Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Governor Cuomo: In NY, 'Love Wins and it Will Win Again Through This Virus', Our Healthcare Workers Are Doing 'God's Work', Distribution of Health Care Supplies to NYC, LI, and Westchester Hospitals


 "Eighty percent are going to self-resolve. Twenty percent are going to need hospitals. It's not about that. It's about a very small group of people in this population who are the most vulnerable. They are older, they have compromised immune systems, they are HIV positive, or they have emphysema, or they have an underlying heart condition, or they have bad asthma, or they're recovering from cancer. Those are the people who are going to be vulnerable to the mortality of this disease, and it is only 1% or 2% of the population. But then why all of this? Because it's 1% or 2% of the population. It's lives, it's grandmothers and grandfathers and sisters and brothers.

And you start to see the cases on TV. It's a 40-year-old woman who recovered from breast cancer but had a compromised immune system and four children at home. That's what this is about. It's about a vulnerable population. I called the executive order that I passed Matilda's law - my mother. It's about my mother. It's about my mother. It's about my mother. It's about your mother. It's about your loved one. And we will do anything we can to make sure that they are protected.

Again, keeping it in perspective, Johns Hopkins, 387,000 cases studied, 16,000 deaths on 387,000. 100,000 recoveries worldwide, 268,000 pending. Last point, it is about the vulnerable. It's not about 95% of us. It's about a few percent who are vulnerable. That's all this is about. Bring down that anxiety, bring down that fear, bring down that paranoia. It's not about 95% of us.

And we're going to get through it because we are New York and because we've dealt with a lot of things, and because we are smart. You have to be smart to make it in New York. And we are resourceful, and we are showing how resourceful we are. And because we are united, and when you are united, there is nothing you can't do. And because we are New York tough. We are tough. You have to be tough. This place makes you tough, but it makes you tough in a good way. We're going to make it because I love New York, and I love New York because New York loves you. New York loves all of you. Black and white and brown and Asian and short and tall and gay and straight. New York loves everyone. That's why I love New York. It always has, it always will. And at the end of the day, my friends, even if it is a long day, and this is a long day, love wins. Always. And it will win again through this virus. 

In Time of COVID-19 Pandemic, Our Healthcare Workers Are Doing 'God's Work',

We've acquired everything on the market there is to acquire. We've had a full team purchasing from companies all across this globe, buying everything that can be purchased. And we're bringing that here to distribute to New York City, Long Island, Westchester because that is the greatest need. This number of supplies will take care of our immediate need. It does not take care of the need going forward three, four, five, six weeks. The burn rate on this equipment is very, very high. I can't find any more equipment. It's not a question of money. I don't care what you're willing to pay. You just can't find the equipment now, but this will take care of the immediate need.

I don't want our health care workers, who are doing God's work. They are doing God's work. Can you imagine the nurses who leave their homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on gowns, deal with people who have the coronavirus? They're thinking all day long, oh, my God, I hope I don't get this. Oh my God, I hope I don't get this and bring it home to my children. You want to talk about extraordinary individuals - extraordinary. And it's the nurses and the doctors and the health care workers, it's the police officers who show up every day and go out there and walk into a situation that they don't even know what they're walking into. And it's the firefighters and it's the transportation workers, and it's the people who are running the grocery stores and the pharmacies and providing all those essential services. Most of us are in our home hunkered down, worried. They're worried and they're going out there every day despite their fear - despite their fear. Overcoming their fear, and not for their family, they're doing it for your family. When you see them on the street, when you see them in a hospital, please, just say thank you and smile and say, I know what you're doing.

Distribution of medical supplies and equipment to hospitals across New York City, Long Island and Westchester to help front line healthcare workers combat COVID-19.

339,760 N-95 masks, 861,700 surgical masks, 353,300 gloves, 145,122 gowns and 197,085 face shields are being deployed from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center to hospitals in those regions today.
  • New York City will receive 169,000 N-95 masks, 430,850 surgical masks, 176,750 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 39,364 face shields.
  • Westchester County will receive 16,988 N-95 masks, 301,595 surgical masks, 17,675 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 3,926 face shields.
  • Long Island will receive 33,976 N-95 masks, 86,170 surgical masks, 35,350 gloves, 14,512 gowns and 7,853 face shields.
  • The rest of New York State will receive 118,916 N-95 masks, 301,595 surgical masks, 123,735 gloves, 50,793 gowns and 27,485 face shields.
This disbursement is on top of the 1 million N-95 masks that the State purchased and sent to New York City and the approximately 500,000 N-95 masks that the State purchased and sent to Long Island last week. 
The supplies are being distributed in consultation with the Greater New York Hospital Association and the Healthcare Association of New York State, both of which are helping identify hospitals in greatest need.

Let me take you through some facts today, because we have some new facts, changes in certain stances that are not encouraging and I want to make sure people understand them and we react accordingly. The increase in the number of cases continues unabated. As a matter of fact, the rate of increase has gone up. We have the most sophisticated people you can get doing projections on this. They've been studying projections from China, South Korea, Italy, places all across this country. And what they're now seeing is that the rate of cases, the rate of new infections, is doubling about every three days. That is a dramatic increase in the rate of infection. And this whole discussion all along has been how fast does the rate of increase spread. And can we slow the rate of increase. We're not slowing it, and it is accelerating on its own. One of the forecasters said to me, we were looking at a freight train, coming across the country, we're now looking at a bullet train, because the numbers are going up that quickly.

And the most challenging point about the increasing numbers is where the numbers will apex. What is the high point of the numbers. And the apex is the point where we have to be able to manage the capacity. We had projected the apex at about 110,000 hospital beds, and that's the number I've been talking about. The new projection suggests that the number of hospital beds needed could be as high as 140,000 hospital beds. So, flatten the curve, flatten the curve. We haven't flattened the curve and the curve is actually increasing. That means the number of hospital beds, which is at 53,000 beds, 3,000 ICU beds. The anticipated need now for the height of the curve is 140,000 hospital beds, and approximately 40,000 intensive care unit beds.

