New York state will implement a phased plan for reopening its economy as the state continues to combat the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.

The state has reported 630 deaths from the virus since yesterday. The coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected 229,642 and killed at least 12,800 in New York state.

The phased plan begins with decreasing the infection rate of COVID-19 in the state, the governor said at a briefing. The infection rate refers to the number of healthy people that can contract the virus from one infected person. New York state’s current infection rate is .9. At 1.2, there’s a higher risk of another outbreak, Cuomo said.

Confirmed cases of the virus are continuing to increase in the state by about 2,000 each day, while the number of total hospitalizations is declining, the governor said.

“We’re still in (phase one). We’re moving to another place,” Cuomo said.

The next phase of the plan involves conducting more large-scale testing, an effort that continues to pose a challenge to the state, Cuomo said. There are 301 private labs and hospitals with licenses to conduct COVID-19 tests, but it’s been difficult to transform the facilities into a unified system, he said.

The state must increase its testing capacity to identify and isolate all individuals who come in contact with the virus, he said.

“We don’t have a testing system that can be ramped up to do this volume,” Cuomo said. “We don’t have a public health testing system.”

Parts of the state that are seeing fewer confirmed cases may be able to reopen sooner than those that have higher numbers, Cuomo said. The governor said he’s concerned people will flock to regions once they’re open.

“You do have parts of the state that are in a fundamentally different situation,” Cuomo said. “(If we) open too fast, bring people out too fast, we’re right back to where we started.”

The number of confirmed deaths will continue to rise in nursing homes, where people who are most vulnerable to the virus often live, Cuomo said. For this reason, the state wants to increase testing among health care workers exposed to the virus, he said.

The COVID-19 tests involve chemicals that are mostly manufactured in China, Cuomo said. The state needs federal assistance to help import the needed supplies, he said.

“The federal government cannot wipe their hands of this and say the states are responsible for testing,” Cuomo said. “I don’t do international supply chain, and that’s where the federal government can help.”

Cuomo criticized the federal government for not providing enough financial resources to the state. Of the three federal bills passed in response to the outbreak, not one provided states with unlimited funding, which is an issue, he said.

The state is working to stabilize its finances, the governor said. New York state is currently in a tremendous deficit, he said.

“When you starve the state governments, we can’t fund schools, we can’t fund small businesses. It makes no sense,” Cuomo said. “We need to support the states because the states are the ones doing this.”

President Donald Trump has criticized Cuomo for asking for more hospital beds than needed. The governor said at the briefing that the state was listening to projections from sources, such as the White House coronavirus task force, that were higher than others.

The state’s goal after reopening its economy is not to return to normal, but to make long-needed reforms to improve public health and emergency response systems for the future, Cuomo said.

“We never had to deal with a pandemic before,” Cuomo said. “You take the moment, you learn that lesson, and you improve society.”

Published on April 17, 2020 at 9:48 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan