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Saturday, April 11, 2020
Friday, April 10, 2020
Governor Cuomo Announces New York State is Ramping up Antibody Testing, Critical to Reopening Economy
Everybody knows the people with us today. Dr. Jim Malatras, from my right Dr. Howard Zucker, Health Commissioner. To my life, Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor, to her left Robert Mujica. To our friends celebrating Good Friday today, I wish them a good, good Friday. To our friends celebrating Passover, I wish them the best.
Let's give you an update on where we are. To use and overused term, we are cautiously optimistic that we are slowing the infection rate. That's what the numbers say, that's what the data suggest to us. Change in total hospitalizations is down, not relative to yesterday, but when it's averaged over the 3-day average on the hospitalizations, you see a dramatic decline in those numbers and that's obviously very good news. Change in ICU admissions is actually a negative number for the first time since we started this intense journey. That means there are fewer people in the intensive units statewide than there were. Again, that's the first time we've seen a negative number so far. So that's good. The three-day average of that is down.
Change in intubations is little tick higher than it's been the past few days, but it's still overall down. The three-day average is also down. The bad news is we continue to lose a tremendous number of lives and endure great pain as a state. Seven hundred and seventy-seven lives lost. I understand intellectually why it's happening. It doesn't make it any easier to accept. What's happening is the number of people who came in two weeks ago when we had those very high hospitalization rates. Either you get treated and get better and get discharged or you stay in the hospital and probably wind up on a ventilator. The longer you're on a ventilator the less likely you will come off the ventilator and that's what's happening now.
These lives lost are people who came in at that height hospitalization period and we're losing them. The numbers are lower than yesterday for those who can take solace in that fact. As someone who searches for solace in all this grief, the leveling off of the number of lives lost is a somewhat hopeful sign. The number of total lives lost, 7,844. For people, just to put this in perspective. I lived through 9/11 as many New Yorkers did who are of somewhat advanced age. I believe 9/11 was the worst situation I was going to deal with in my lifetime. To put in perspective, 2,753 people lost their lives on 9/11. We're at 7,844. In terms of lives lost, that this situation should exceed 9/11 is still beyond my capacity to fully appreciate to tell you the truth.
We've been watching a spread to the suburban communities around New York City: Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland. That seems to have stabilized. We have a couple of hotspots in Suffolk County that we're watching, but overall we've been very aggressive in these suburban communities in jumping on those hot spots and the percentage of growth in upstate New York and the suburban areas around New York City is basically been stabilized and flat so that's good news too.
So overall, New York is flattening the curve and we have to flatten the curve because when they showed us the projection models of what the statisticians projected the curve would do we had no capacity to meet those projections. In other words, Columbia University who was projecting the highest case load said we needed 136,000 hospital beds in New York City when we started. It was just several weeks ago. One hundred and thirty-six thousand hospital beds in New York City. We only have about 33,000 to 36,000 hospital beds in New York City. So, that was obviously distressing to say the least.
McKinsey had projected we would need 110,000 hospital beds. They had a second scenario which they considered their moderate scenario, which was 55,000 hospital beds statewide. And again, we didn't have that capacity even on the moderate scenario. The Gates-funded IHME suggested we needed 73,000 beds. We didn't have that either. So none of these projections were, in any way, comforting to us. The actual curve is much, much lower than any of them projected. And, well what's the variance?
How do you come up with an actual curve that is so much different than what those experts predicted? First, in fairness to the experts, nobody has been here before. Nobody. So, everyone is trying to figure it out the best they can. There is no model to track against. Second, the big variable was what policies do you put in place, and the bigger variable was does anybody listen to the policies you put in place? I'm governor of the State of New York. You can announce a policy. That doesn't mean anyone is going to follow it. You can announce a policy, we're going to close down all businesses, everybody must stay home. And if people don't follow it, or they don't take it seriously, or they believe you're being premature or you're being political, they wouldn't follow it. And then what do we do? What do we, arrest 19 million people? Or ticket 19 million people?
