EDITOR'S NOTE:
As we have tried for the past three weeks we were unable to be called on to ask Mayor de Blasio if he would ask Governor Cuomo to postpone the upcoming Special Elections and those to be called once the new year comes in creating more vacant City Council seats.
It appears even the Public Advocate who we were able to ask that question later in the day, seems to say "we must not allow people to be able to eat indoors, and do other things indoors, but it is fine for people to go vote in a special election".
Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, everyone. Well, yesterday was such an important day for New York City as we reopened 850 public schools all over the city. And it was an exciting day and a day that went very smoothly. And I want to thank all the principals, all the teachers, the school staff, and, of course, our parents and kids – everyone who worked hard to make sure that school reopened well. Very important day for our city and for our families, and a reminder of how important our public schools are to this city today and to our future. And I got another reminder of that yesterday. I had a wonderful conversation with our next Treasury Secretary of the United States, Janet Yellen. And as she is an amazing person, an amazing example of someone who came out of this city, born and bred in Brooklyn, and went to Fort Hamilton High School. In fact, she was the valedictorian of her class at Fort Hamilton high school, now will be the first woman ever in the history of the United States to become our treasury secretary. And what a great example to all the public school kids of New York City about what your futures can bring when you see a product of our public schools go all the way to the high post, the crucial post of treasury secretary for this entire country. It's great to have another New Yorker in such an important position, but she's also going to inspire a whole generation of New Yorkers, particularly young woman, to see their potential. And she is another reminder of how important public education is an what a difference it makes in our society, that we provide for everyone for free the finest education so they can realize their potential.
So, everyone, now let's get to what has allowed us to have safe schools, what's that allowed us to achieve what so many people said couldn't be done. School buildings are, in fact, some of the very safest places to be in all of New York City. Why? Because of testing. We always say testing, testing, testing – it has worked time and again. It's been the difference-maker. And we want to remind people, whether it's in our schools or any place and the city, testing is key. So, Today is Get Tested Tuesday, and we're going to remind all New Yorkers how important it is to get tested. It's free. It's quick. It's easy. And it's crucial for you, for your family, for your whole city.
Now, we are 10 months into this crisis, but, for the first time, we really can see the end in sight. Why? Because the vaccine is coming next week. The vaccine will be here in New York City, because the vaccine is being produced in huge quantities for this city and for this whole country, because we've learned how to fight back against the coronavirus in so many ways, people are doing so much and doing it so well to keep the coronavirus in check. Our hospitals are doing such extraordinary work, learned such important lessons from the spring. So, this is the final phase of the war against the coronavirus. We have one more big battle ahead. We've got to get through January – December and January, into February. Listen, think of it this way – this is the last big battle before us and then the vaccine will be able to do it to work. So, everyone, when you think about how important it is to get through December, get through January into February, it's a reminder of how important testing is. Testing always has made the difference and it will again.
So, one of the things we are doing is reaching out in every part of the city to make sure people know the testing resources are available. There are more testing sites than ever in New York City. And, again, the test is the easiest it's ever been, it’s the quickest it's ever been. We want people to know it's there for them. So, our test and trace teams are out all over the city and particularly focusing this week on Washington Heights, on Harlem and East Harlem, and on Chinatown and the Lower East Side to spread the word. And here to tell you all about it, he's been doing a great job leading the Test and Trace Corps and building it up to the level it is today, Dr. Ted Long.
Executive Director Ted Long, NYC Test and Trace Corps.: Thank you, sir. Throughout the COVID crisis, the one thing that has remained constant is that New Yorkers care about keeping our city safe. We recently hit a new record – in a single day, more than 95,000 New Yorkers came out to get tested, to know their status, and to do their part, to stop the spread of the virus. Now, even though we're seeing a rise in the number of new cases every day, our contact tracing system is the strongest it's ever been, and it's powered by each of those new tests that we do every day with those 95,000 New Yorkers that came out to get tested. The real heroes here are our contact tracers. They're New Yorkers that cared deeply about keeping our city safe and protecting our city, and they're reaching over 90 percent of everybody testing positive across New York City and they're completing interviews with 80 percent of everybody testing positive, meaning we're getting all of the information we need in order to perform contact tracing. In addition to that, 98 percent of people that are cases or have tested positive – when we call you every day as part of our – if you're a part of our program, you confirm for us that you're making that sacrifice and that you're staying at home and that you're isolating and that you're doing your part to keep our cities safe.
