Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, everybody. Well, we, as New Yorkers – we know we're all connected to each other. We pride ourselves in being a place that really feels a deep sense, an amazing sense of connection to people not only in our own neighborhood, our own city, but all over the world. That's been one of the great blessings of New York City. But in the pandemic, it's also clear that being connected to each other all over the country, all over the world, creates a real challenge. We know that as New Yorkers we've worked together to overcome this virus, to fight it back. We also know we have to be really careful and vigilant to protect ourselves, to protect our loved ones, to protect our city going forward. And so that question of being interconnected comes into play in a big way. In this city there's been a clear understanding of how important it is to wear masks, practice social distancing, take those smart precautions. We know in a lot of the rest of the country and a lot of the rest of the world, that hasn't been the case. And we see skyrocketing levels of coronavirus in so many other places. So, now comes a big challenge ahead – the season of the year when people travel the most. And it's a time we cherish. The holiday season is such a special time for all of us. It's going to be very different this year. We all know that. And yet we're going to feel that pull to want to be with our family, want to be with our loved ones. We're going to feel that pull to do what we would do in a normal year, but it's not a normal year. So, the holidays would normally be a time to go see people in other places. But this year we have to think differently. This year, when we, ironically and painfully, we want to see family the most, we want to see loved ones and friends the most, we're feeling that lack of connection, but this is the year where we have to do things differently because we do see the level of infection rising all over the country, all over the world. We have a real threat of a second wave here in New York City, and we've been fighting it back, but we can't take it lightly. So, most importantly, I want to recommend to all New Yorkers, it's not business as usual. I hate to say it, but I have to urge all New Yorkers, do not travel out of state for the holidays. Do not travel to a state with a high infection rate, do not travel to a country with a high infection rate. Realize that by doing that, unfortunately, you could be putting yourself and your family in danger and also the risk of bringing the disease back here.
Everyone's going to make their own decision. And I know there are painful choices, especially if you haven't seen family in a long time, and you're worried about older relatives in other places, I get it. There's going to be tough choices to make, and everyone has to make their own choice. But my recommendation based on the information I've received from our health care leadership is to avoid travel this holiday season, to stay safe, to keep us all safe. And for those who do travel, recognize how important it is to get tested and recognize there's a very strict quarantine in New York State. And if you go elsewhere, you will have to observe a two-week quarantine coming back. There's a few states that's not true for, but only a few states. The vast majority of American states now are on the New York State quarantine list. Obviously, we see what's happening in a lot of the countries in the world. If you travel, the overwhelming likelihood is you need to quarantine for two weeks upon return. And we've got to take that seriously. Now, that's what I'm urging all New Yorkers to consider. And it's tough and it's painful. But hopefully what we know about this virus is, it is only for a brief period of time, more and more good news coming, it looks like, about a vaccine soon. This hopefully will be the only holiday season that gets affected by this horrible disease. But that's my advice to everyday New Yorkers.
But now let me urge the federal government to act as well because what's been shocking is the inaction of the federal government throughout this crisis. But here's an opportunity right now for the federal government to finally get it right – growing coronavirus crisis around the country and around the world, holiday season coming, lots of travel planned. Guess what? This is a moment for the federal government to take a decisive act and actually make sure that if people do travel, they are safe. This is a moment for the federal government to create a mandate that anyone who gets on an airplane has had a negative coronavirus test within the previous 72 hours. A simple, common sense standard. You have to have proof of a negative result to get on an airplane. This is so smart for everyone who travels to protect each other as travelers. It's so smart to reduce the potential spread of the disease from place to place. I remind you, you can expect airplanes to be very full going into the holidays. A number of airlines are now talking about, they want people in the middle seats to make the most money possible. You've got people all the time in Washington talking about bailing out the airline industry. Guess what? It's not about the airline industry. It's about your health, your family's health, this city's health and safety, the country. That's where we should be thinking about. A federal mandate that says no one gets to go on that airplane unless they can prove they've had a recent negative test result will keep us all safe. So, this is what we will be fighting for. And this is for both international and domestic flights, because we see challenges from many, many places. Further, we need to build upon some really great efforts that have started to have testing available right in the airports for folks coming off planes in New York City at LaGuardia and JFK. Those projects have started. It's a great initiative. We want to go farther. We want to make it easy and clear that anyone coming off a plane should immediately get tested as well. We know testing has made all the difference. Why don't we use that tool that we know works to protect people who travel and protect all of us? I know New Yorkers believe in being tough and rigorous in fighting this disease. This is the kind of thing that would help us so much.
All right, now, talk about our health and safety. We have another challenge. We focus constantly on the coronavirus. We can't take our eye off the ball when there are other problems developing, and one of the painful side effects of the coronavirus has been that the blood supply for New York City has been reduced greatly. There just aren't the blood drives that used to happen in companies and government offices, and civic groups around the city used to do these blood drives and make sure that there was a blood supply to protect New Yorkers in hospitals, protect people having operations. The blood supply has continued to go down in this crisis. So, it is so important that New Yorkers step up. We've asked a lot of you throughout this crisis, but I'm going to ask again, anyone who can donate blood, we need you to do it now. And I always hear from New Yorkers saying how can I help, what can I do to help this city, what can I do to contribute? Here's a way – for those who can, here's a way to help by donating blood. So, to fight back this shortage, we turn to our friends at the New York Blood Center who are always there for the people in this city. And all they're doing is asking you to lend a hand, or more accurately an arm, and provide that blood that will make such a difference that literally could save a life. So, to make a blood donation, they have locations all over the city and extended hours, the New York Blood Center, reach them nybc.org. It can make such a difference. It can be literally a lifesaver.
Okay, let's go over our daily indicators. Number one, daily number of people admitted to New York City hospitals for a suspected COVID-19. That threshold is 200 patients. Today's report is 60 patients with a confirmed positivity for COVID, level of 21.6 percent. Number two, new reported cases on a seven-day average, threshold is 550 cases. Today's report, 528 cases. And number three, the percentage of people testing positive citywide for COVID-19, threshold is five percent. Today's report, 2.48 percent. And that's obviously a number we're watching carefully. That's a number that would obviously cause us all concern, but then let's look at the more essential number, the seven-day rolling average, that comes in at 1.66 percent. That is very much the range we've been in in the last few weeks. That's a number that is fairly stable. We want to keep it that way and then push it back down.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
We do not put the questions from the eight reporters the mayor chooses to call on and chat with. They are allowed to ask two questions rather than have eight more reporters ask the mayor real questions.
We congratulate Errol Lewis for calling Mayor Bill de Blasio a LAME DUCK MAYOR. There should be a count down pad of the number of days he has left in office, like the ones he used for the census, and is using for election day.