So the big variable was, what policies do you put in place. And the bigger variable, does anybody care, and does anyone follow it? And all the social distancing stay at home, nobody has ever done this before. So the statisticians had to come up with a premise on how many would comply, and we've actually exceeded that. But, we have to keep doing it, you know. People tend to think, well this is a natural trajectory of the disease. There is no natural trajectory. The trajectory is the trajectory that we create by out actions. The natural trajectory would see that line continue to go up. It would continue to go up and up and up until you develop herd immunity, where you would see many, many more infections. So, we did that. We are doing that. And that's why we have to stay the course. I said to someone this morning, you tell me how we behaved today, and I will tell you the infection rate two days from today or three days from today. What we do today will determine the infection rate two or three days from now. So, what we're doing is working, stay with it. Even though it is a grind and even though it is difficult. We have to stay with it.
We have to stay with it operationally, on our hospital system, where we're coordinating statewide in what we call the surge and flex system. We have 50 percent additional capacity on our hospital system. We're sharing equipment all across the system. We have to continue helping people who are struggling every day. Food assistance is a real issue for people. We're going to add $200 million to provide more than 700,000 low-income households more funding for food, basic food. Continue to help our medical workers, who are the front-line soldiers in this battle, and have done a phenomenal job. I know I say it all the time, but every day, they're out there doing truly the Lord's work.
We're going to provide additional housing. I want to thank all the companies that have come forward to be part of this effort. Airbnb is contributing funding to provide housing for our healthcare workers. 1199 SEIU is working with Airbnb and they're providing their members with additional benefits. We have hotels that are coming forward and offering free hotel rooms, so we thank them all very much. Last night, as a signal of our thanks to the workers who are out there every day. We lit up landmarks in the New York City area and in Niagara Falls blue in their honor and that's a nice symbolic tribute. What's even better is to take action that shows our gratitude. Saying it is nice, doing it is even better.
After 9/11 Congress created a victim's compensation fund. I've been working with our Congressional delegation. We think the federal government should set up a heroes' compensation fund to compensate our health care and other frontline workers for what they did here. Saying thanks is nice. Actually providing assistance is even better.
The big question is going to turn to when do we reopen, especially in places like New York where we're going to see the numbers now starting to change. The natural trajectory, the human movement is going to be okay now let's reopen. I need to get out of my house, had been cooped up, cabin fever, I need funds, I have to work, and that's going to be the next question, next issue that we have to deal with.
What I say on that question, again, none of us have been here before so let's learn from what has happened so far and let's learn from what we have been seeing over these past few months so it informs what we're doing going forward.
First of all, the key to reopening is going to be testing. I've said that from day one. It's not going to be a light switch where you flip this economy like you flip a light switch. It's not going to be everybody goes back next Thursday. It's not going to happen that way. It's going to be a gradual phased process and it's going to be reliant on testing, testing of antibodies, testing for diagnostic results and testing on the scale that we have not done before.
New York State has been very aggressive on testing and our state lab has been very aggressive on testing. Our state lab is now developing an antibody test which is a fast and not invasive test. The State Department of Health can do 300 tests a day. By next Friday, they will be able to do 1,000 tests and 2,000 tests the following week. That's great, sounds like a lot but 2,000 tests are still a drop in the bucket, and I'm proud of how New Yorkers advanced on testing. You look at how quickly New York State has moved on testing and how many tests we have done - we've done a higher percentage of tests in New York State than other countries have done and New York State far exceeds what this nation as a whole is doing on testing. Even with our high capacity and high performance on testing it's still not enough. It's not enough if you want to reopen on a meaningful scale and reopen quickly so the testing front is going to be a challenge for us.
Why can't New York just develop more tests and do more testing? How do we get New York State Department of Health to scale? That's an issue that we've been working on it's harder than it sounds. You need certain reagents so you can do the testing. You need certain materials so you can do the testing. It's very hard to get these reagents right. You're in a situation where countries all across the globe are trying to do the same thing.
Federal government has something called the Defense Production Act, DPA they call it, which I've been saying from day one is a very powerful tool for the federal government to use when they need to secure a product in the defense of this nation. This is in the defense of this nation. The federal government has used it effectively. They've used that in this situation more as a point of leverage than anything else, basically saying to a company, you know, we need you to do this, we do have the Defense Production Act that we could use. But we need an unprecedented mobilization where government can produce these tests in the millions.
