New York State registers 758 more deaths from coronavirus

By Yoshita Singh

New York, Apr 12 () New York State registered 758 more deaths from coronavirus in the last 24 hours as Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday stressed that he will work with New Jersey and Connecticut on a coordinated plan to reopen the economy that also safeguards public health.

The state is witnessing mixed results as change in total number of hospitalizations is down but the ICU admissions and intubations ticked up.

"You're not seeing a great decline in the numbers, but you're seeing a flattening. And you're also seeing a recurrence of the terrible news, which is the number of lives lost, which is 758" on April 11, Cuomo said.

More than 180,458 people are infected with the virus in the state and the death toll now stands at 9,385.

Cuomo said the big question on everyone's mind is when will the economy reopen. "People want to get on with their lives, people want to get out of the house. (They have) cabin fever. We need the economy working, people need a paycheck. Life has to function," he said at his daily briefing.

The Governor stressed that he wants to reopen the state and the economy as soon as possible.

"Let's just end this nightmare right. (It's like) Groundhog Day. You get up every day, it's the same routine, you almost lose track of what day of the week it is because they don't even have meaning anymore," he said making a reference to the movie.

Cuomo underscored that the "caveat" in re-opening the economy is that one has to be "smart in the way we reopen" and there is need for a coordinated, regional and safe approach.

"Nobody wants to pick between a public health strategy and an economic strategy. And as governor of the state, I'm not going to pick one over the other, we need a public health strategy that is safe, consistent with an economic strategy," he said.

He emphasized that the last thing New York needs is an uptick in the infection rate and hospitalization numbers that the state has worked so hard to bring down. "So we need a strategy that coordinates business and schools and transportation and workforce," he said.

Reopening the state and moving people back in the workforce would require more and faster testing as well as federal help, he said.

Cuomo said he will be coordinating with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont later Sunday on coming up with a "reopening plan that is a public health plan, safeguards public health but also starts to move us towards economic activation."

He said the state will also pass an executive order which directs employers to provide essential workers with a cloth or surgical face mask free of cost to their employees when they are interacting with the public.

The Governor and Mayor Bill de Blasio also continued to disagree over when to open public schools across the state. De Blasio has said the schools will remain closed for the reminder of the academic year but Cuomo has said the Mayor does not get to decide when the schools can be opened again.

Cuomo said reopening schools, businesses and transportation had to be coordinated regionally because "you can't restart the economy without fully restarting schools." YAS ZHZH