Those are troubling and astronomical numbers, and as I mentioned, are higher numbers than have been previously projected. We are exercising all options as aggressively as we can. That rate of increase, that apex, they project at this time could be approximately 14 to 21 days away. So not only do we have a spike in the increase, when you spike the increase in cases, it accelerates the apex to a point where it could be as close at 14 to 21 days. We're exercising all options. We're doing everything we can on every level to quote unquote slow the spread, flatten the curve.

We've closed businesses, we've reduced street density. We had an issue in New York City, I spoke to Mayor de Blasio, I spoke to City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. We'll have a plan that I believe will be in place by noon today. And we have increased testing to the highest level in the United States, and the highest per capita level on the globe. No one is testing more than we are testing. So, in many ways we have exhausted every option available to us. We've closed all the businesses. We've reduced the street density. And we've increased testing to the highest level in the country.

We're also trying all the new drug therapies. The hydroxychloroquine, which the president speaks about and is optimistic about. We hope for optimistic results, also. We're actually starting that today. The president and the FDA accelerated that drug coming to New York so the hospitals will start using that drug today. The FDA also authorized an experimental procedure by the New York State Department of Health where the Department of Health actually takes plasma from people who are infected who have the antibodies and will try putting that plasma into a person who is still struggling with the disease hoping that the antibodies make a difference. We're also pursuing a new level of testing which will test people's blood to see if they have antibodies for coronavirus which means they may had been infected and resolved and never knew it, but if you had the coronavirus and resolved you now have an immunity to the coronavirus for some period of time most experts suggest it's a significant amount of time. That would be very important for us to know because then healthcare workers that could go back to work, there are workers that could return back to the private sector.

But the inescapable conclusion is that the rate of infection is going up. It is spiking. The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of facts. So, slow the spread. We'll still keep doing everything we can, but it is clear that we must dramatically increase the hospital capacity to meet that highest apex. And we have to do it very quickly. Again, the apex could be here in as little as 14-21 days and you're talking about a very significant logistical operational movement to increase that number of hospital beds and do everything that you need to do related to the increased hospital beds. There are three elements that are necessary to increase the hospital capacity. First are obviously the availability of the beds. A bed without staff is virtually useless and a bed and a staff without the right equipment is virtually useless. So, you have to complete all three at the same time.

As far as beds, we have told the hospitals, I'm going to speak to every hospital administrator today, hospitals must increase their capacity by 50 percent. The goal is to ask them to try to increase it by 100 percent. Remember we have 53,000 beds, we need 140,000 beds. Even if they did increase it by 100 percent, you'd only be at about 100,000 beds. You need 140,000 beds. Emergency hospitals like the 1,000-bed facility that's being built here will be helpful. The emergency hospitals that we're building in Westbury and Stony Brook and at the Westchester Convention Center will be helpful. But they're nowhere near the number of beds that we're going to need. I have no problem using the dormitories all across our state campuses, our CUNY campuses, our state university campuses. I'm speaking to hotel owners about taking over their hotels to put patients in. I will turn this state upside down to get the number of beds we need. But, we need the staff for those beds. We're calling and contacting all retirees in the healthcare field. We're calling all professionals in the healthcare field whether or not they work in a hospital. They could work at an insurance company, in a clinic, or whatever. But we want to enlist as many staff as we can and as many back-up staff because healthcare workers will get sick. This is going to go on for weeks and you can't ask a person to work 14 days consecutive or around the clock shifts, so we'll need a back-up reserve staff.

And equipment, equipment, equipment. Masks, PPEs, and ventilators. And of those three, the great critical need are ventilators. Now, ventilators, you say ventilators nobody really knows what you're talking about. The people who are going to come in, the people who will have acute needs, these are people who are under respiratory distress. They need a ventilator. The ventilators will make the difference between life and death literally for these people. This is piece of equipment that in a normal course of business you don't have a need for high levels of ventilators and our hospital system has about 3,000 or 4,000 that has always met the need. This is a dramatic increase in the number of ventilators that you need. We have been working around the clock scouring the globe.

We've procured about 7,000 ventilators. We need at a minimum an additional 30,000 ventilators. You cannot buy them. You cannot find them. Every state is trying to get them, other countries are trying to get them. The capacity is limited. They're technical pieces of equipment. They're not manufactured in two days or four days, seven days or ten days. So, this is a critical and desperate need for ventilators. We're going so far as to you trying experimental procedure where we split the ventilator. We use one ventilator for two patients. Its difficulty to perform. It's experimental, but at this point we have no alternatives. We're working on this experimental application taking two people in beds, one ventilator between the two of them, but with two sets of tubes two sets of pipes going to the two patients.
Again, it's experimental, but mother of necessity is the mother of invention and we are working on this as we speak. Because life is options and we don't have any other options. There is no other way for us to get these ventilators. We've tried everything else.

The only way we can obtain these ventilators is from the federal government, period. And there is two ways the federal government can do it. One is to use the Federal Defense Production Act. There is federal law where the federal government can say to manufacturers you must produce this product. I understand the federal governments point that many companies have come forward and said we want to help. General Motors and Ford, and people are willing to get into the ventilator business. It does us no good if they start to create a ventilator in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks. We're looking at an apex of 14 days. If we don't have the ventilators in 14 days it does us no good. The federal Defense Procurement Act can actually help companies, because the federal government can say look I need you to into this business. I will contract with you today for X number of ventilators. Here's the startup capital you need. Here's the startup capital you need to hire workers that do it around the clock, but I need the ventilators in 14 days. Only the federal government has that power. And not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me. Volunteerism is nice and it is a beautiful thing. And it's nice these companies are coming forward and saying they want to help. That is not going to get us there. And I do not for the life of me understand the reluctance to use the federal Defense Production Act.

Also, the federal government has 20,000 ventilators in the federal stockpile. Secretary Azar runs an agency called HHS - Health and Human Services. I asked the Secretary, "Look at the first word in the title of the agency you run. It is health. Your first priority is health. You have 20,000 ventilators in the stockpile. Release the ventilators to New York." How can we be in a situation where you can have New Yorkers possibly dying because they can't get a ventilator, but a federal agency is saying I'm going to leave the ventilators in the stockpile. I mean have we really come to that point. Also, we have to be smarter about the way this is being done. The federal government has to prioritize the resources. Look at where the problems are across this nation. California has 2,800 cases. Washington state, 2,200 cases. Florida, 1,200 cases. Massachusetts, about 800 cases. New York has 25,000 cases. New York has 25,000 cases. It has ten times the problem that California has. Ten times the problem that Washington state has. You prioritize resources, and your activity, and your actions to where they are needed. And New York, you are looking at a problem that is of a totally different magnitude and dimension.