New York State Department of Health is doing is doing several thousand. We have 9 million people we want to get back to work. You need more than several thousand tests per week if this is going to happen any time soon. Private sector companies on their own, I don't believe will be able to come to scale. We're working with the private sector companies. They have the tests but they don't have the capacity to come to scale. You're going to need government intervention to make that happen and the federal government is in the best position to do that.
New York State offers to be a full partner with the federal government. We do have the largest number of cases in New York. New York is an economic engine. I can't do it as a state. If I had a Defense Production Act in the state, I would use it. I would use it. I don't have that tool, the federal government does. Any way we can partner with the federal government to get these tests up to scale as quickly as possible, we are all in. I like to operate as a coalition with New Jersey and Connecticut because we are the tri-state area. I have spoken to Governor Murphy and Governor Lamont of Connecticut. They will join in a testing coalition. So, I ask the federal government if you are willing to step in and use the federal powers, New York State and New Jersey and Connecticut would partner with the federal government. And let's get the testing up to scale quickly so we can start to build that bridge to reopening the economy.
Second on reopening, you need a federal stimulus bill. You need a federal stimulus bill - they passed a couple already. But you need a fair federal stimulus bill that is not a political pork barrel bill. You know where the cases are. You know where the need is. I understand the political dynamics of the U.S. Senate but this is not a time to be passing bills that really are to make sure your home state gets enough funding. That's not what this is about. This is about helping the country coming back and focusing on the need. When I says the bills were unfair to New York, the past bills, it is not just that I am advocating to New York. Look at the need. Look at where the cases are. Look at where the damage has been done. The federal government is trying to address that damage. You know where it has been done. Look at the chart on where the cases exist. Look at the number of deaths, the number of cases, the number of hospitalizations and help those places come back and come back quickly. That's what the stimulus bill is supposed to be doing.
Also, let's make sure we are learning from what we just went through and are going through. Because there are lessons I think we should all be aware of over the past few months. And before you take a step forward, let's make sure we know what we are stepping into. A question I had from day one, when you look back at this, where were the horns that should have been triggered back in December and January. Where were the warning signs? Who was supposed to blow the whistle? The President has asked this question and if think he's right. The President's answer is the World Health Organization should have been blowing the whistle. I don't know enough to know if that's right or wrong, but I know the question is right and sometimes the question is more important than the answer.
How did this happen? I still want to know how this happened. Because the warning signs were there. And if you don't know the answer, then how do you know it is not going to happen again, right? Fool me once - January, you go back and look at the headlines in January and you see questions and you see warnings. Now, they were all over the map, but we saw what was happening in Asia. We saw what was happening in Europe. Where were the international experts saying, "Well, if this is happening there, this is what we should expect to happen in the United States? Or prepare to happen in the United States?" January, February, you still had sources in this country saying basically there's nothing to worry about. You know, how did that happen? Did we really need to be in this situation where the United States winds up with a higher number of cases than the places that went before? We sat here and we watched China. China winds up have 84,000 cases, we wind up having 474,000 cases. I mean, how does that happen? We saw South Korea. They wind up with 10,000 cases. Italy, where we saw a collapse of the whole health system, winds up with 143,000 cases.
I raise the question because the answer, again, is less important than the question, but before we move forward let's make sure we're not repeating the same mistake that we made, right? George Santayana. "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I don't want to repeat what we just repeated, what we just went through over this past month.
So, what are the relevant questions? Is there going to be a second wave? Let's look at the countries that have gone through this reopening process and what can we learn from them? Right? Well, we have to start to reopen. Let's look at what the other countries who have gone before us, what they did, what worked and what didn't work. When you take just a cursory review you see caution signs. Hong Kong appeared to have the virus under control, they let its guard down, the virus came back. Hong Kong recorded the biggest rise in cases and a new wave of infections. Is that true? Could it happen here? Article yesterday, Italy has seen a bump in the number of cases. You know, before we take a step make sure we are more informed and more aware than we were in the past. They're talking about a second wave in Singapore.
