Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Updates New Yorkers on State's COVID-19 Response, Makes an Announcement

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo updated New Yorkers on the state's COVID-19 response and made an announcement.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

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

Hello, friends. I'm joined by Melissa DeRosa, Robert Mujica, Commissioner Zucker, Beth Garvey and Gareth Rhodes. Begin with an update on today. First of all, let me make some comments about the sadness and disgrace in Washington. People say, "well, President Trump started it yesterday." I disagree. President Trump didn't start it yesterday. President Trump started this four years ago. When you spread hatred and distrust and division, don't be surprised at the ugliness.

This is four years of placing wedges in every crack in society. This is building walls. This is putting children in cages. This is speaking poorly of the Muslim community. This is saying at a KKK march, "there are good people on both sides of the argument." This is four years of appealing to the worst in human instinct, and preying on people's fears, and that's what yesterday was. The story ends the way the story began. They talk about reaching out to better angels. This is a man who has spent four years touching the darker side of humanity, exploiting fear, exploiting fear of people who are different, praying on insecurity. That's what yesterday was. It was an explosion of hate that he created over four years.

That's his legacy. That is his legacy. Yes, when you, as president of the United States, with that large microphone, tell people to be frightened of other people, tell them to be violent, speak about carnage, arm yourself, defend yourself. Don't be surprised at the anger and the hell that you have rallied. That was him. That's his legacy. And even his great conservative allies now turn on him, because it was a universal disgrace and embarrassment for all Americans. And it was a disgrace, talk about making American great again, he made a mockery of America for the entire world to see. Party of law and order, and then, he couldn't stop thugs from breaking windows and climbing in and vandalizing the nation's capital. Party of law and order. Law and order. And for hours on TV they couldn't even stop a crowd of thugs from breaking in to the Capitol. Think about the great irony, I stand with the police. It went on for hours. The party of Law and Order. Anyways, in some ways, I think it brings the story to a full and fitting climax. The American people reject hate, reject violence, reject division, and they do it now with one clear voice. And that's what he accomplished. Universal condemnation, which is what he deserved.

Some update on today, we had a number of discussions with local governments around the state on the vaccine. We are very worried about the quote unquote UK strain. We still have only the one case confirmed here in New York but we believe there are more, the CDC announced something like 50 cases across the country. We believe we have more, it's very hard to test for the virus, for that strain of the virus. In the UK it overtook everything in three weeks. Local governments as well as I am very concerned about the local hospital capacity. We are continuing to see an increase in the hospitalization rate and the red line is overwhelming the hospital system. That's where California is, that's where other states are. If the UK spread catches on in New York, hospitalization rate goes up, the hospital staff is sick, then we have a real problem, and then we're at shutdown again.

The hospitals, the primary problem in hospital capacity now is staff shortage. We have increased beds, we have equipment that we had in the spring. But the problem all hospitals are reporting are staff shortages, primarily nurses, and that's why we reinforced the necessity to get the hospital healthcare workers vaccinated, you know in the airline when the announcement comes on when you're sitting in the plane, in the event the oxygen mask falls from the compartment, first put the hospital mask on yourself and then put it on your child. The equivalent here is protect your hospital systems, keep your hospitals open, so if you need them there is a bed and a staff to assist you . The prioritization of healthcare 1a is federal guidance, state guidance, and it's virtually universal across the country. We have mixed performance by hospitals across the state in doing the hospital workers, we have some hospitals that are lagging and we have some hospitals that are doing much, much better.

I think they heard me on Monday when I said they had to get the vaccines in the arms by Friday. We have seen a dramatic increase in their performance. They were doing, statewide, about 10,000 vaccinations per day for the first several weeks. On Monday, that number went to 30,000. Tuesday, it was a little over 30. Wednesday, the number went to 50,000 and today we're going to be in excess of 50,000. That's 5 times the rate they were doing.

Tomorrow, if they haven't used their allocation, we will re-allocate the allocation and we'll talk about how we're reallocating it tomorrow. In total, we have 2 million healthcare workers in the state. In total, we only have 900,000 doses for the 2 million. Statewide, we don't even have enough vaccines for half the number of health care workers. That's why I've been saying any hospital that has reached their refusal rate - refusal rate means I've offered it to everyone and the ones who want to take it, take it and the ones who don't want to take it don't take it. The refusal rate varies depending on the hospital, depending on the workforce.

Doctors are taking the vaccine at a much higher rate. This is anecdotal, but I would expect to see numbers in the 80 percentile for doctors and doctors know best. Nurses, there's a variation among nurses, but I would expect to see that a low of 70, a high of 80. 70 is the minimum threshold for viability of the vaccination program. The vaccination program to hit herd immunity, you have to be between 70 and 90 percent. If we're under 70 overall, then the vaccination program is not as effective because you don't hit herd immunity. We would hope that we're higher than 70 with the healthcare community because they're the most educated and most informed.