The problem is the volume. Dealing with 2,000 cases is one thing. 2,000 cases, frankly, we could deal with in this building, with the capacity that we're providing. We have 25,000 cases. We need the federal help, and we need the federal help now. Also, there is a smart way to do this. Deploy the ventilators around the country as they are needed. Different regions have different curbs of the infection. New York is the canary in the coal mine. New York is going first. We have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. What happens to New York is going to wind up happening to California, and Washington state, and Illinois, it's just a matter of time. We're just getting there first.

Deal with the issue here. Deploy the resources. Deploy the ventilators here in New York for our apex. And then, after the apex passes here, once we're passed that critical point, deploy the ventilators to the other parts of the country where they are needed. I'm not asking for 20,000 ventilators and they stay in New York, and they live in New York and change their residence. As soon as we finish with the ventilators, then you move them to the next part of the country that has the critical problem. And then, after that region hits its apex, then you move to the next part of the country that has its critical problems. I will take personal responsibility for transporting the 20,000 ventilators anywhere in this country that they want, once we are past our apex. But don't leave them sitting in a stockpile, and say well we're going to wait and see how we allocate them across the country. That's not how this works. They're not simultaneous apexes. They are a curve that is individual to that region. Deploy to that region, address that region, and then move on to the next. And I'm not only talking about ventilators. We get past the apex, we get over that curve, that curve starts to come down, we get to a level where we can handle it. I'll send ventilators. I'll send healthcare workers. I'll send out professionals who've dealt with it and who know, all around the country.

And that's how this should be done. You know it's going to be on a different calendar, it's going to be a different sequence. Let's help each other. New York, because New York is first. And then after New York, and after the curve breaks in New York, let's all rush to whoever's second. And then let's all rush to whoever's third. And let's learn from each other and help each other.

I want to make a point on the president's point about the economy and public health. I understand what the president's saying, this is unsustainable, that we close down the economy and we continue to spend money. There is no doubt about that, no one is going to argue about that. But if you ask the American people to choose, between public health and the economy, then it's no contest. No American is going to say, accelerate the economy, at the cost of human life. Because no American is going to say how much a life is worth. Job one has to be save lives. That has to be the priority. And there's a smarter approach to this. We don't have to choose between the two. You can develop a more refined public health strategy that is also an economic strategy.

What do I mean by that? Our public health strategy was a blunt instrument. What we said at a moment of crisis is isolate everyone. Close the schools, close the colleges, send everyone home, isolate everybody in their home. In truth, that was not the most refined public strategy. Why? Because it wasn't even smart, frankly, to isolate younger people with older people. But, at that moment we didn't have the knowledge, we needed to act, that's what we did. You can now start to refine that public health strategy. You can start to say, look, the lower risk individuals do not need to be quarantined and they shouldn't be quarantined with an older who it may be transferring to. People who are recovered, you test them, you test the antibodies, you find out that they resolved themselves of the virus. I believe once we get that test you're going to find hundreds of thousands of people who have had the coronavirus and resolved. Once they're resolved, they can go back to work. Develop that test, it's in testing now, once they're resolved let them go back to work. Let the younger people go back to work. Let the recovered people go back to work. It's even better for the older, vulnerable people who you're trying to protect. And then ramp up the economy with those individuals.

So, you're refining your public health strategy and at the same time you're restarting your economy. Those two can be consistent if done intelligently. Restart the economy with our younger, recovered, tested workers. Don't make us choose between a smart health strategy and smart economic strategy. We can do both and we must do both. It's not the economy or public health, it's restarting the economy and protecting public health, it is both. But, I understand restarting the economy. The crisis today, focus on the crisis at hand, focus on the looming wave of cases that is about to break in 14 days. That has to be the priority. And that is hospital capacity and that is about providing hospital beds, providing staff, providing equipment, providing PPE, providing ventilators. Coming back to that number of 30,000 and needing federal action to address it now. If the federal government said today, I will deploy all 20,000 ventilators, it will take us two weeks to get those ventilators into hospitals and to create ICU beds and to locate the staff. So, there is no time to waste. The time to do this is now. FEMA is sending us 400 ventilators. It was on the news this morning. We are sending 400 ventilators to New York. 400 ventilators? I need 30,000 ventilators. You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators? What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators? You're missing the magnitude of the problem and the problem is defined by the magnitude.

These are the numbers from today. You can see our testing rate is now over 90,000 people who have been tested. That's the highest rate of testing in the country and per capita on the globe. We did 12,000 new tests since yesterday. Number of positive cases, state of New York - 25,675, 4,700 of those new cases tested. You see the entire state county by county. More and more counties are being covered. We have 3,000 people currently who are hospitalized. We have 756 people in ICU units. The ICU units are the ventilated units. That's 23 percent of the hospitalizations. That's the problem. As the number of cases go up, the number of people in hospital beds goes up, the number of people who need an ICU bed and a ventilator goes up, and we cannot address that increasing curve.

Again, you look at the number of cases in the country, you'll see that New York is an outlier of the number of cases. It's not even close. What's happening in New York is not a New York phenomenon. People in New York don't have a different immune system than other Americans. It's not higher in New York because we are New Yorkers. It's higher in New York because it started here first, because we have global travelers coming here first, because we have more density than most places, but you will see this in cities all across the country. And you will see this in suburban communities all across the country. We are just a test case. We are just a test case. And that's how the nation should look at it.

Look at us today. Where we are today, you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. We are your future, and what we do here will chart the course for what we do in your city and in your community. I'm not asking you to help New York to help New York, I'm asking you to help New York to help yourselves. Let's learn how to do it right, and let's learn how to do it right here. Let's learn how to act as one nation and let's learn how to act as one nation here. And we learn the lesson here, we will save lives in your community. I promise you that.

