from the federal government that there are millions of tests now out there. Do you feel we have the adequate number of tests in New York and are there like drive-through testing situations set up? What's happening here?
Governor Cuomo: We are ramping up on the testing, again much later than we should have been. I said to the President earlier this week, let New York take care of its own testing. If I have to wait for the FDA and the CDC, we'll be here forever. He's allowed New York to do its own testing. We'll be ramping up the testing. Bur Hoda, the next challenge, right? Let's get ahead of this. Plan forward, the next challenge is that the curve that everybody talks about, I see as a wave, and it is going to crash on the hospital system. We do not have the capacity to manage this number of cases. That's what happened in Italy. I called on the president to use Army Corps of Engineers. Let's start building temporary hospital facilities before that happens because it will happen.
Savannah Guthrie: Governor, unfortunately we've got to leave it there. Thank you for your time.
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