New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took another swipe at Donald Trump on Saturday by channeling Abraham Lincoln saying there’s ‘no time for politics’ as he announced the state’s death rate has dropped to the lowest since April 1.
Speaking in his daily press briefing, Cuomo said he had some ‘good news’ for New Yorkers as he revealed that daily deaths, hospitalizations, intubations and ICU admissions continued to fall.
As the nation’s crisis epicenter seems to have reached its peak, Cuomo announced that 504 people died from coronavirus Friday, the lowest death toll since April 1 and far lower than the state’s peak of 806 on April 7.
The governor went on to make a series of thinly-veiled digs at Trump, in which he recited Lincoln’s famous quote – ‘a house divided itself cannot stand’ – and reminded him ‘that’s why we’re called the “United” States.’
His comments come after he blasted the president Friday, mocking his demand for gratitude for federal help and saying: ‘Thank you for doing your job’.
Cuomo said Saturday in his daily briefing that 504 people died from coronavirus in new York Friday, down from the state’s peak death toll of 806 on April 7
In Saturday’s update, Cuomo warned that although the falling death toll is promising, New York still has some dark days ahead as ‘540 families’ still lost their loved ones in a single day, including 36 across the state’s nursing homes.
‘It’s not as high as it was but still 540 people died yesterday,’ he said.
‘It’s 540 people, 540 families.’
Total hospitalizations are also down from around 18,000 to almost 16,000 and emergency rooms are less crowded, Cuomo continued.
‘We increased hospital capacity by 53 percent’ and that capacity is now falling, he said.
Cuomo said the figures show that New York has gone past its peak and is now on a curve down to where it was late-March when cases and deaths started to rise.
‘We’re down now for several days. The statisticians will say have we hit the apex?’ he said.
He added: ‘If you look at the past three days you could argue we are past the plateau and starting to descend which is very good news.’
The number of people being intubated when they come into the state’s hospitals has also fallen which Cuomo said is ‘very good news’.
‘The probability is about 80 percent won’t come off ventilators when they go on them so [the fall in numbers] is very good news,’ he said.
ICU admissions have also fallen, Cuomo said, before adding that he does ‘not know why we include this’.
But there was still some ‘sobering news’ he said.
‘We still have about 2,000 people yesterday who were new admissions to hospitals or new COVID diagnoses,’ he said. ‘That is still overwhelming.’
Nursing homes continue to be a big concern, however, with Cuomo citing these ‘the single biggest fear’ because they cluster a lot of ‘vulnerable people in one place’.
Nursing homes will be ‘top of the list’ for testing when the state reopens, he added.
After several weeks of locking heads with Trump, Cuomo went on to make yet another thinly-veiled dig at the president and his response to the pandemic telling him ‘there’s no time for politics’ while Americans are dying.
After several weeks of locking heads with Donald Trump, Cuomo made yet another thinly-veiled dig at the president and his response to the pandemic telling him ‘there’s no time for politics’ as Americans are dying
‘The emotion in this country is as high as I can recall… and on every level this is a terrible experience,’ he said.
‘It’s disorientating, it threatens you to your core… It makes you reflect on your whole life, it’s mentally very difficult… economically it’s disastrous.
‘But in the midst of this there is no time for politics. How does the situation get worse? If you politicise it.’
Cuomo reinforced his previous claims that he is not politically motivated and is not planning to run for president.
‘I’m not running for anything, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be governor of New York state until the people kick me out,’ he said.
‘I have no political agenda and I’ve stayed 100 miles away from politics just so people know.’
In a rousing speech, Cuomo channeled Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’ as he pleaded with the US to unite in its fight against the pandemic.
‘The house can also not stand up and rise against a situation as bad as we’ve seen since World War Two,’ Cuomo said.
Cuomo channeled Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’ as he pleaded with the US to unite in its fight against the pandemic
‘That’s why we’re called the “United” States and the “United” is key.’
When pressed about his opinion on Trump’s actions this week – including backing protesters calling for an end to lockdown – Cuomo remained fairly tight-lipped.
He pointed out that Trump said he would leave the decision around reopening to individual states and agreed that it should not be a nationwide reopening because different states have different levels of the pandemic.
‘[Trump] did not say this is a nationwide program that he’s asking governors to buy into,’ said Cuomo.
When asked about the risk that lack of national guidance would mean people would be able to travel between states with different degrees of lockdowns, Cuomo admitted this is a ‘downside’.
‘Is that a downside of a 50-state strategy? You could say that,’ he said.