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Cuomo and Trump Spar Over Coronavirus Aid to New York

The governor and the president got into a public war of words over virus projections, federal aid and testing capacity.

“They’re your projections, Mr. President.” Cuomo and Trump trade jabs.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and President Trump had a heated public exchange over federal aid to New York on Friday, using their favored communication channels: Mr. Cuomo’s daily briefing and Mr. Trump’s Twitter account.

Mr. Cuomo said at his briefing in Albany that New York could not fully reopen its economy without more widespread testing, which would require both supplies and an operational capacity that the health system does not currently have.

“We cannot do it without federal help,” the governor said. He said that expecting states to reopen without giving them money to do so amounted to “passing the buck without passing the bucks.”

Even before Mr. Cuomo had finished speaking, President Trump tweeted that the governor “should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining.’”

Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking! We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn’t need or use, gave large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

The president said that Mr. Cuomo had never thanked the federal government for its assistance.

Mr. Cuomo swatted down the criticism.

“First of all, if he’s sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” Mr. Cuomo said. “Second, let’s keep emotion and politics out of this, and personal ego if we can. Because this is about the people.”

Mr. Cuomo acknowledged that Mr. Trump had moved quickly to mobilize the resources to build a 2,500-bed field hospital in the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

The governor disputed the idea that the hospital had not been used, saying that 800 patients had been sent there, and pointed out that the number of beds set up in the facility was based on federal projections.

Mr. Cuomo harnessed the power of his ever-present slide show to display a graphic of federal projections that showed even in a best-case scenario, the virus would kill at least 100,000 Americans.

“They’re your projections, Mr. President,” Mr. Cuomo said. “If we were foolish for listening to you, then shame on us.”

Mr. Cuomo said that he had already repeatedly thanked the federal government for its assistance.

”I don’t know what I’m supposed to do — send a bouquet of flowers?” he asked. “Thank you again, Mr. President, for the Javits. Thank you for the U.S. Navy ship Comfort, which is just doing your job as president.

It’s not really thank you like you wrote a check yourself, but thank you.”

Mr. Cuomo noted that the federal government was giving a $25 billion bailout to the airline industry and demanded the same treatment for states that are fighting the virus.

“Why don’t you show as much consideration to states as you did to your big businesses and to your airlines?” he said.

Mr. Trump got in a last word, tweeting that Mr. Cuomo had “ridiculously” requested 40,000 ventilators when the state has so far needed far fewer.

Cuomo ridiculously wanted “40 thousand Ventilators”. We gave him a small fraction of that number, and it was plenty. State should have had them in stockpile!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

The president and the governor had traded verbal blows earlier this week, after Mr. Cuomo and six other governors formed a coalition to plan for restarting their economies. Mr. Trump had responded that he possessed “total” authority as president to tell states when to reopen.

But Mr. Cuomo said on Tuesday he would not continue fighting with the president, and Mr. Trump later said that the states could make reopening decisions themselves.
New Jersey’s four-day death toll: 1,400.

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said on Friday that another 323 people had died of the virus, pushing the state’s recorded deaths to more than 1,400 in the last four days.

New Jersey has seen a sharp climb in virus-related deaths over the last week. Since last Friday, the death toll has nearly doubled, to 3,840 from 1,933.

“This is now more than five times the number of New Jerseyans we lost on 9/11,” Mr. Murphy said.

The spike in deaths has come even as data suggested that the state was making progress in slowing the virus’s spread, Mr. Murphy said.

There were 3,250 new virus cases reported Friday, 1,150 fewer than the day before. The state’s total is now at 78,467.

There were 8,011 virus patients in hospitals, about 200 fewer than the number reported on Thursday.

And there were 1,594 patients on ventilators, slightly lower than the day before.

The state health commissioner, Judith Persichilli, said that cases seemed to have peaked already in the northern part of the state, which has been hit hardest.

“We’re cautiously optimistic and hopefully optimistic that we’re leveling off,” she said. “In the north, we have seen the peak, but we have not seen it in the central and south. But it’s coming.”

To help hospitals fight the virus, Mr. Murphy said that New Jersey would begin issuing temporary licenses to allow foreign-licensed doctors to practice. He said New Jersey was the first state in the nation to do so.
Connecticut passes 1,000 virus deaths.

Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut said Friday that more than 1,000 people had died of the coronavirus, a grim benchmark that comes as the state seeks to ramp up testing and plan its eventual reopening.

Like several of his fellow governors, Mr. Lamont cited other statistics — like a second consecutive day of a small net change in hospitalizations — as reason to believe that the virus’s spread was slowing. But with 65 newly reported deaths, the virus-related death toll in Connecticut rose to 1,036.

“It’s a milestone tragic day,” Mr. Lamont said at his daily briefing, asking that people take a moment to say a prayer for families of the deceased.

In a statement issued after the briefing, the governor announced that Connecticut’s presidential primary would be rescheduled for a second time, to Aug. 11. It was originally scheduled to be held April 28 before being pushed back initially to June 2.

Mr. Lamont also announced that the state had opened its first “rapid testing” site at a former community college campus in New Haven. The drive-through testing location, operated by CVS, would offer up to 750 free tests each day to people who register online in advance, he said.

“We’re doing everything we can as a state to roll out the testing in a more aggressive way,” Mr. Lamont said, echoing some of his fellow governors’ frustration with the level and speed of aid from Washington. “I can’t wait for the feds any longer.”
Some N.Y.C. lawmakers want to close 75 miles of streets to cars.

New York City would limit or eliminate vehicle traffic on at least 75 miles of streets to make more room for people to be outside and maintain social distancing under proposed legislation in the City Council.

The proposal, set to be introduced on Wednesday, is co-sponsored by the Council speaker, Corey Johnson, a Democrat who is expected to run for mayor.

The plan follows a short-lived city pilot program that had closed stretches of four major thoroughfares — totaling less than 2 miles — to give people more room for social distancing.

Mayor de Blasio suspended that program, saying there was not enough turnout to justify the use of police resources on the blocked-off streets.

Since then, Mr. Johnson has repeatedly said that he wanted to bring back the street closings and expand them to nearly every neighborhood in the city.
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If the proposal is approved by the council, it would go to the mayor, who could approve or veto it.

“New Yorkers don’t have the street space they need to maintain proper social distancing, which we know is essential in this public health crisis,” Mr. Johnson said.

He added: “Other cities across the country and around the world have demonstrated that this is doable. There is no reason we can’t do this here.”
Another 630 deaths in New York, but hospitalizations are dropping.

Even as he announced another 630 people in New York had died of the coronavirus, Governor Cuomo said on Friday that indicators of progress were continuing to improve.

The number of virus patients in hospitals in New York state has dropped by more than 1,500 since Monday.

And the three-day average number of hospitalized virus patients, considered one of the most reliable measures of the fight against the virus, dropped for the third straight day, by its biggest margin yet — almost 3 percent.

Still, the governor noted that the number of virus patients newly admitted to hospitals has remained high, at nearly 2,000 per day.

The 630 deaths, an increase from the 606 reported Thursday, brought the state’s death toll from the outbreak to 12,822.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/nyregion/coronavirus-new-york-update.html
She visited her husband every day. Then the visits stopped.