You got back and you look at the 1918 flu epidemic. That was over 10 months. There was a first wave, there was a second wave. The second wave was worse than the first wave because the virus mutated. Third peak and the whole experience was 10 months. Is there any extrapolation to where we are today? I don't know the answers. This is not what I do. It's not what a state does.
But, we know the questions and we should have the questions answered before we take a step forward. Yes, no one has been here before. These are totally uncharted waters. But we do know that none of this is predetermined and it is all a function of our actions. We are in total control of our destiny here. What we do will effect literally live and death for hundreds of people.
So, where do we go from here? First, keep doing what we're doing. Stay home because that works. We are flattening the curve, we must continue to flatten the curve. We have to get testing to scale. That is an entirely new exercise. It's something we still haven't done well in this country. We need both diagnostic testing and antibody testing. We need millions and millions of them. We need them in a matter of weeks, not months.
We have to be more prepared as a nation. We should never go through this scramble that we went through with states competing against other states to buy masks from China. I mean, we should just never have been here in the first place, but certainly we should never be here again. And then let's make sure we study the waters ahead and proceed with caution before we set off on the next journey. When we talk about reopening, let's study the data and let's look at what has happened around the world. Let's make sure the best health minds in the country are giving us their best advice.
How do we go forward? We stay New York tough. New York tough means more than just tough, it means discipline. It means unified. It means loving. And it means smart. Now is a time to be smart. Now more than ever. That's what it means to be New York tough and we are.
Attorney General James’ Statement on Nursing Home Condition in Crown Heights
Attorney General Letitia James issued the following statement regarding reports of troubling conditions at a nursing home in Crown Heights:
“Our office has received multiple complaints alleging troubling conditions at the Crown Heights Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation. While this is a challenging time for all caretakers, the responsibility to treat elderly and disabled nursing home residents with the care and respect they deserve remains paramount. Our office is in contact with management, residents, families of residents, and relevant government partners. We are closely monitoring the situation and will take action, as appropriate, to protect these and other nursing home residents.”
DARCEL D. CLARK DISTRICT ATTORNEY, BRONX COUNTY - AVOID SCAMS REGARDING COVID-19 FEDERAL RELIEF CHECKS
The U.S. government will provide stimulus checks to taxpayers as part of its response
to COVID-19. However, people should exercise caution in order to avoid scammers who
pretend to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or Social Security Administration
(SSA). Residents should be wary of scammers that call about travel and vacation
cancellations regarding COVID-19, as well as mobile texting scams.
The Office of the Bronx District Attorney is committed to protecting residents from
scams and other fraudulent activity during the current COVID-19 crisis. If you believe you
have been a victim of a scam please call our office at 1-718-590-2260. You can also report
scams at FTC.gov/complaint.
Below is information from the Federal Trade Commission on how to avoid scams regarding
relief checks:
• You don’t need to do anything. As long as you filed taxes for 2018 and/or 2019, the
federal government likely has the information it needs to send you your
money. Social Security recipients and railroad retirees who are otherwise not required
to file a tax return also do not need to do anything to receive their money. If you
otherwise have not filed taxes recently, you may need to submit a simple tax return to
get your check. (More on who’s eligible here.)
• Do not give anyone your personal information to “sign-up” for your relief
check. There is nothing to sign up for. Anyone calling to ask for your personal
information, like your Social Security number, PayPal account, or bank information is
a scammer, plain and simple. Also be on the lookout for email phishing scams, where
scammers pretend to be from the government and ask for your information as part of
the “sign-up” process for the checks.
• To set up direct deposit of your check, communicate only with the IRS
at irs.gov/coronavirus. And you only need to do this if you didn’t give the IRS your bank
information on your 2018 or 2019 return. In the coming weeks, the IRS will be setting up an online form available through irs.gov/coronavirus, and never in response to an
email, text, or call.
• No one has early access to this money. Anyone that claims to is a scammer. The
timeline for this process is not exact, but it looks like funds will start going out in the
next few weeks. Scammers are using the lack of detail to try to trick people into giving
their personal information and money.
For more information visit ftc.gov/coronavirus.
