Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on WCBS 880 With John Metaxas

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on WCBS880 with John Metaxas to discuss New York's latest measures to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus.

AUDIO is available here.

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

John Metaxas: We're talking about New York City public schools, of course. Governor Cuomo, you've had a real hard time with this. You've got a public health emergency, parents who need schools so they can work, kids who need schools because they need to eat - many of them in these food programs. And of course, the big issue for you has been health care workers who may need schools for child care so that they can go help us fight coronavirus. How is this whole thing going to be resolved?

Governor Cuomo: Tough issues, but that's why I get the big bucks.

John Metaxas: That's right. That's right.

Governor Cuomo: I don't get the big bucks. This is what we're going to do. You're right. We have all these calls are difficult because these are all uncharted waters. We haven't been here before. You know I've handled a lot of emergencies in my time. I was in the federal government, I handled hurricanes, floods in Honduras, in Haiti. I've done storms, Super Storm Sandy here. And by the way, we did H1N1, we did Ebola. So they're all hard.

This is what we're going to do and how we hit the balance. Closing the schools sounds great, but there are two caveats. The caveats are A - you still have to provide child care for essential workers. We need essential workers to go to work. I need the police, the firefighters and especially the health care workers. Because remember, this is a health care crisis. What's going to happen here at the end of the day is the hospitals will be overwhelmed, so we can't lose health care workers. When you close the schools, that's day care, child care for many families. And I don't want police officers or nurses calling up saying I can't go to work because I have to stay home with my children.

The second issue was a lot of children get food programs in the schools. So we worked it out, the Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, New York City schools will close. They will all close with a child care plan for essential workers in place. And food programs and a plan to make up the educational services at summer school, assuming we're out of this during the summer months.

The child care will basically be provided by using some of the schools or portions of the schools and some teachers will remain to provide the child care. So, parents can go to work, they'll know their child is being well cared for. We will still have hospitals fully functional, first responders, et cetera. But the schools will be closed and will help us reduce the density, which is what fighting this virus is all about.

John Metaxas: Now, Governor, I heard you mention Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties as you went through the list. Did you mention New York City schools as well?

Governor Cuomo: Yes.

John Metaxas: Okay, so when will that happen? This week?

Governor Cuomo: Nassau, Suffolk close Monday, tomorrow. Westchester in a couple of days. It hasn't been determined exactly when yet because they have to get their child care plan in place. New York City, I directed to have their child care plan and food plan and educational plan in place in 24 hours. And then in New York City schools will close early this week.

John Metaxas: So early this week, we expect New York City schools to close. And of course, that's a big heads up to parents. We're not talking about just health care workers, but many parents as you know and just mentioned will depend on the city schools for child care in the next few days for that.

Governor Cuomo: That's right and I wanted to give parents some notice and I want the child care program in place. Again, child care is going to be primarily for essential workers, first responders, healthcare workers.

John Metaxas: Governor, you mentioned something a moment ago. It's a little off subject, but you brought it up about preventing hospitals from becoming overwhelmed by coronavirus cases. How can we do that?

Governor Cuomo: That is the $64,000 question. And remember what this is all about. There's so much noise, so much fear. We're sometimes missing the facts. We're trying to slow the spread. You cannot stop the spread. The estimates of the population that are going to get it are 40, 50, 60, 70 percent of the population will get it, right. Either you or I will by percentage, get the coronavirus. And that's okay. Eighty percent self-resolve, there are tens of thousands of New Yorkers who have had the coronavirus, didn't even know they had it - thought they had the flu. That is what is going to happen. But there will be a number of vulnerable people, vulnerable meaning senior citizens, compromised immune system, underlyingillness.

You look at the people who have passed away so far in New York. One person had emphysema and then got the coronavirus, which by the way is pneumonia. You have emphysema and you get pneumonia, you're in grave danger. If you have emphysema and you get the flu you're in danger. One person was battling cancer. You will get a population of those people and your hospitals will not be able to handle that number of acute care beds.

We only have 3,000 intensive care beds in this state and most of them are already occupied. What's going to happen is when we don't slow the spread of the disease, that curve, I see it as a wave and the wave is going to break and when the wave breaks, it breaks on top of the hospital system. I sent the President a letter today saying by any projection, any projection on the trajectory of this disease, it's going to overwhelm our hospitals, we know that. We've always been behind on this disease, let's get ahead of it. Bring in the Army Corps of Engineers and let's start building medical facilities. Let's convert college dorms, let's convert state office buildings to medical facilities. Only the Army Corps of Engineers can do that that fast, because we're talking about a matter of weeks here.

John Metaxas: Right, to build.

Governor Cuomo: Yes. Let's retrofit those facilities so we can take some pressure off of the hospitals. Otherwise, we're going to be where Italy was. Where their hospitals could not handle the surge.

John Metaxas: And the number of cases are exploding in Italy and in Spain.

Governor Cuomo: Yes, but the number of cases is going to explode here.

John Metaxas: No, no, no. In addition to what you're saying with the hospitals being overwhelmed and the cases are exploding, that's exactly what you're trying to avoid.

Governor Cuomo: Yes, and I am saying the numbers are going to explode here. We're going to do everything we can to reduce the spread, and slow the spread. But this is fire through dry grass. You're not really going to be able to stop it. You'll tamp it down a little bit, but you're not going to stop it. All the numerical projections say it's going to overwhelm the hospitals, like Italy. So, if you know that do what you can to get ahead of it.

John Metaxas: Have you received any response from the Administration to your letter?

Governor Cuomo: No. Well, it was only today, but no.

John Metaxas: I'm sure they read it. What about an increase in testing? How is that going?

Governor Cuomo: That is actually going well. Talk about being behind on this disease. China was doing 150,000 tests per day. South Korea was dong 15,000 tests per day. The United States has not done 15,000 tests since this started. It's inexcusable. In any event. I went to the President and I said look, I'm tired of waiting on the federal government, I'm tired of waiting on the FDA and the CDC to tell me what I can do. Let this State do its own testing. I have 200 laboratories; we can do it. The President agreed, we're now doing our own testing. This coming week, we'll be up to 6,000 tests per day, which is more than we've done to date. So, the testing will be way up there. And the testing is important, because when you identify a positive person you isolate them, you stop the spread. So, that's a way of stopping the spread. Reducing the density is a way of stopping the spread, but I don't believe you're going to be able to slow the spread to a rate that your hospitals will be able to deal with. So, for me to get ahead of this, we need more hospital capacity and that to me is the Army Corps of Engineers.

John Metaxas: And we need to start building it now.

Governor Cuomo: Yes.

John Metaxas: Governor Cuomo, thank you very much for your time.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you. Thank you for having me.