Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Governor Cuomo's Media Availability

May 29, 2020

Governor Andrew Cuomo: The numbers have not gone up. Why? Because people have been smart and we have to continue to be smart. And we're going to be doing this in New York City with our partners and I want to thank the Mayor very much and his team very much. Everybody in government has been working overtime and none of us have been here before, but we are figuring it out and I'm proud of the way New York is figuring it out. We wish we were never here, but once we were here, we have made the best of it, and we should be proud. And the Mayor is looking fit, and healthy, and rested. I don't know why, but he's looking extraordinarily good and it's good to be with him in this new way of everyone is virtual, everyone is Zoom. But it's not the virtual mayor, it is the real mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio. Good to be with you, Mayor.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you so much, Governor. Governor, I'm worried that the coronavirus is affecting your eyesight, because I feel –

[Laughter]

I think last 90 days for all of us – a lot of long days. I know you and your team worked extraordinarily hard and I think we all – we all look a little less than ideal. Thank you – I want to say, first of all, thank you, Governor. Thank you to your whole team for the extraordinary work that’s happened over these last months. And, as you said, our teams talk all day long with a lot of common purpose and we've done really important work with the same strategic view, the same approach. I want to thank you for that. We are excited to get to the point of a restart for New York City. And when I talk to the people of this city this morning, I told them that the indicators are moving absolutely in the right direction, but that the key to getting to a point, a definition for that phase one came from the collaboration between you and me and the State and the City to all get on the same page and make sure that we were confident that it was the right time to do it. You and I have talked and I think we are absolutely on the same page. The fact is, Governor, you've talked about the condition of the State and how incredibly different it is than even a month or two ago. I just want you to hear this good news about the City, our own health department indicators. We have set a threshold that we want to be under 200 new hospital admissions each day to know we’re in a safe zone. Today, Governor, only 61 new patients for COVID-19, or similar diseases. That's breathtaking how far we've come on that. But we also have said we want to be below 15 percent of all new tests – positive results for the people taking those tests. And, Governor, you know, with your help, we've all been doing more and more testing every day. Literally, exponential growth. Today's number will bring a smile to your face – only five percent of those tested, tested positive in New York City. So, these are great indicators. The third one, we still have a little work to do, but I'm very confident and I know you are too, and that's the number of people in our public hospital ICU’s. This morning, Governor, we announced that threshold, that 375 threshold, we were damn close at 391 patients. But, as you and I have discussed, we've got about 40 patients that actually can be cared for outside of ICU’s in a different setting that gives them the long-term care they need. We're going to work with your team and the State to figure out the right way to do that. Those folks will appropriately come off the number. That's going to put us under that threshold.

Now, when you add all that together, as you and I have discussed, we are on now the gateway to the next big step. And, Governor, as I affirmed to you, we're going to spend this coming week going out to the businesses in New York City that would be part of phase one. We're going to be providing them with free face coverings. We're going to be providing them with a hotline where any employer can call to figure out how to address those practical questions. I've given a lot of credit to you and your team for the guidance you've put out around phase one. I think it's very clear, very helpful. We're going to have human beings follow up, real people from the City government going out and talking to businesses about how to make it real and how to put your practice, answering their questions, if we see something that's not right, helping them correct it. But we're going to do the same for working people. We're going to have a hotline for workers to make sure they're safe and they're getting the support they need.

So, as you and I have discussed, this next week we will be able to implement all of that – a lot of hands-on direct work with small businesses and working people and labor unions to make sure everyone's ready. And then, I share your confidence that in the week of June 8th we'll be ready to go. Obviously, if the indicators keep working in the right direction, we want to keep seeing that evidence that you said many times I agree with you – data, data, data. But everything you and I have seen in recent days points to that week of June 8th as being that moment of restart and we're going to work with you every step of the way to get there and we're feeling very good about it and I look forward to celebrating with you as New York City begins to reopen.

Governor Cuomo: Hear, hear. Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you. Good to be with you.