85 Cases Of New Coronavirus In The Hudson Valley: Cuomo

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — At 11:30 a.m. Sunday, the number of new coronavirus cases had risen as expected in New York State. There were 105 total confirmed cases, most of them in the Hudson Valley.

At a news conference in Long Island to demand the federal government authorize private laboratories to help expanded testing, Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked citizens to do what they can to reduce "density" — including avoiding packed trains.

Cuomo said the number of cases of what's known officially as COVID-19 had risen as expected from 89 Saturday evening. The geographic breakdown as of 11:30 a.m. Sunday was Westchester - 82; New York City - 12; Nassau County - 5; Rockland County - 2 Saratoga County - 2; Suffolk County - 1; Ulster County - 1.

Cuomo called the Westchester cases a "warning flag," noting that nearly all are connected. The state is trying to contain the spread of the virus by finding more positive tests and isolating those people to avoid "massively disruptive" mass quarantines, he said.

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Cuomo asked companies to tell workers about liberal sick-leave policies and urged them to allow people to work from home if they feel ill. He reminded residents about the importance of washing their hands to curb the spread and to avoid shaking hands. Furthermore, he asked public transit-riders to avoid tightly packed cars, and even consider letting a train go by if they see it's filled.

"We're trying to reduce density," he said."What happened in Westchester County is a person who was positive was in a very large gathering. People got infected and they went to very large gatherings. An infected person in a large gathering can infect many people quickly. That's what we're seeing in Westchester. That's why we want to avoid density."

They're also trying to increase the number of tests they can do daily.

State officials said they are increasingly frustrated with the slowness of the federal response to the virus. First, they weren't ready for people to carry the virus from China, then they were slow to allow states to do testing, Cuomo said. Now, they have delayed responding to the state's requests to allow private labs to help and to allow automated tests instead of requiring manual testing.

"Now we're saying the testing is more than the state lab can handle, let us bring in private labs to help with the testing," Cuomo said, standing in Northwell Health's state-of-the-art lab. "This is the most sophisticated lab in the state of New York, one of the most sophisticated in the United States of America. CDC has not authorized the use of this lab, which is just outrageous and ludicrous."

The priorities for testing are anyone who's traveled to the countries of concern, anyone in contact with someone who tested positive, and anyone in a hospital who has tested negative for other viruses, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said.

"We are working to do more testing as quickly as possible to find the people who are infected and help contain the spread of the virus," Cuomo said. "There are going to be more cases because we are testing more people - that's a good thing because then we can deal with the situation based on more facts. We know about 80 percent of those infected will self-resolve. The best way to calm anxieties is to demonstrate absolute government competence, and that's exactly what we're doing."

Cuomo directed the New York State Department of State's Consumer Protection Division to launch an investigation into reports of unfair price increases of consumer products such as household cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer during the novel coronavirus outbreak, and launched a toll-free hotline — 1-800-697-1220 — for New Yorkers to report suspected price gouging.

Cuomo declared a state of emergency Saturday. The state of emergency declaration allows, among other things:

• Expedited procurement of cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer and other essential resources
• Allowing qualified professionals other than doctors and nurses to conduct testing
• Expedited procurement of testing supplies and equipment
• Expedited personnel onboarding
• Expedited leasing of lab space
• Allowing EMS personnel to transport patients to quarantine locations other than just hospitals
• Providing clear basis for price gouging and enforcement investigation

Cuomo also reiterated he's most concerned about vulnerable people, such as seniors, people with underlying conditions and those with weak immune systems.

Dr. Robert Amler, a dean at New York Medical College and former chief medical officer at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, told Patch this week the public's overall risk in New York and in the rest of the United States remains low — even "very low."

"Even if exposure occurs, even if infection occurs, for the vast majority of people the risk is still low," he said.

Editor's Note: Dr. Robert Amler is a dean at New York Medical College. The school was mis-identified in the original version of this article. Patch regrets the error.

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