Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, everybody. I am going to always talk about the amazing energy and discipline, focus that New Yorkers have brought to the fight against the coronavirus. But I also hear from a lot of New Yorkers that they are worried about where things go in the future. They’re seeing what's happened around the country. Everyone keeps hearing about this danger of a second wave, a resurgence. There's a lot we need to do to keep deepening our progress. New York City right now is being looked at all over the country as an example of an extraordinary comeback in terms of the coronavirus. But there's more we have to do to deepen that progress, and we're going to talk about that in just a minute, but first, of course, Tropical Storm Isaias, what a powerful storm it was, and even though it was only here for a few hours in New York City. As you can see on your screen, I was out in Astoria last night, I saw just one of many, many examples of the destruction that this storm caused.
Now, here's the truth. This is turning out to be one of the most serious weather events since Hurricane Sandy – highest winds recorded at Kennedy Airport, over 70 miles per hour. So, extraordinarily powerful storm, very brief, but very intense. We saw a very large number of downed trees around the city, that also in many cases caused horrible damage, and most horribly we lost a New Yorker to a falling tree in Queens, other New Yorker very seriously injured in Brooklyn. We saw a lot of damage to homes and property. Obviously, a lot of power outages caused primarily in the areas where the falling trees knocked down power wires. So, at the peak over 130,000 customers had lost power. That number has improved now, but a lot of work is going to be done today, first to clear streets to secure the situation, make sure there's no danger, and then to keep restoring power. I talked to the president of Con Ed last night, they're doing that work now, but job one is to make sure there's no additional danger to human life, and to make sure that cleanup is done safely and quickly.
Overall, as big an event as it was we did see less flooding than expected. That's a very good thing, and our City agencies were out there from the beginning preparing to minimize the damage. I want to thank everyone in Emergency Management, Environmental Protection, Fire Department, Police Department, Parks, Transportation – all these agencies were out there early in the days before, in many cases, and throughout the day yesterday, protecting people. Also want to thank everyone that works at 9-1-1 and 3-1-1. These are City workers who don't get enough credit. They have a really tough job. They got a huge amount of call volume yesterday – to everyone who works at 9-1-1 and 3-1-1, thank you for the crucial work you do for this city, and they managed to keep the system going under extraordinary strain. At one point over a hundred calls per minute, were going into 9-1-1 at the peak. Same with 3-1-1, many more than usual, but extra staffing had been put in place, the system held, even though there were real delays. So, I just want to thank everyone for the intensive effort, and again, we're going to really offer appreciation to our Emergency Management team, Commissioner Criswell and her whole team, who did so much to prepare New Yorkers and inform them. Thank you for all your great work.
Now we've talked about the storm and the approach to the storm was a focus on safety preparedness, being ready for any eventuality. That's the same approach that we're taking when it comes to health and during the coronavirus crisis, the whole approach in this city is to throw everything we've got at it – all different City agencies, the people of New York City, most importantly, and this is one of the things we've learned in this crisis, how important the people are, the buy-in of the people and the people that city, all of you have done an amazing job, and here is a fact that is striking. Since June 10th, fully eight weeks ago, New York City has been under three percent for our citywide infection rate the entire time. It's two full months. So that's extraordinary that we've been able to maintain that level. I expect us to maintain that level and in fact, drive it down further.
So, starting today, we're going to do something new in New York City. We will have checkpoints at key entry points to the city. Travelers coming in from those states will be given information about the quarantine, they will be reminded that it is required not optional. They'll be reminded that failure to quarantine is a violation of State law, and it comes with serious penalties. In fact, under certain circumstances, the fines can be as high as $10,000. So, this is serious stuff, and it's time for everyone to realize that if we're going to hold at this level of health and safety in this city and get better, we have to deal with the fact that the quarantine must be applied consistently to anyone who's traveled. So, this checkpoint effort is going to be a new, important piece of that. And here to tell you about it, and someone who's doing an outstanding job protecting New Yorkers and to him and all of his team at the Sheriff's Office, extraordinary work. Sheriff Joe Fucito.
New York City Sheriff Joseph Fucito: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Sheriff's Office in coordination with other law enforcement agencies will undertake quarantine checkpoints at major bridge and tunnel crossings into New York City. As Sheriff, I understand the absolute serious nature of this pandemic. We need to ensure visitors and New Yorkers returning home are taking the necessary precautions to limit the spread of this disease. The entire team will strive to ensure that the deployment balances the critical public health and welfare needs of the residents of the city with the legal protections, entitled to all people. For further transparency, I wanted to go over the parameters of our actions. The primary purpose of the quarantine checkpoints are to address a legitimate public safety objective. Compliance with the quarantine is our objective and checkpoints are an effective means of ensuring travelers are on notice and can take precautions to protect our beloved city. Our team has developed a uniform procedure that will be applied to all New Yorkers. Procedures are in place to protect New Yorkers rights while limiting intrusions on the privacy of motorists.
