Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Updates New Yorkers on State's Progress During COVID-19 Pandemic

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo updated New Yorkers on the state's progress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

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

Good morning, guys, guys being gender neutral. We have Melissa DeRosa, Robert Mujica, Beth Garvey, Howard Zucker, Gareth Rhodes.

Let me give you some of the numbers today and some highlights. Today is day 236. We did 135,000 tests yesterday. The numbers were very good yesterday.

After 14 days of data, you know, we've been adjusting our focus in the micro-clusters, we rearranged the restrictions in Queens, Brooklyn, and we added focuses to Broome and Chemung. As I mentioned, through the fall you will see micro-clusters come and go. They are such small geographic areas and the numbers are so small they can literally be generated by just a couple of events that violated rules. So you will see them rise and you will see them fall and that is going to be the way of the world as we know it for the foreseeable future until we get the vaccines.

The positivity rate in the red zones, micro-clusters - because they're not just red, they're red, orange and yellow - was 3.2 percent. That is very low comparatively. The state without the micro-clusters was 0.96, and let me just make sure you understand the methodology because I don't want any confusion. We oversample the micro-clusters because we are trying to do a lot of tests, because we are trying to do a lot of contact tracing, because we are trying to isolate the affected people, because we are trying to bring down the number in that micro-cluster and it's an all hands on deck, so we oversample very small areas of the state. That number is 3.2 percent today.

The rest of the state without the micro-cluster - the micro-clusters remember, let's say they're 3 percent of the population, 4 percent of the population, so they're very small - the rest of the state is 0.96.

Those are the numbers that we use. If you add the two numbers together todayit's 1.2. That number fluctuates. Why? Because it's statistically not relevant. It's a function of how many tests you did in the oversampled area. That's all that's really telling you so yesterday it was 1.6, I believe, so it was, oh, my God, 1.6, so high. This number is not statistically representative the way the other two individual numbers are.

The infection rate in the micro-cluster is relevant. Is that going up or down, the statewide number is relevant. You put the two together, that number is relevant. 3.2, .96, 1.2 - those are the numbers. 986 hospitalized, 209 in ICU, 106 intubated.

Regionally, New York City, 1.1; Capital 0.9; Central, 1; Finger Lakes 1.4; Long Island 1; Mid-Hudson 1.5; Mohawk Valley, 0.6; North Country, 0.5; Southern Tier, 1.5; Western New York, 1.5. Western New York now has the issue of the counties along the Pennsylvania border where we're seeing upticks. Less in the Buffalo area, it's the more the counties on the Pennsylvania border.

Note early voting begins this Saturday in New York. Note, when you're talking about the relative situation of New York, there's only 1 state that is below 1 percent. That's Maine at .5. Today, we're at .9, which would put us second to Maine at .5.

I'd like to comment on something that's in the news, recent today. Secretary Azar, the HHS Secretary, he reportedly is considering firing the FDA Director, Dr. Steve Hahn. The White House has been unhappy with the FDA because they were unwilling to accelerate the approval of the vaccine because they wanted it done for Election Day, is what the President had said. The FDA has resisted timing the approval to Election Day.

You don't make governmental decisions based on the election calendar. You especially don't make public health decisions based on the election calendar. You especially don't decide that a vaccine is safe to take based on an election calendar. For Azar to say he's going to fire Hahn because he hasn't been compliant with the political gospel of the Trump administration. That is unethical. I am shocked that the HHS Inspector General, assuming it was a real person, didn't say they were going to investigate that. You're talking about life and safety on the approval of a vaccine. Trying to rush the FDA to approve it for a campaign platform for the President is abhorrent to the Hippocratic oath that doctors take. To Dr. Hahn I would say remember your oath and do your duty as your medical profession requires. Save your soul, Dr. Hahn. Save your soul. For these doctors to totally lose credibility and become politicized in the middle of a global, historic pandemic is just ludicrous, the entire concept. Also on vaccines, this is why the American people are skeptical about vaccines. Spectrum did a poll yesterday that again pointed out in New York how people are skeptical about the vaccines and whether or not they're going to take the vaccine. This whole vaccination process is going to be the next chapter in the COVID debacle. The way they'vedone it they have spread distrust among the American people, where American people now say a great percent are not willing to take the first vaccine. That'sbecause the way they have handled it. I said that we will put together a state task force that will review the vaccine. I said to you the state is in charge of administering the vaccine, and we will do that on a statewide basis. There is no local role in managing the vaccine process in the state. The state will have a statewide plan. The localities will be responsible for fulfilling their role pursuant to the state plan. They won't have a separate plan. They won't have a separate vaccine approval process. This is all under state law. There's still a law, and thelaw is the law, and I don't want any confusion about that going forward. Like, up until now, with this whole COVID situation, the state made the rules, the locals were supposed to enforce the rules. That was the locals' responsibility. They have no authority to make rules. They can have opinions. I have opinions about what President Trump does, but that's all they are is opinions. I don't want any confusion about the vaccine. The federal government has done enough confusion already. Some of the reporting I've seen is not accurate. This locality says they're going to do this, this localities says they're going to do it. Localities have no legal jurisdiction, that's the law. One would think the law is relevant in reporting. But I'm an old timer.

Also, with Mr. Azar, the states are going to be responsible for administering the vaccine. All the discussion of the vaccine has been when it will be available, when the scientific community will develop it, how the scientific community will keep it cold, ship it, and all the conversation ends with, and then they will ship it to the airport and put it on a truck and deliver it. Yes, and what happens after they deliver it? Oh, then the states are in charge. Okay, this is like testing; this is like contact tracing; this is like PPE; this is déjà vu all over again. And when you deliver it to the states, how are the states supposed to administer 40 million vaccines? I've only done 12 million tests-moving heaven and earth-in seven months. How do I do 40 million vaccines? These are the questions that the governors have. You know in the relay race, one runner hands the baton to the next person? Well before you hand the baton to the governors, called 'administer the vaccine', the governors need to know what resources? What funding? What is the timetable? What can they expect? I'm chairman of the NGA. We sent 35 questions to the president. We have gotten no answer. Time is short. They want a vaccine by Election Day. They are upset that they're not going to have a vaccine by Election Day. Okay, forget the day you're going to have the vaccine and stand up in the Rose Garden holding up the vial. That day is almost meaningless. How does that vial get reproduced 300 million times in this country and then get administered by all the states? Does that take six months? Nine months? One year? Two years? Does it cost New York State 1 billion? 2 billion? 4 billion? 5 billion? Where does that funding come from?

As far as the president's claim about anarchist states, once again Mr. President, read the Constitution. There is a law, it's the 10th amendment: the federal government doesn't have police power. That's a power that is reserved to the states by the 10th amendment. Look at the Slaughterhouse Cases in 1872. Powers that are not explicitly federal are reserved to the states and police power is reserved to the state. I'm the head of the state.