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 afternoon, everyone. I'm joined by Dr. Zucker, Beth Garvey, Kelly Cummings, Melissa DeRosa, Robert Mujica.

COVID numbers today, positivity 4.1. 46 New Yorkers passed away from COVID yesterday. One New Yorker passing away is one too many, but 46 is the lowest number since November 27, so that is relative good news. 4,400 hospitalized, 885 in ICU, 576 intubated.

Positivity by region, number 1 in reverse order, you don't want to be number 1. Mid-Hudson 4.6, Long Island 4.4, New York City 4.0, Western New York 2.3 - comeback kid, Western New York, Capital Region 1.9, Finger Lakes 1.7, Mohawk Valley 1.7, North Country 1.4, Central New York 0.9, Southern Tier 0.5, Statewide 3.2. That's the 7-day statewide average, 3.2.

New York City - Queens 4.5, Bronx 4.3, Staten Island 4.3, Brooklyn 3.9, Manhattan 2.4. We have an issue that we have been watching. One of the new words that goes into the COVID dictionary, variants of interest, and I'm going to ask Dr. Zucker to give us an update on variants of interest, Doctor.

Dr. Zucker: Thank you, Governor. So there is a Brazilian variant with COVID, a Q1 variant. We identified a Q1 variant in New York. It was first discovered by the scientists at Mt. Sinai. It was verified by our Wadsworth Center laboratories. The patient is an individual who is in their 90s [inaudible] and it was first detected in the U.S. obviously in the end of January and the CDC right now has 54 cases [inaudible] and it's a variant of concern as the CDC refers to it, which means if there is evidence of increase in potential transmissibility or more severe [inaudible]. The more people vaccinate, the less likely you're going to end up with variants so I encourage everyone to get vaccinated [inaudible] which we're doing in the state.

Governor Cuomo: Okay, thank you, Dr. Zucker. On vaccines, we've done 7.7 million shots in arms, 7,737,230 total doses. 7,737,230. 5,198,000 New Yorkers have received at least one dose. 2,692,000 are fully vaccinated. Over 1.65 million doses administered at the New York State mass vaccination sites and at the FEMA sites thus far.

Good news, overnight Astra-Zeneca announced the results of the US trial and they're going to FDA for approval. That would be very helpful because that would give us yet another vaccine.

The vaccines, what you're going to see is a dramatic shift in the dynamic. The problem thus far has been the supply of the vaccine and we have been limited by supply, which we said on day one was going to happen and the message has been the same every week from every state. We need more. We are now basically in a flat period in terms of supply. The past couple of weeks the number has basically been flat in the allocation from the federal government.

What you will see in the next couple of weeks is a dramatic increase in the allocation. Johnson & Johnson is going to ramp up with the partnership with Merck. If Astra-Zeneca comes online there's going to be a ramp up. Pfizer, Moderna are ramping up. You will see a spike in the allocation. That spike in the allocation will then flip the challenge to the distribution side.

We've gone from a place of needing more vaccine. Once the allocation increases the way they say it will - and the allocation could double - then you want to make sure you have enough distribution resources, especially in a big state like ours. We are actively recruiting additional distribution mechanisms. Today we did the Roll Up Your Sleeve campaign where we ask all faith-based organizations to partner with a local health provider and do vaccinations in their faith-based facility. Use a church, use a mosque, use a temple in partnership with the local hospital or local community-based provider, an FQHC to actually be a vaccination site. Especially with Johnson & Johnson one and done, that would have a significant infrastructure across the State immediately. I was down in Westchester with Reverend Sharpton and with representatives of the Jewish community and the Muslim community, all religious leaders. We're excited about the potential of that.

We are also increasing the eligibility for the vaccine to 50-plus and that will start tomorrow. People can make an appointment: 1-833-NYS-4VAX. We don't yet have the increase in the allocation so what people are really doing is making an appointment for when the allocation does increase, but we want to get those appointments set up so when the allocation does come we're ready for it in terms of arms that are ready for needles. It doesn't sound great but that's what we're looking for.

We have been aggressively doing pop-ups and vaccination sites in communities of need. The numbers are still off in terms of total equity of distribution. The Black community still lags in terms of percentage of vaccination, the Hispanic community still lags. The white community is somewhat over-represented. The Asian community is about equal or over represented. We are focusing on the Black and Hispanic community to make sure we're getting it to them because that is - when you look at the numbers - that's the lag in the numbers. That's what we expected going into this. We talked about social equity in the vaccination process very early on. We're continuing to work on that and we will continue to work on that.

There is a hesitancy problem, distrust problem, but I think we're chipping away at it more and more endorsers, more and more faith-based voices, more and more churches. More and more Black leaders and Hispanic leaders standing up saying I did it, it's safe. I think it's starting to make a difference but it is a real issue that we have to continue to work at.

Just for a point of clarification, New York City restaurants are at 50 percent. We announced that about a week ago. New Jersey is at about 50 percent. Connecticut lifted their limit of capacity in restaurants, so at 50 percent we are in sync with New Jersey, Connecticut is higher, but I'm comfortable with that. We're comfortable at the 50 percent.

We also today opened fitness centers in New York City. New York City was the only location where the fitness centers were not open. Gyms were open but fitness centers were not open. There's an inconsistency. That goes into effect today.

These changes, as you know, we notify the State Legislature. The State Legislature could change any one of these by a simple majority vote which has been true from day one.