MAYOR DE BLASIO ON COVID-19 - April 10, 2020
Mayor Bill de Blasio: Before we get started, I just wanted you to see this. This is what one of the hospital beds will look like here in the center opening today. And again, a lot of you were here eight, nine days ago – it was all tennis courts. And I want to just thank everyone who did this work so quick. I'll talk about some of them in a moment, but this is an amazing transformation. When we were here, it felt like, you know, normal times – a sports facility. I heard they were going to change it and get it ready quickly. I didn't expect this much to happen so vividly. I mean, this is amazing that this was all here now, ready to see the first patient coming in today. It’s going to build out quickly. I wanted you to just see that out of a tennis court suddenly we have a hospital and it's a testament to everyone who has been doing this work that they could do this so quickly and so effectively.
I also want to say meeting the medical personnel was very, very moving. These are folks who reminded me of the experience I've had in the last few days meeting the military medical personnel. These are civilians, but they came here because they love New York City and they wanted to help New York City in our hour of need. They came here because they knew this was the epicenter of a national crisis. And in fact, the group that is joining us here, the doctors and nurses, all the medical personnel that are here, they understood exactly that they were coming here to relieve Elmhurst Hospital and Queens Hospital that had been through the toughest stuff of any hospitals. And they wanted to be a part of that fight, they wanted to help where the need was greatest. And I went around and asked people where they're from and we have a lot of people from Florida, South Carolina. We had folks from Oregon, just talked to the guy from Omaha, Nebraska who said he left his wife and three children because he knew – he told them this was something he had to do for his country and for the country's largest city, and he'll be back when this fight is over. But he did it because he cared about saving lives here. And the most interesting of all was a woman from Anchorage, Alaska, who has come all the way here to help folks in need in Queens. So, it was very, very moving.
So, everybody, let me start – there we go – let me start by saying obviously today on Good Friday, it's a very holy time of year for so many New Yorkers. People are celebrating Passover. Today, Good Friday, Easter is this Sunday. For so many New Yorkers, it is a time of year that in normal times we look forward to, we plan the whole year around, and what do we think of, we think of not only faith and not only tradition and things that guide us in good times and bad, but we think of our families. We think of those gatherings that are some of our fondest moments every year. The things we really remember and feel throughout our lives. Every one of us. When I say to you, think about Easter, think about Passover, you have memories going back your whole life, your childhood, and for the first time that I can remember for so many families, we can't do that. And thank God people are using, you know, FaceTime and Skype and Zoom and whatever they can get their hands on to connect with each other. But it's not the same. It's painful to not have that closeness to each other the way we're used to. But there's something about this time of year that I believe is fortifying and strengthening New Yorkers because we're listening to the meaning of those stories, of scripture, and of all the traditions, and of all the family rituals, everything that we've known all our lives in some way prepared us for today. And when you look at faith and when you look at the lessons, so many of them are about people fighting adversity, fighting overwhelming odds, trying to find something in themselves that was strong and good even when faced with massive challenges. And the message through all of our faiths is to love each other, to support each other, to be charitable to each other, to understand each other, to feel empathy for each other. All of the faiths come back to that.
So this is a time that we could be angry. We have every right to be angry and frustrated. We can't do the things we're used to and we need our families right now so much and we can't have that connection the same way and yet all that we've learned from our families, all that we've learned from our faiths and our traditions was telling us exactly how to persevere in a moment like this, to dig deep and find that wellspring of hope and belief and that ability to be there for each other. And that's what New Yorkers are doing. I keep saying the heroes are everyday New Yorkers who are finding a way to do things I think we would have thought literally impossible. The people who turned this tennis center into a hospital in a matter of days, the people who every day are protecting and serving us. The first responders, the health care workers, all these people going so far above and beyond, but it's the everyday people who are helping us turn the tide and fight back this disease. The everyday people deserve credit, to everyday New Yorkers who are taking to heart this common mission, 8.6 million people, the most diverse place on Earth with one goal in common to fight back this disease and save each other. That's what I'm seeing every day. And then to know that help is always coming from the rest of our nation, that only reminds us further that our faith is well placed in each other.