Today, I want to tell you more about what we are doing to fight back against the coronavirus, as the Mayor said, in our final battle here. What we're doing in the Test and Trace Corps. is we're spreading rapid testing across New York City. In the last month alone, we've opened up more than 10 new rapid testing sites. That has doubled our rapid testing capacity, and we're now in all five boroughs. To walk you through what the experience is, you'll come to one of our rapid testing sites, you'll have your tests done. Within 15 minutes, you'll have your results. And then, if it's positive, we'll pair you up with one of our contact tracers to immediately perform contact tracing, or see who you may have exposed when you were contagious. We then reach out to those people you may have exposed that same day and offer to bring them in for testing immediately. Then, before you leave, we pair you up with one of our resource navigators who will talk to you about services we can offer it to help you get through this, like free food delivery, a free hotel stay, or even, for free, walking your dog if that's what it takes for you to stay home and to keep our cities safe.
You should be proud of the number of New Yorkers that have come out to get tested to keep our city safe. To do your part, you can call 212-COVID-19 to find a testing site near you, or visit nyc.gov/COVIDtest to find a site near you as well. You can go to our Test and Trace Corps. Website, if you want to look at a detailed list of all of our sites, in addition with a detailed list of the exact wait times for each of the sites.
Now, as the Mayor said, today is Get Tested Tuesday in Manhattan. We're in Washington Heights, we’re in Harlem, East Harlem, Chinatown, and we're on the Lower East Side. Today, come out and get tested – it's always fast, easy, and free – and do your part to continue to keep our city safe. Thank you, sir.
Mayor: Thank you so much, Ted. And I want to just say, everyone who's part of the Test and Trace Corps. has been doing amazing work. And it's going to be more important than ever in this last push here as we go through the holidays and into the New Year. So, I want to thank you, Ted, for your leadership. We have a Dr. Amanda Johnson with us today, has been doing a great job with her team on the Take Care Initiative to make sure that when people need that help, it is there for them, whether they need to be in a hotel or need support at home, if they need to safely separate. So, all this help is available to New Yorkers when you need it for free. No one should ever feel they're alone and don't have a place to turn. The goal here is to keep everyone safe.
When it turns out you need to safely separate, to know there's going to be a lot of support for you when you do that.
All right, now, that's testing – so important, but while we're fighting this important battle against the coronavirus, we have another challenge, and it's absolutely happened also because of the coronavirus, but it even has bigger ramifications, which is the challenge of our blood supply in New York City. This is for all types of medical challenges, and we've got to make sure our blood supplies kept up to protect New Yorkers. The coronavirus has knocked out a lot of the normal blood drives that happen in companies and government offices and colleges. That's not there. So, it's up to you. And last week we talked about this, how New Yorkers need to step up and help out. Now, look, the supply has been running low, so we together the Give Blood NYC campaign and, right away, New Yorkers have started to answer the call. We said we needed 25,000 blood donations this month – already 4,288 donors have stepped forward, which is fantastic. And almost 1,000 of them are new donors. I was very pleased to go to the New York Blood Center with Chirlane and donate blood last week. Everyone there is great. I want to emphasize the folks who work at the Blood Center really take care of you, then make it easy. It's such an important thing to do, and you get your free juice and cookies at the end. But what we need now is about 20,000 more New Yorkers to come forward. This is urgent. This is about directly and immediately saving lives, and you can make such a difference. We need 20,000 more New Yorkers to come forward by the end of this month, and we have some wonderful prizes we've put together to encourage people, and winners have already been selected, including Jessica from Queens, and Sheldon from Brooklyn, and Eileen from Manhattan. And Eileen won the New York City Parks package, which includes the fabulous social distancing towel. This is a big – a big favorite of the coronavirus era. So, look, we want people to help out and we're going to make sure that there's some wonderful prizes as part of it. So, everyone come forward and sign up at nybc.org/GiveBloodNYC. We really need you and we need you now.
Okay. Let's go to our indicators. Number one, current hospital admissions. So, daily number of people admitted to New York City hospitals for suspected COVID-19, today's report is 161 patients. And, again, where we want to be is under 200 patients. So, today, a good number. Next, the next new indicator, which is the hospitalization rate per 100,000 people. Today's number is 2.30 per 100,000. Not where we want to be. We want to be under two per 100,000. Okay. Second indicator, current new cases. And now, we are including the probable cases, as we discussed yesterday – the probable cases along in this number. So, today's number, daily new cases, seven-day average – 2,624. Well over the number where we want to be, which is 550. So, we have a lot of work to do there. And the percentage of New York City residents testing positive for COVID-19. Now, this is just the seven-day rolling average here – today's report, 4.94 percent. Where we want to be as under five, so we're just there, but, obviously, this is a high number. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get that number back down.
