May 31, 2020
Albany, NY

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Announces Dentists Can Reopen Statewide Tomorrow and Updates New Yorkers on State's Progress During Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic

Interim COVID-19 Guidance for Dentistry can be found here

Confirms 1,110 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 370,770; New Cases in 45 Counties

Governor Cuomo: "This reduction in the number of deaths is tremendous progress from where we were. We have gone through hell and back, but we are on the other side and it's a lesson for all of us."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York dentists can reopen statewide tomorrow. Dentists' offices will be subject to state guidance on best practices for safety and social distancing. The Governor also updated New Yorkers on the state's progress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New cases, hospitalizations, intubations and deaths are all declining as of yesterday.

VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Good morning. Let me introduce who is with me today. From my right, Robert Mujica, Budget Director for the State of New York. To my left, Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor. To Melissa's left, we're joined today by Major Chris West from the New York State Police.

Last night was a long and ugly night all across this nation, as we know. Let's talk about where we are today with the COVID virus first. The number of hospitalizations are down again. Net change in hospitalizations down again. Intubations down again. Number of new deaths still dropping. All good news. Number of lives lost down to 56, which is, in this absurd reality we live in, actually very, very good news.

There will be a point at which the number of deaths can't get any lower because people will die of something and COVID virus is very good at affecting those people who have other illnesses, but this reduction in the number of deaths is tremendous progress from where we were. We have gone through hell and back, but we are on the other side and it's a lesson for all of us.

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