Refusal rate, say 70 percent is acceptance, 30 refusal. Any hospital that hits their refusal rate - I offered it to everybody, nobody else wants it - fine, tell me, we'll reallocate it, because again, overall, we don't have enough dosages for half of the population of health care workers and we want to get them vaccinated. We owe it to them ethically, frontline heroes, everybody celebrates them. Well let's actually not just celebrate them rhetorically, but let's in reality by giving them the vaccine. Also, if they get sick, the hospitals are going to close. It's that simple.

After 1b we will go to 1b. 1b is our essential workers and 75+ year old. Essential workers: police, fire, teachers, public safety, and 75-plus. 1b is over 3 million people. Again, we're getting 300,000 dosages per week, so the supply is our issue. 1b, the distribution mechanism is going to be different. 1b, we're going to use thousands of points of distribution across the state: pharmacies, doctors' offices, what's called FQHCs, community groups that are going to be making special efforts in our Black and Latino communities and poor communities across the state. So those areas will be served across the state with thousands of points under 1b, they will not primarily be distributed by governments.

In 1b for large groups like police, firefighters, et cetera, we said to the local officials today, to the extent a police force or the firefighters or the teachers or the transit workers can self-administer, that would be great. In other words, police have EMS/EMT, firefighters have EMS/EMT, transit workers have their own health network. A lot of the large unions have their own health network. To the extent we can just give them the vaccine and they can self-administer - great, and that frees up the pharmacies in the doctors to do the 75-plus, but it's not going to be a distribution problem, because we'll have thousands of distributors under 1b, it's going to be a supply problem. Again, right now, we have 2 million health care workers with 900,000 doses in hand. 1b will be 3 million people and we're getting 300,000 a week so you see why the supply is going to lag behind the distribution.

On the overall distribution, high performers, this is hospitals- 1a is hospitals distributing, not local governments, and the reasons the hospitals are distributing is because they're health care workers in 1a. That's why we used hospitals. 1b is general public and essential workers that's why we're using private facilities. High performers, NYU Langone Tisch - it's a very long name - 100 percent. Oswego, 100 percent, Richmond, 100 percent, St. Barnabas, 100 percent, SUNY Downstate, 100 percent - congratulations, Jim Malatras - NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, 100 percent, Cayuga Medical Center, 100 percent, SUNY Upstate, 100 percent - congratulations, Jim Malatras - Kaleida-Buffalo, 98 percent, Adirondack Medical Center, 98 percent.

On the low end, Montefiore, 17, Clifton Springs Hospital and Clinic, 18, Brookdale, 22, A.O. Fox Hospital Tri-Town Campus, 22, Calgary Hospital, 27, Olean General Hospital, 28, New York City Health + Hospital Queens, 29, New York City Health + Hospital Coney Island, 34.

New York City overall - and these numbers by the way are from their own submissions. There is no argument about numbers because the numbers are sent in under penalty of perjury, but New York City overall has 917,000 eligible health care workers in 1a. New York City has done 144,000 vaccines. 917,000 eligible health care works, 144,000 vaccines. That's roughly 14 percent of the health care population. Even if you want to say the City says their refusal rate is 30 percent, that means the acceptance rate is 70 percent but they've only done 14 percent. That's the problem with New York City and I discussed that with local governments also today.

We have to get the health care workers immunized. That's federal guidance. That's State's guidance. If you hit the refusal rate, fine. But New York City, you have vaccinated 14,000 percent. How can you say you hit the refusal rate which you say is 30 percent? That's a long way from 14 to 70, and again, we don't have enough vaccine. We're only at 900,000 doses against 2 million health care workers, so anyone who hits the refusal rate tell us, and we'll reallocate.

When we got to 1b, some local governments said they want to prioritize police. They can't do that. First, some local governments have said, well police are health care workers because police give CPR. First of all, this plan has been out there for months. It's clearly said, 1a are health care workers, 1b are essential workers like police. Every police officer is trained to do CPR. That doesn't make very police officer a health care worker. That's just silly. And when we get to 1b, no local government can prioritize one group over the other. You can't prioritize police over firefighters, you can't prioritize police over teachers, and you can't prioritize police over 75-year-old New Yorkers who have the highest death rate in the state. It is one group and they're going to be treated fairly and I'm not going to pick police over teaches, over firefighters, over grandpa and grandma and mom in my case at 75-plus. That just will not be allowed, period.

But the hospitals have made good progress. They're doing five-fold what they were so I'm glad they heard me. Tomorrow we'll announce a reallocation plan. We have to get the health care workers done, and with that let me stop there and I will take your questions.