Mayor: Thank you very much, Sheriff, thanks again to you and your team, and look we've got to do this in a way that really makes clear to people how important this is, but the idea is we don't want to penalize people. We want to educate them. We want to make sure they're following the rules. We want to make sure people who need support, they get support, and this is so important. Most people, of course, haven’t quarantined in their life, and if they're thinking about it, maybe they're wondering, well, how do I go about it? How do I get help? What if I need medicines? In fact, one of the crucial elements of the Test and Trace Corps is having that ability in place to protect people and get them the support they need. So, here to talk to you about how the Test and Trace Corps plays a crucial role in our efforts to quarantine folks traveling in from other places, the Executive Director of Test and Trace, Dr. Ted Long.
Executive Director Ted Long, Test and Trace Corps: Thank you, Sir. We've all been working incredibly hard to drive down the new cases of coronavirus in New York City, and we've been very successful. But as we sit here today, a fifth of all new cases of coronavirus are from travelers coming into New York City from other states. We want you to come into New York City, but we need you to safely separate for two weeks, when you arrive to keep New York City safe. In order to help you do that, we're going to give you a call. When we call you, we're going to start with talking about what the mandatory two-week quarantine period is, and then we're going to ask you, how can we help to get you through that two-week period? We're going to offer you things like free food delivery, help with medications, direct connections to doctors by the phone, or even a hotel stay. These are really critical pieces that we want to do to, in order to educate you and to help you get through that period of time.
Now, in terms of what you can expect from us when you're buying your plane ticket, when you're arriving in New York City, when you're checking into your hotel, or when you're buying a ticket to come to one of our destinations here, there's going to be an online required link for a traveler form. The reason that form is important is that's how we get the information to be able to reach out to you and call you and ask how we can help. We're also going to be deploying our teams. Tomorrow, we're going to be deploying teams to Penn Station to stop travelers, to ensure that they've completed the travel form. And if they haven't, to walk them through it and to complete it with them right then and there. We at the Test and Trace Corps are working as fast as humanly possible to set up a system to support you to get through that two-week period. We've made more than 86,000 phone calls to travelers coming into New York City from the designated high-risk states. And we've sent more than 20,000 text messages to date. And if we can't get through to you on the phone, we've deployed teams that are now knocking on your door to check in with you and to make sure that you're safe. We know that it's not easy to get through a two-week period of safe separation, but it's incredibly important. And we are going to do everything in our power to help you. Thank you, Sir.
Mayor: Thank you very much, Dr. Long. Well, everyone look, the bottom line is we're all in this together. As always, New Yorkers have done an amazing job fighting back this crisis, this disease. But look, here's one more thing you can do. If you yourself traveled to one of those 35 states and come back, quarantine. If you know someone in your life who has gone to one of those states or coming in from one of those states, tell them how important it is to quarantine. If anyone needs help, they can contact the Test and Trace Corps. It’s as simple as calling 3-1-1. There is so much help available, but the one thing we all have to do, including just talking to people in our life and saying this quarantine is serious. This is how we protect ourselves and each other. So, everyone let's get that message across to people in our life. Let's do what we've done already. All of us together, fighting the disease back. And let's do that with the same spirit that's taken us this far.
Now, speaking of how far we've come, looking ahead, important milestone today, 90 days until the election. So, literally I will say it with no fear of contradiction, certainly going to say it for my life, that this is the most important election in our lifetime. And it's crucial that everyone gets involved, that everyone participates. Sometimes people have said, Oh wow, you know, it doesn't make a difference, why should I bother? There's never been a more consequential election. There's never been a more important time to participate. So, everyone register to vote. If you haven't already, register to vote. If someone in your family or your life hasn't registered, tell them to register to vote. And make a plan to vote. Let everyone you know, know that they have the power to make a difference. And this is an unprecedented moment. Let's get everyone involved in deciding the future of our city and our country.
With that we'll turn to our indicators. Number one, daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19, the threshold is 200, today's report, 66 patients. Number two, daily number of people in Health + Hospitals ICUs, threshold 375, today's report 286. And number three, percentage of the people testing positive citywide for COVID-19, threshold 15 percent, today's report two percent. That's the number we've been at for most of these last two months. And it's a very good number.