We're delivering supplies that we've been able to purchase today. New Yorkcity has had a critical problem. I spoke to Mayor de Blasio. He's right, he had a critical problem on PPEs, gowns, masks et cetera. The equipment we are bringing today will resolve that immediate need. There will be no hospital in the city of New York who will say today their nurses and doctors can't get equipment. And we're addressing that need not just for New York City but also Long Island and Westchester.

We've acquired everything on the market there is to acquire. We've had a full team purchasing from companies all across this globe, buying everything that can be purchased. And we're bringing that here to distribute to New York City, Long Island, Westchester because that is the greatest need. This number of supplies will take care of our immediate need. It does not take care of the need going forward three, four, five, six weeks. The burn rate on this equipment is very, very high. I can't find any more equipment. It's not a question of money. I don't care what you're willing to pay. You just can't find the equipment now, but this will take care of the immediate need.

I don't want our health care workers, who are doing God's work. They are doing God's work. Can you imagine the nurses who leave their homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on gowns, dealwith people who have the coronavirus? They're thinking all day long, oh, my God, I hope I don't get this. Oh my God, I hope I don't get this and bring it home to my children. You want to talk about extraordinary individuals - extraordinary. And it's the nurses and the doctors and the health care workers, it's the police officers who show up every day and go out there and walk into a situation that they don't even know what they're walking into. And it's thefirefighters and it's the transportation workers, and it's the people who are running the grocery stores and the pharmacies and providing all those essential services. Most of us are in our home hunkered down, worried. They're worried and they're going out there every day despite their fear - despite their fear. Overcoming their fear, and not for their family, they're doing it for your family. When you see them on the street, when you see them in a hospital, please, just say thank you and smile and say, I know what you're doing.

What happens? All these facts, all these numbers. Am I strong in my language vis-a-vis the federal government? Yes, I am. But what happens at the end of the day? What does it all mean? That's what people want to know. What does it all mean? What it all means is what we said it all means the first day this started. The first day I went before the people of New York State and I said, I'm going to tell you the truth, I'm going to tell you the facts the way I know it. Those facts have not changed. Those facts are not going to change. This is not a new situation. We've watched this through China. There are hundreds of thousands of cases. 80 percent will self-resolve. That's why experts say to me - tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands have had the virus, didn't know they had it and resolved. That's why we have to get that test that shows you had the virus because you have the antibodies and you did resolve. And once we do that, that's how you get the economy back to work. That's how you get the back-up healthcare workers.

But 80 percent are going to self-resolve. 20 percent are going to need hospitals. It's not about that. It's about a very small group of people in this population who are the most vulnerable. They are older, they have compromised immune systems, they are HIV positive, or they have emphysema, or they have an underlying heart condition, or they have bad asthma, or they're recovering from cancer. Those are the people who are going to be vulnerable to the mortality of this disease, and it is only 1 percent or 2 percent of the population. But then why all of this? Because it's 1 percent or 2 percent of the population. It's lives, it's grandmothers and grandfathers and sisters and brothers.

And you start to see the cases on TV. It's a 40-year-old woman who recovered from breast cancer but had a compromised immune system and four children at home. That's what this is about. It's about a vulnerable population. I called the executive order that I passed Matilda's law - my mother. It's about my mother. It's about my mother. It's about my mother. It's about your mother. It's about your loved one. And we will do anything we can to make sure that they are protected.

Again, keeping it in perspective, Johns Hopkins, 387,000 cases studied, 16,000 deaths on 387,000. 100,000 recoveries worldwide, 268,000 pending. Last point, it is about the vulnerable. It's not about 95 percent of us. It's about a few percent who are vulnerable. That's all this is about. Bring down that anxiety, bring down that fear, bring down that paranoia. It's not about 95 percent of us.

And we're going to get through it because we are New York and because we've dealt with a lot of things, and because we are smart. You have to be smart to make it in New York. And we are resourceful, and we are showing how resourceful we are. And because we are united, and when you are united, there is nothing you can't do. And because we are New York tough. We are tough. You have to be tough. This place makes you tough, but it makes you tough in a good way. We're going to make it because I love New York, and I love New York because New York loves you. New York loves all of you. Black and white and brown and Asian and short and tall and gay and straight. New York loves everyone. That's why I love New York. It always has, it always will. And at the end of the day, my friends, even if it is a long day, and this is a long day, love wins. Always. And it will win again through this virus. Thank you.

MAYOR DE BLASIO HOLDS MEDIA AVAILABILITY ON COVID-19


  Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, everybody as usual, there's a lot to go over here and we are all going to be in this together for a long time here in the City. And that's something I want to start with, we talked about this yesterday. We're starting a very new reality this week, something we've never experienced before. As I've gone around the city today, I've seen places that, you know, usually you think of as really, really crowded— totally empty, literally streets where you couldn't see anyone walking down a sidewalk. Places that are normally very, very crowded in the City absolutely empty or only a few people. Obviously, what's happening now is our lives have been changed profoundly. People are recognizing and dealing with this new reality, making the tough choices and the sacrifices. I want to thank all New Yorkers, no one, not one of us wants to go through this. None of us asked for it, but it's our reality and I think New Yorkers are handling it with a lot of strengths, a lot of resilience, a lot of creativity working together, supporting each other. That's what I expect and I've always seen from my fellow New Yorkers. I want to thank you, I know it's not easy, but I really appreciate everything that people are doing to get through this together.

I have to be honest about the fact that we do not expect this to go quickly and I wish we did, but we don't. I've had several conversations this week with President Trump and I respect his office for sure and I'm trying to work with him to ensure that we get support in this City, but I have to respectfully disagree with him. When he says, as he said earlier today that he's not looking at months for this crisis. – I have to say Mr. President, I wish that was the case for New York City, I hope that's the case for other parts of the country. But, right now, we are looking at months and I'm going to say it again because people deserve the honest truth that we are doing all we can just to get through March right now, particularly in terms of our health care system. April will unquestionably would be worse than March, and right now my fear is that May could be worse than April. That's the reality we're facing, I think the notion that we could be quote unquote back to normal in the month of April is absolutely inconceivable at this point. So, I want to give people the truth because I think it helps us all to just, you know, really get our expectations right. Really know how to plan, really know how to kind of gird ourselves for battle; this is a battle we're all going to be in together. Again, no one is tougher than New Yorkers, so we will get through this.