So, here we celebrate against the backdrop of pain, the goodness in each other. And it brings us right back to this place that was a tennis center and now is a hospital. So, we're right here in the epicenter of this disease and we've learned a lot in the last few days. Sometimes we face a challenge or crisis and we say everyone is equally affected. Sometimes a crisis is the great equalizer. Well, that's not true with the coronavirus. Yes, every community is affected. No doubt, every ZIP code, every neighborhood, so many families of every background. True. All of New York is suffering. We all know someone who has been lost. We all know people who are sick. We all know families that are suffering. But in the last few days, the disparities are sharper and clearer than ever before. And unfortunately, this disease has found every problem in our society, every inequality and gone right deep into it and exacerbated it. And so here in Queens we see that folks who are low income are suffering. Folks who have not had enough access to health care because health care is still given out according to how much money you have in this country, and especially immigrant New Yorkers have suffered some because of language barrier, but many I am convinced because they've been pushed away in recent years from the support that they deserve just as human beings and New Yorkers, they've been told to be afraid because of what's happening all over our country. A lot of them had been so fearful, whether it's an ICE raid or any effort to take away their rights, their benefits, the things their family depended on. A lot of folks have turned inward out of fear. There's no question in my mind that's part of what's happening here and part of why this part of Queens has been hit so hard.
Everyone at Elmhurst Hospital, Queens Hospital have been just amazing heroes in this fight. We need to support them all the way through. No one thinks this is going to be over soon. It's going to take a lot more fight but getting them some relief, a place like this, to draw off some of the patients, getting them the military medical personnel who have served so nobly already, all of that is helping us against the backdrop of those horrible disparities. It's helping us to make sure that one thing is fair and equal, that every New Yorker will be treated the same. When they come to get health care, they will get it regardless of ZIP code, regardless of background, regardless of ability to pay, no one will be turned away. That's what we believe in. That is what we are doing.
So here, this originally was going to be a 350-bed facility. The team here has done an outstanding job. They are now going to create a 470-bed facility. Last week we believed there would not be capacity for ICU beds. Now they are adding ICU beds – 20 to begin with. As I said, first wards, beds opening today, first patients coming today, and then they'll build out in the coming days. I want to thank everyone, all the good working people who did the work to get this ready. All our good friends at the Department of Parks and Recreation, a lot of parks workers while being careful and practicing the right distancing, they did the work. A lot of work was needed around the site to get ready and they did it. I want to thank all of them and I want to thank them for also helping all of us to stay safe by the work they're doing in the parks to keep everyone enjoying them, but the right way. I want to thank Danny Zausner, the COO of the Billie Jean King Center who's been a fantastic partner in this and his whole team. Billy Sullivan, the CEO of SLSCO, the contractor that's worked to put this together. Thank you to Billy and his whole team. Obviously, Commissioner Deanne Criswell and everyone at Emergency Management, Dr. Mitch Katz and everyone at Health + Hospitals, and the Department of Design and Construction that jumped in here to help make things happen quickly and they're doing the same at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. Thank you to Lorraine Grillo and Jamie Torres Springer and everyone at DDC.
So, New Yorkers have watched as we've transformed – all of us, the City, the State, FEMA, everyone together transformed sites that we think of in everyday life and now they're all turning into medical sites. The Javits Center, of course, up and running the Coler Center on Roosevelt Island, that was a medical site, but one that was not full, now filling up rapidly, relieving the pressure on other H + H facilities. This site in Queens, the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal next week. All of this is building capacity. Now I want to emphasize, even though we are seeing some progress, and we are, we don't know what comes next. With this horrible disease one thing we've learned is to expect the unexpected. So I warned yesterday, you never know when you get a resurgence, you never know if it doesn't move in a straight line. So, we want capacity ready, no matter what and let us pray we don't need some of these facilities to be as much for medical use. Where are we going ahead to those phases I described yesterday with low transmission or no transmission, you need a lot of capacity to quarantine people and isolate people to make that work. So facilities like this, if they're not needed for medical, will be turned into quarantine and isolation facilities to help people get through their own experience with the disease while making sure we don't infect the other members of their family or the people in their life.
