April 22, 2020 – Albany, NY – Governor Andrew M. Cuomo provides a coronavirus update during a press conference in the Red Room at the State Capitol. (Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)
ALBANY – A day after announcing New York will reopen its economy on a regional basis, but without providing a timetable, Gov. Andrew Cuomo today warned that the COVID-19 shutdown is “not going to be over anytime soon.”
“This is a profound moment. We make a bad move it’s going to set us back. I get the political pressure and I get the political pressure that local officials are under…. but we can’t make a bad decision. Frankly, this is no time to act stupidly, period,” Cuomo said. “I get the pressure, I get the politics. We can’t make a bad decision and we can’t be stupid about it… I know people want out, I get it. I know people want to get back to work. I know people need a paycheck. I know this is unsustainable. I also know that more people will die if we are not smart, I know that. I have to do that count every day of the number of people who passed away. We’re not going to have people lose their life because we acted imprudently. I’m not going to do that.”
Still, Cuomo said he’s not ready to say that schools will remain closed through the end of the school year in June.
His statewide shutdown order is scheduled to last through May 15 and the governor said it’s possible that schools in upstate regions could reopen sooner, but not without protocols to disinfect buildings and equipment, and to ensure that students engage in social distancing on school grounds. However, some school districts have already made plans to prepare for classes not resuming for the remainder of the school year, including Jamestown Public Schools.
As Cuomo delivered his daily coronavirus briefing, hundreds of demonstrators stood in the streets or in their vehicles, protesting New York’s stay-at-home order.
The demonstration, which lasted more than an hour, was part of a nationwide movement in which those frustrated with the continued closures of businesses, schools and social gatherings have flooded state capitals to demand their economies reopen immediately.
According to Johns Hopkins University, as of Thursday morning, there were 263,000 confirmed cases in New York and over 19,400 deaths.
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