The people we’ll depend on, I want to thank again our extraordinary health care workers who every hour of every day are doing amazing work, protecting all of our first responders; they're heroes to us all the time. They're renowned all over the country, all over the – world, and they're doing amazing work right now. Our educators are so proud of the amazing work that's been done just over a days to create – an online learning distance learning program for hundreds of thousands of kids, never been done before in the City. It's amazing what's been started already as well as those learning centers for the children of essential workers. I mean, this kind of improvisation, this kind of speed and an intense teamwork. This is the mark of New York City and this is something we should be proud of. But I also want to thank other heroes I’ll keep mentioning different people each day, but there are some unsung heroes out there that really deserve our thanks because they're keeping this whole place running in the most basic ways.

When you think or you turn on that faucet, you turn on the tap and you get water. Let's thank our department of environmental protection workers for getting us clean water, the best water in the nation every single day despite this crisis for making sure our water system, our sewer system works. Thank you to all of them. Thank you to our department of transportation workers who continue to do vital work to keep us safe, to keep all those vehicles that are moving around and that we depend on for essential service, make sure that they can keep doing all of their work. So, thanks to the DOT workers, thanks to the sanitation workers, continue to do all of that possibly could be done to keep the City clean despite all the challenges we are facing. And there are many, many other public servants— folks who work in non-profit organizations, folks who work in the private sector, all of whom are chipping in.

So, I'll say thank you many times during this crisis, but a special thank you to our City workers from all those agencies I mentioned who are doing extraordinary work right now. And I'm going to keep telling all my fellows, New Yorkers say thank you when you see one of them because we are depending on them right now. So, what I am seeing again is despite the intensity of this crisis, despite the growth of this crisis that New Yorkers continue to make the changes necessary to follow the rules to step up. And that's against the backdrop of really just staggering numbers, now again; every number represents a human being. And I'm going to tell you about one human being, I know who we've just lost, we just heard about in the last hour. But first, the overall situation, amazing— horrible number, almost 15,000 cases confirmed positive.

Now, in New York City as [inaudible] – I'm sorry, 14,776 is the exact number, but that number keeps changing obviously throughout the day. So almost 15,000 cases, we're now about 58 percent of the cases in New York State and still about exactly a third of the cases in this entire Nation. So, we are the epicenter, I don't want us to be the epicenter, but we are the epicenter of this crisis for this Nation. And obviously as we discussed this each and every day, because we are the epicenter for this Nation, because we are the Nation's largest City, because the entire Nation depends on New York City we need more federal help and we need it quickly. The number of deaths related to coronavirus is 131, as of this moment, 131 New Yorkers, we've lost, the breakout by borough 4,364 cases from Queens, 4,237 cases in Brooklyn, 2,887 cases in Manhattan, 2,328 cases in the Bronx and 935 cases in Staten Island.

We've lost a great New Yorker— one of the most really renowned members of our cultural community, the great playwright, Terrence McNally. Someone who epitomizes so much about this City, came here from Texas as a young man brought all of his talents wrote some of the greatest plays of recent memory, but also someone who worked so hard for a better New York City and a better America for everyone. I had the honor of knowing Terrence because he ended up marrying one of my college roommates, Tom Kirdahy. And you know, I went to NYU, my roommate and I stayed friends over all the years and I got to know Terrence once they married. In fact, once marriage equality was finally the law of the land, we held a ceremony out here right in front of City Hall in our Plaza and performed a marriage ceremony for Terrance and Tom to mark that historic occasion – an amazing, amazing New Yorker who did so much good. So, we all should have Terrence McNally and his husband, Tom Kirdahy in our thoughts and prayers. And Terrance rest in peace, and thank you for all you did for this City and this nation.

And you can see this crisis again, it's not— it's not just numbers, it's not just something happening somewhere else or to somebody else. This is going to be something we all will feel very directly in our lives before it's over. Our job is to do everything we can to save lives, to protect lives, at this moment, it's going to take everything we've got. This morning I spoke with Governor Cuomo, we agreed on the most central fact, the most central need; and that is ventilators that right now and our efforts to save lives. The City must have the ventilators we need they are all over this country we've got to get them here. We have to be a priority for this Nation because we're the epicenter of the crisis. It has to be clear to all New Yorkers, and I'll talk about a visit I paid to our emergency management warehouse earlier talking with doctors from Kings County Hospital one of our great public institutions about why ventilators are so crucial. I think for a lot of us, you hear the word ventilator, unless it's been something you experienced in your own life or with your family, it probably sounds like – a word you can't really make sense of. I can tell you having seen one of the ventilators a machine that literally could fit in – in a big suitcase it is something that literally is going to be the difference between life and death for thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers. A ventilator and the doctors from Kings County Hospital made this so clear today if a ventilator is available for a patient stricken with coronavirus patient gasping for breath, fighting for their life, if that ventilator is available exactly when it's needed, that patient can stay alive so the doctors can do their work and in many, many cases that patient will live and resume their life. But it's as plain as this if a doctor cannot get a ventilator to that patient, literally the minute they need it, if too many minutes pass, that patient will suffocate, that patient will die a horrible death and they'll be gone forever.

That is what a ventilator should mean, it's not a technical term anymore, it means life or death, and we need as many ventilators as we possibly can get right now in this City. At our warehouse, our emergency management warehouse in Brooklyn, I saw 400 ventilators that arrived from FEMA, from the Federal Government. And I am thankful for those, but I have to be clear. So long as there is a single ventilator sitting in a federal warehouse that could be here in New York City saving lives, something's wrong. We must get the ventilators to where they're needed most. And I'm not saying we're the only place in the country, we know how much Washington State has suffered, we know how much California has suffered. And unfortunately, more states ahead will suffer and my strong view is we need the ventilators and all those who are at the front line need the ventilators now.