So this good work is going to help us hopefully only for a limited time on the medical side, but very much in our progress in fighting this disease as we go into the next phase of low-level transmission. Again, we're not there yet. We're not going to ever suggest we're there until we're there, but we're going to be planning for that phase and this facility will be a part of that phase too. It was said throughout, the goal is to always make sure if we need to, our hospitals can keep building out more and more ICU capacity. They've been doing that. They're going to keep doing that until we're sure that it's not needed. And other kinds of patients would come to places like this.
Now, yesterday I talked about the fact that if we're going to make that next big move – maybe it starts in May, maybe it starts in June – to that low level of transmission, we will need testing and we will need a lot of testing and we'll need more testing than we have right now. And the federal government must step up. We must have not only the antibody testing, which is certainly valuable. We need the traditional coronavirus testing to be able to really implement a strategy to achieve low level transmission and start to get us back to normal. So, I'm going to keep calling on the federal government to focus and produce large scale widespread testing for this country so we can get to the next phase, so we can really start to normalize over time.
But once again, while we're waiting for the federal government to act, we see others coming forward. We've seen private companies come forward in an amazing way. And we're also seeing our colleagues around the country in public life come forward. And this is a beautiful story – a guy I've gotten to know, he's part of the leadership of the U. S. Conference of Mayors, so I've worked with him on the leadership body of the conference of mayors for years now and really like him and really respect him. Mayor Jim Brainard of Carmel, Indiana – this man has been mayor for a long time in Carmel, Indiana. He's someone I respect greatly for what he’s achieved. I've been to his city. He's done amazing things there. In the spirit of bipartisanship, I will let you know that he is a Republican and someone who, as we talk together, our partisan differences melt away all the time. He's someone that I just respect as a good public servant who cares about people. Well, he made the great decision to make sure that his city would help New York City. And we've seen that before, we saw that the Governor of Oregon, Kate Brown; the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, helped make sure that more ventilators would be available for New York. Well now, Carmel, Indiana steps up and they're sending us some of the components that will be needed to provide 50,000 coronavirus tests to New Yorkers that'll be coming over the next few weeks. We’re going to need other components to make it work, and we talked about this yesterday, used the analogy of making a cup of coffee with cream and sugar – we’re going to need all the different pieces. But what Jim is sending us is going to help us immensely. And with the other pieces in place, we'll be able to reach 50,000 New Yorkers. So, Jim, and everyone in Carmel, I want to thank you. It is wonderful to see the support from the heartland of our country. You're doing something really important for New York City. We're all feeling it, especially at this holiday season. We are so appreciative for your wonderful kind gesture and it's going to help save lives here in New York City. So, God bless you all. Let's see if our federal government can be as effective as Mayor Jim Brainard in Carmel, Indiana in getting us testing.
Another important piece of the puzzle will be thermometers. Going forward, as we move into lower-level transmission thermometers are big part of it, because you will do a lot more monitoring of people. But in the meantime, we are delivering more and more thermometers to our agencies, our city agencies to make sure we're constantly testing. Folks are on the front line, doing such vital works – so there’s thermometer's now that have been delivered to our Department of Education enrichment centers for the children of first responders and health care workers. Thermometers have been delivered to the Department of Corrections; to the Administration for Children's Services for the work they do, including the juvenile detention work; to our 9-1-1 call centers, which is so important, because they're keeping so much running; obviously, for first responders as well – a central goal to make sure they get whatever support they need. So, today we're delivering thermometers to every NYPD precinct and headquarters and command office, to every firehouse at the FDNY, to every sanitation garage. And we'll keep delivering more and more as we get them. We’re getting in a big supply, going forward, and we've got to keep getting them out around so we can maximize that kind of monitoring and support people.
One other point, and this is about – I've talked about the way the coronavirus attacks our health, but also hurts us, fights us in another way. It's taken away our livelihoods. So many New Yorkers are struggling right now. I hear from people all the time who are, right now, running out of the little money they had. The last paycheck is long gone. So, we must protect people. We must protect people when it comes to their health and we have to protect them when it comes to just being able to live life, to have a roof over your head, to have enough food to eat. We've got to protect people in every way and we will in this city. We will not let any New Yorker go without the help they need. So, I have to say, when you think about the reality of people just not having enough money for food, for medicine, for the rent, and this many people, hundreds of thousands, unemployed at the same time – my heart goes out to every family dealing with this pain, because just weeks ago your life was pretty normal and then bang, it's gone. And the shock, the pain, but also the fear – I'm hearing the fear everywhere. People are literally wondering, am I going to be able to stay in my home? Am I going to be able to get enough food? So, my message is we will keep everybody – keep a roof over your head, protect you, make sure you have the food to eat. We will do that. The City of New York will have your back. We're making sure there's no evictions, and that's a start, but we have to go farther. So, I had asked the State of New York to consider for over 2 million New Yorkers who are in rent stabilized apartments, and that's governed by a Rent Guidelines Board – I asked the State as a legal matter to suspend that board so we could achieve a rent freeze. There were complex legal matters and the State wasn't sure if that was the right approach, so I have made the decision that we will proceed with the Rent Guidelines Board process. We'll do it all remotely. We'll do it quickly in the coming weeks, but I am calling upon the Rent Guidelines Board today to issue a rent freeze to ensure that New Yorkers that are going through the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and were covered by the jurisdiction of the Rent Guidelines Board – again, that's over 2 million of us – that all of those good New Yorkers who are struggling right now get a rent freeze, because, Lord knows, people do not need another burden at this moment. And I want to see the Rent Guidelines Board act quickly, to say the least. If you look at the facts – and I do give the board credit, they've always looked at the facts, the objective facts – look at the facts, the greatest economic crisis in generations and hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers with no livelihood overnight. I think the facts are clear and we need that rent freeze and we need it now.
I also say again to the State of New York, please act quickly. Let New Yorkers who can't afford the rent pay it with their security deposit. That's going to take a legal change. I'm asking the State to do that right away, so folks who have no money can draw upon that security deposit to pay the rent right now. By the way, for a lot of landlords, they would applaud that too, because if the tenant has no money, they have no money and, therefore, the landlord can't get the money they need to pay the bills either. Let's unleash those security deposits for the good of all.
Let me close, and I'll say a few words in Spanish, and then we'll take questions from the media, but close with this. And we talked about faith in the beginning, I talked about what the season means to all of us, people of different faiths. But it's also clear, it's a moment that tries us and challenges us so deeply and makes us fearful and makes us doubtful. It's a moment that tests our faith, but whatever your faith is, whatever you believe, whatever your values, it's a moment to lean into them even more strongly. This is a week where we reach milestones we could never have imagined – 5,000 New Yorkers lost – so many more than we even lost on our worst day of 9/11 – a number we literally can hardly imagine. And every single one of the people we lost, a human story, a family grieving. At some point today, we will get to the point of 100,000 cases that have occurred in New York City – 100,000 cases of coronavirus, a disease that literally did not exist six months ago in the experience of human beings all over the globe, and now 100,000 New Yorkers infected. And that's only the ones we know about. It's likely that hundreds of thousands more have already experienced this disease that we don't even know have gone through it. But, thank God, so many – the vast, vast, vast majority survived. So, it's a moment where we could be doubtful. No one could be blamed for being doubtful. And we don't have a roadmap here – there's no one who has a roadmap, this is the great unknown. But our faith, our belief, our values, our humanity should continue to guide us. And what I've seen these last weeks, I don't think New Yorkers could have done anything better or more heroic than what they've done. I think every one of you should be proud of how you all have answered the call in one way or another. I think people all over the world are looking at New York City with renown – with renewed admiration. People all over the world are feeling a new respect, a new admiration, a new love for New York City. I think we've always been a place that people felt something special for. There's always been a sense that New York City was an expression of the best of humanity, but what all of you have done is proven even more deeply and the world watches with admiration, the world is applauding. Let's show the entire world that we will complete this mission, that we will stay true to the lessons we've learned, we'll go even more intensely into the work we're doing together to protect each other, and that's how we'll come out of this together.
Councilman Mark Gjonaj - Update on the Coronavirus Pandemic - April 10, 2020
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