And as soon as we no longer need them, we will be the first to say, let's make sure they get to where the need is greatest elsewhere in the country. We're asking for help – supplies, we're asking for help getting medical personnel, but we need as Americans to be ready to contribute back to all the other States, the second the crisis comes to some kind of end here in New York City. So, we stand ready to support our nation, but now we need our nation to help us first because we are the front line of this fight.

At the warehouse today. 400 ventilators from FEMA, as I mentioned, that are being distributed and they have been distributed already this morning. 100 going to our public hospitals, 300 to a variety of other public, private excuse me, and nonprofit hospitals around the city. To make sure that no hospital gets into that awful situation that I just described where they need a ventilator immediately and they don't have it. So that 400 will help us a lot. And just a short time ago, I got the very good news that we got an announcement from the federal government that 4,000 more ventilators are on the way to New York state in the next 48 hours, and half of them will come to New York City. 2000 more ventilators for New York city, and that's great news. But I need people to understand that is only the beginning of what we need. The speed with which this disease is growing, the human impact. The fact that we could lose a life in minutes if there is not a ventilator. Even with the new supplies we have received and will receive this week, what does it tell us? It tells us we can get through this week. It tells us we can get into next week, maybe even get through that first week in April. But with the rate of increase of this disease, we need ventilators to be constantly plugged fide into New York city, constantly supplied to New York city until we got to the point where we're absolutely sure we have an ample supply.

I don't want to see a single person die who could have been saved. That's my standard and that's why we're going to need many more ventilators. We asked the federal government days and days ago, we made the formal request for 15,000 ventilators. Again, I'm very appreciative of the progress. I want to thank the administration for what has begun to happen, but I need everyone in Washington to understand that'll just get us to the first week of April and I'm very worried about the first week of April. Even with this new supply, it doesn't guarantee we'll get through April that first week. This is a race against time. This is a race against time and every one of us here at City Hall and Emergency Management, all of us who are in charge of fighting this battle, and I know our colleagues at the state level feel exactly the same way, we are all racing against time. We need our federal government to join us in that race against time.

Again, I'll always tell you when I think there's progress and I'll tell you when I think there's setbacks. There is another act of progress today and we heard it from FEMA and I'm very appreciative for all females doing, they have been difference maker in the days that they've been on the playing field since the president signed the emergency declaration. FEMA is making a huge difference already with a lot more to come. So, I thank them. We heard the news earlier today that for the first time that defense production act had actually been activated in the real world conditions we're talking about where it actually needs to be used to guarantee that companies will produce exactly what is needed to protect the American people, and that those goods will be distributed to where the need is greatest. We are finally beginning to see the defense production act being implemented. It will have to be used on a much bigger scale to produce not only what New York city and New York state are going to need. I am trying to tell people all over this country, it's coming to you next. This will be a national crisis – all 50 States. We must get the maximum production immediately. So, I am pleased to see progress, but we have a long way to go, and the defense production act needs to be used to the maximum.

I will say in addition to the good work of FEMA the good work we're seeing from the federal administration getting us some new supplies, the good work of course from the state of New York, which has done extraordinary work to help us. We are seeing more and more private corporations step up. We're seeing more and more individuals come forward. Philanthropies have come forward. A lot of people are helping.

Last night I had a very encouraging conversation with the CEO of the 3M Corporation in Minnesota, which is in a position to give us some of our most crucially necessary supplies, including N95 masks, which are those very high-quality masks. We need a lot more of, to the tune of millions. CEO, Mike Roman and I spoke at length. It was quite clear he's very committed to New York City. I want to say thanks to Mike and your entire team. And we talked about a very large order we need help with and he was ready to help. So, thank you to everyone at the 3M Corporation, and we're going to be having that conversation with a lot of other CEOs, a lot of other people in a position to help real quickly, because we're going to need it all.

I want to make clear to everyone who wants to help, especially if you have even a single ventilator that you can get to New York city or if you have a supply, even more of a bigger supply of ventilators. If you have surgical mask, if you have N95 mask, if you have face shields, gloves, gowns, anything that could help us, we need it. And the simplest way to let us know about what you have and your willingness to help is to go to nyc.gov. It's right there on the homepage. It's got a long title for this section. It says produce or donate supplies to fight coronavirus. I assure you we will come up with a simpler title, but right now anyone who can help us can go to nyc.gov, that homepage. It's really clear where you click to let us know about what you can give us to help and we need it. And I am so grateful to all who are helping and I assure you, I guarantee you, we will return the favor to our fellow Americans, to other states and cities as soon as our crisis abates. We have to be ready to say thank you and mobilize to help the rest of our fellow Americans.

Now I want to talk to you about some of the issues we're dealing with today out on the streets of our city in terms of our parks and playgrounds. Places that we are concerned, obviously to make sure that people practice social distancing. That people don't congregate. Don't live the way we used to just weeks ago but live in this new reality. And I spoke several times to our police commissioner, Dermot Shea. He has been out checking. I've been out checking. He has patrols out all over the city and getting constant feedback. And what we're seeing in many, many places is that people are truly abiding by these rules. A lot of our parks and playgrounds, actually I've had very limited activity today. Others obviously might have more, but what we are seeing broad adherence to the rules and we're going to make clear through NYPD enforcement and enforcement by many other city agencies that we must have a real respect for these rules. And anyone who is not following the rules will be quickly corrected. They'll be warned, they'll be educated, and NYPD will be out making very clear to people, using our patrol officers and with messages that'll be electronically transmitted all over parks as well as all the person to person contact that we need people to deal with this new reality of social distancing.

We have been working closely with the state of New York and with the city council to make sure that we are able to maximize the education, maximize the enforcement, maximize the chance that people can continue to enjoy our parks and in particular our playgrounds. But it's also clear, as I said just a few days ago, that if that is not working out, if people are not abiding by the rules, if they're not listening to the warnings, we may get to the point in just days where we have to close the playgrounds for the duration of this crisis. It's not something I want to do, but it's something I'm ready to do if needed. We have agreed with the state of New York and the city council that we will give this process until Saturday evening. So, we'll have some warmer days coming up. We'll have a chance to see if people have gotten the message. We will be doing all the enforcement, but if by the end of Saturday, it is not sufficiently clear that New Yorkers are following these new rules, at that point we'll be prepared to shut down playgrounds for the foreseeable future. So, to everyone out there, to all the parents with kids, and again, I've made very clear, if you're living under the same roof, social distancing is different for you. Obviously, people who live under the same roof are going to be in close proximity all day, all night. You don't need to do the six feet apart out on the playground if it's a mother with her child, for example. But you do need to keep your distance from everybody else, and your child does as well. So, the rules are pretty straightforward. If people follow those rules, my hope is the playgrounds stay open. If they don't follow the rules, most assuredly, the playgrounds will be shut and we will make that decision by Saturday evening.

Also, in terms of our streets, we've worked with the state and with the city council on an initial effort to ensure that we can enforce a limited number of streets that will be opened up. This will be a pilot program. We'll do up to two streets per borough. And everyone wants to make sure that there are spaces for folks to get their exercise, to get fresh air. We also are quite clear there must be enforcement, so it has to be places that the NYPD and the other agencies can enforce effectively. We came to, I think, a very smart, workable agreement to do a limited number of sites around the five boroughs. See how it goes, see if the enforcement works while we're trying, of course, to do the enforcement everywhere else. We're going to, our goal is to get these up and running by Thursday at the, again, up to two sites per borough. Details will be announced, but the one thing for sure, every site can and will be enforced by the NYPD and other agencies. That obviously underlies our entire approach. So, you'll see that up and running in the next couple of days.

Let me turn now to something that there's just, I have to be very clear. There is no good news at all when it comes to the topic of our budget, our city budget. And I always say, you know, a budget reflects priorities and values, and the budget really means what we can do to serve people, what we can do to employ our public servants who do so much good for everybody else. How we can make people, can make sure people get what they need. Well, as I said yesterday, unfortunately I've had to instruct our Office of Management and Budget to immediately initiate a savings program, what's called a peg program, which requires agencies to have to, in a mandatory fashion, come up with savings. That goal. I want to use these words very, very specifically. That goal will be at least 1.3 billion dollars. And everyone who's listening knows that is real money. That's a huge amount of money. And that process has begun today with city agencies. And I say at least because that number may have to grow in the near future as we continue to lose revenue and see massive new expenses because of this crisis. But I wanted to give you that update. It's an unfortunate update, but it's the truth.

Something that is also related to the crisis we're going through, but I imagine people will be a much happier about, is that we have paid very close attention to parking on our streets, in particularly alternate side parking. The issue that is one of the things that New Yorkers feel very deeply, very personally. I know from my own experience in my own neighborhood trying to find that parking space and circling the block a lot of times over the years. We gave it a week to see how things would go and I'm happy to say that the results were very good. Even after a week we found that our city remains sufficiently clean, so we will extend for another week and now alternate side parking will be suspended through next Tuesday, March 31st. So, alternate side which has been suspended for the last seven days will be suspended for another seven days through Tuesday, March 31st. We're going to look at the situation week-by-week; we might do more extensive time periods depending on what we see. But I think the thing to expect right now is we'll try and deal with alternate side in chunks of time, at least a week at a time. But again, always watching to make sure that our city stays clean for everyone's benefit and it's important against the backdrop of something like this disease that we maintain real cleanliness in the city. So that's some good news, that alternate side is suspended through Tuesday, March 31st.

Now want to just speak proactively to an issue that might come up. I know our colleagues in the media have a lot of questions and I'll be turning to them in just a moment. But one issue has come up, which is very, very emotionally important, humanly important, important in terms of health. And that is the question of, for folks who are giving birth, families that are giving birth what are the protocols about whether a partner of the woman giving birth can be in the hospital room at that moment? This is a medical decision obviously. It is something where all of us who are not doctors need to defer to the medical community. The decision made by our public hospitals – our Health + Hospital system – is that partners should be allowed in for the process of labor and when a woman has given birth that is the official policy, but with some very clear guidelines that any partner in the hospital room when a woman has given birth must be wearing a surgical mask and that there is a clearance procedure to ensure that if any partner is symptomatic with the symptoms of coronavirus or of course if they have tested positive, then they would not be allowed in the room. So, I think that's very straightforward. If someone is healthy, then that partner is allowed in. If the partner is symptomatic or tests positive for coronavirus, they are not; we certainly hope and pray that happens to nobody or very few people so that partners can be there for that amazing life moment. To me, there's just no more important moment in your life than when a child is born, obviously. But we do need to protect the health of the mom and, and really make sure we handle that. Right, so that's the way our public hospitals will be going about it.

Another topic, and this is again, I'll often have tough updates for you, but this one is good news and this is related to transportation and all the critical essential workers who need to get around. Very happy to say that our colleagues from Citi Bike are offering them – folks who are essential workers – a free 30-day membership and the owners. Citi Bike, Lyft, I want to thank them and all like so many other private sector companies that are stepping up, thank them for that effort. I know they're going to extra effort to make sure those city bikes are stationed in the right places particularly for health care workers and [inaudible] extra effort to make sure the seat bikes are sanitized frequently. I want to thank you for all those efforts, everyone at Lyft and Citi Bike that really, really helps a lot.

Now, to a very important issue that has come up a number of times and I understand why it's a hugely important issue, which is our jail system. We have important and very sensitive and very complex decisions to make related to those who are incarcerated at this moment. I remind everyone the number of people in our jails right now is just over 5,000 as compared to over 11,000 when I first took office. So, thank God, it's less than half of what we used to have in terms of people incarcerated, but it's still a lot of people. My strong view is at this point, well I want to follow the exact same categories that I heard from Dr. Anthony Fauci in terms of those who are most in danger and obviously Dr. Fauci has done an extraordinary job during this crisis leading this country with the best information and guidance on how to address coronavirus. Dr. Fauci told me last week that anyone over 70 years old or anyone one of those five major preexisting conditions, those were the people most likely be in danger. This is my view, no one over 70, no one with any of those five preexisting conditions should be in our jail system right now. We have -to work through some very intense complicated legal issues case-by-case. In the case of those individuals, some I have the direct power to release. In other cases, that can only be done with the approval of the State of New York or a District Attorney. But that category of people, those in immediate danger because of the specific nature of coronavirus, I strongly believe they all should be released and we are working through those details immediately. I believe some have been in the group that's been released already – there’s 75 that have been released already - but we want to identify anyone in those categories and get them out immediately.  

Now, to the bigger picture – the reality is of the over 5,000 people in our correction system different inmates are in different statuses. There's been, I think some information put out that is not accurate about which are the group that I have the direct ability to release into a work release monitored and supervised program versus those who could only be released with the approval of the State of New York or a District Attorney. The group that I have direct ability to act on is those who are serving a city sentence and that means that they have gone to trial, they've been found guilty, they've been sentenced, and the sentence is under one year and they would serve that sentence on Rikers Island rather than serving that sentence in one of the upstate prisons, those of course are meant for people who did more serious offenses. Folks who are serving a sentence of up to one year on Rikers are individuals convicted of offenses such as misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. So, when we looked at that category of people there's over 500 inmates in that category. There is a substantial group that because of very specific legal issues I'm not able to immediately release, we would have to work through those case-by-case. There are some who have domestic violence charges or sexual offenses charges who I have determined we are not prepared to release at this time, although we'll continue to look at cases individually – I'm not comfortable releasing those individuals at this point. The remainder, are individuals who have been convicted of misdemeanors, nonviolent felonies, have less than a year left on their sentence - some have many months, some have only a few months, some have only weeks. But I'm going to treat this category across the board, it's approximately 300 inmates, and we will move to release those 300 inmates immediately. The other categories that I think are immediately areas to focus on in terms of potential release. In addition, as I said to those over 70 with preexisting conditions and those in the city sentenced category, there are those awaiting trial. There's a particular group of them about a hundred who should be considered immediately, but that will require actions by the district attorneys. We will work with them to determine the proper outcome quickly. And then there's another group of about 700 that are technical parole violators. We will be working with the State of New York that has to ultimately give approval. We'll be having that conversation to see if that is a group that can be acted on across the board or that needs to be handled in a more a specified manner. But certainly, that is an area where we think we could find a number of people who may be able to be released quickly. And we'll work closely with the state on that.

New York State Comptroller DiNapoli: Wall Street Bonuses and Profits Up Slightly in 2019, but Facing Sharp Fall in 2020

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The average bonus paid to employees in New York City’s securities industry increased by 3 percent in 2019 to $164,100, but it is likely to fall sharply in 2020 as the coronavirus crisis strains industry profitability, according to annual estimates released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
“The securities industry had a good year in 2019, but the serious damage that COVID-19 is inflicting on financial markets and the global economy will sharply reduce industry profits this year,” DiNapoli said. “The securities industry is integral to New York state’s and New York City’s economies, as a source of tax revenue and job creator in other industries. The state and the city need to prepare for the severe budgetary implications of the coronavirus crisis.”
The securities industry accounts for one-fifth of private sector wages in New York City, even though it is less than 5 percent of private sector employment. DiNapoli estimates that nearly 1 in 10 jobs in the city are either directly or indirectly associated with the securities industry.
As a major source of revenue, DiNapoli estimates that the securities industry accounted for 17 percent ($13.2 billion) of state tax collections in state fiscal year (SFY) 2019 and 6 percent ($3.7 billion) of city tax collections in city fiscal year (CFY) 2019.
After a 12 percent drop in 2018, DiNapoli estimates that the 2019 bonus pool for New York City securities industry workers increased by 3 percent to $29.3 billion during the traditional December-March bonus season. Bonuses fell by 33 percent in 2001 after 9/11 and by 47 percent in 2008 after the financial crisis. Bonuses have fallen four times since 2008, with an average decline of 12 percent.
Pretax profits in 2019 for the broker/dealer operations of New York Stock Exchange member firms (the traditional measure of securities industry profits) increased by 2.8 percent to $28.1 billion. It was the fourth consecutive year of growth in profits, which have nearly doubled since 2015. Recessions and economic shocks have historically damaged industry profitability, dimming the prospects for 2020. After 9/11, profits fell by 50 percent in 2001.
In 2019, employment in New York City’s securities industry increased by 2,100 jobs to 182,100. The industry has added jobs in five of the past six years, increasing employment by a net total of 16,200 jobs during this period. Nonetheless, securities industry employment is still 4 percent smaller than before the 2008 financial crisis. In response to the financial crisis, the securities industry eliminated 22,700 jobs in the city before job growth resumed.
DiNapoli’s office releases an annual estimate of bonuses paid during the traditional December through March bonus season to securities industry employees who work in New York City. Bonuses paid by firms to their employees located outside of New York City (whether in domestic or international locations) are not included. The Comptroller’s estimate is based on personal income tax withholding trends and includes cash bonuses for the current year and bonuses deferred from prior years that have been cashed in. The estimate does not include stock options or other forms of deferred compensation for which taxes have not been withheld.
DiNapoli also reported:
  • The Governor’s proposed budget had assumed that statewide bonuses for the broader finance and insurance sector would decline by 1.7 percent in SFY 2020 (ending March 31). Since the city’s securities industry makes up about three-quarters of the statewide bonus pool for finance and insurance, state tax collections from bonuses are likely to be higher than anticipated for the current fiscal year. The Executive budget had assumed that bonuses will increase by 3.3 percent in SFY 2021, but DiNapoli now expects a sharp decline.
  • New York City’s budget for CFY 2020 assumes that the bonus pool for securities industry employees in the city will increase by less than 1 percent in 2019. Based on DiNapoli’s estimate, tax revenue from securities industry bonuses could slightly exceed the city’s expectations. The city’s financial plan for next year assumes securities industry bonuses will increase by 3.3 percent in 2020, but that is unlikely given current developments.
  • The average salary (including bonuses) in the city’s securities industry declined by 5.6 percent to $398,700 in 2018 (the latest annual data available), yet it remained five times higher than the average in the rest of the private sector ($79,800). Nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of the industry’s employees in the city earned more than $250,000, compared with less than 3 percent in the rest of the city’s workforce.
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Annual Profits and Employment Chart                                                                                      
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