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Three Top Members Of Coronavirus Task Force In Quarantine; Gov. Cuomo (D-NY) Updates New York's Response To COVID-19; Gov. Cuomo: New York Taking Additional Steps To Protect Nursing Homes. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired May 10, 2020 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
BRIAN STELTER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a quick program to note about next Sunday, an incredible documentary about "The National Enquirer." It's called "Scandalous." And it's premiering here on CNN, next Sunday night. You're going to make sure to tune in.
Thanks for joining us on RELIABLE SOURCES. STATE OF THE UNION is next and as soon as Andrew Cuomo begins his daily briefing, we'll bring it to you live.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Rush to reopen. Most of the U.S. takes steps towards reopening as the economic hardships grow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Each unemployed person is a person whose life is in turmoil.
TAPPER (voice-over): But without more steps to combat the virus still claiming thousands of American lives each day, will reopening work? White House senior adviser Kevin Hassett and Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker are next.
And race for a cure. Researchers rush to discover a COVID vaccine which could be the key to ending the crisis.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we had a vaccine, that would be helpful.
TAPPER (voice-over): When can Americans expect a breakthrough. Regeneron Pharmaceutical CEO, Dr. Leonard Schleifer coming up.
Plus, devastating tape. Two Georgia men arrested for murder months after a deadly shooting. Why did justice take so long for Ahmaud Arbery? Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington where the state of our union is confused. This morning, there are more than 1.3 million cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and more than 78,000 Americans dead. The grim metrics come as states across the country are beginning to loosen their restrictions and President Trump is urging Americans to start resuming normal life. But the administration, to be frank, cannot even get control of this pandemic within the White House.
Late Saturday we learned three top members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Redfield who heads the CDC, Dr. Hann who heads the FDA and Dr. Fauci will now go into some form of quarantine after exposure to a White House staffer who tested positive. There are now two confirmed cases of COVID-19 among White House staff members.
And while we wish them a speedy recovery, it is worth pointing out that the White House benefits from surveillance testing and contact tracing. Working hard to contain the spread at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to keep those two aides from spreading the virus to say President Trump and yet President Trump is refusing to heed the warnings of those on his task force calling for him to mobilize an aggressive testing program so that the public too is able to benefit from surveillance testing and contact tracing.
So, for instance, you are safer at work or church and your kids are better protected at school or at camp this summer. The lack of widespread organized testing is making it especially hard for Americans and businesses to feel safe as we all begin to reopen.
And that's an issue that could have long lasting economic consequences as the nation is already facing the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. With news on Friday that more than 20 million jobs were lost in the month of April.
I want to get straight to -- straight to White House senior adviser Kevin Hassett to talk about the economic recovery. Kevin, but I have to start. I have to ask you, given these two new cases reported in the White House and key task force doctors self-quarantining, do you regularly wear a mask when you're at the White House and are you concerned about your health and safety going to work at the White House?
KEVIN HASSETT, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know really, Jake, as you know, that back in March I was still a CNN employee and didn't expect to go back in the White House. But there was an emergency. They called me back in and I built a giant data operation to help everybody track the ventilators and things like that.
And I knew when I was going back in that I would be taking risks that you know I'd be safer sitting at home in my house than going into a West Wing that even with all the testing in the world and the best medical team on earth is a relatively cramped place.
We setup a big data operation on the basement when I got there. And we're interacting constantly with people who are going to and from FEMA. Right at the beginning when we were there, there were some people who got COVID at FEMA. So, we've all been exposing ourselves to risks. You know, we're under the best guidance we could possibly have to keep us safe. But we're willing to take that chance because we love our country.
And I think that you know there are things that have to happen in that West Wing even if the building is a little bit old and under ventilated and so on. And so, yes, I absolutely have a mask in my pocket. I can wave it at you right now. And I practice the social distancing. I wear mask when I feel it's appropriate and so on.
There - you know the mask issue is a significant one but recalled it that when to get in with the president that you have to test negative.
[12:05:04]
And there's - according to what the doctors told be, not a lot of evidence that you -- can pass the virus. So, you have enough viral load to pass it if you test negative. And so, I think that its sound medical judgment that is urging people to be that way. And it's not my judgment but that's what I've been told.
TAPPER: So, the White House and White House employees benefit from surveillance testing which is nonstop testing of individuals just to make sure you haven't contracted it and contact tracing, for instance those doctors Fauci, Redfield, Hahn --
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. I want to go straight to New York and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for his Sunday briefing.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): That's great news. The new COVID cases, which is a different problem than the number of people who are in hospitals. This is how many new cases are showing up every day, which has been still very high is down to 521 and that is down. 521 takes us right back to where we started this hellish journey, right?
March 20th is when we did the close down order. And where we are today is basically, with the number of new cases, it's basically right where we were when we started. So, it has been a painful period of time between March 20th and May 9th. The optimist would say, yes, but it's only March 20th to May 9th. Pessimist would say but lot of pain, high cost, loss of life. The realist would be somewhere in the middle.
But all of this work, all of this progress of turning that tide of reducing the rate of infection. That's all thanks to New Yorkers and what New Yorkers did. Number of deaths, 207. Still terribly high but better. The number of deaths, 207. Takes us back to almost where we started about a week as the number of deaths started to increase. You could see early in March, 27 deaths. Then how quickly it went up. 38, 42, 56, 76, 101, 130, 207.
So, just to give you a perspective of where we are today versus where we were. One of our top priorities is protecting people in nursing homes and seniors. This is where this virus feeds. It's where this virus started. When it started in the state of Washington. We have implemented many safety measures, many of which have been difficult to implement. But we did it for health reasons.
Restricting visitation except for end of life visits. This is a tough policy and I had serious qualms about it to tell you the truth, but the health officials were right. Yes, you want visitation. No, you don't want to walk a virus into a nursing home that could kill the person you're going to visit.
PPE requirements, all staff have to been checked going to a nursing home every 12 hours. All facilities most notify families within 24 hours, separate facilities with residents from staff and the event of an outbreak. We provided them with millions of pieces of PPE equipment.
This is a national problem, right? Nursing homes, generally, all across the country have seen the COVID virus take a high toll. New York has one of the highest populations of nursing home residents of any state in the country. Over 100,000 residents, but New York's percentage of deaths in nursing homes is the 34th highest of any state. So, if you look at the states and the percentages of people who died in nursing homes as a percentage of that death. New York is number 34. None of this is good news.
[12:10:00]
But just to give you a context of what people are looking at. This virus uses nursing homes. They are ground zero. They are the vulnerable population in the vulnerable location, right? It's a congregation of vulnerable people.
Today, we're taking additional steps to protect seniors in nursing homes. First, I want people to understand how a nursing home operates, vis-a-vis the state. The most vulnerable population deserves the highest level of care, right?
So, the rule is very simple. If a nursing home cannot provide care for a person and provide the appropriate level of care for any reason, they must transfer the person out of the facility. If they can't find another facility, they can call the state Department of Health.
So, what does this mean? If they don't have enough staff. If they don't have enough PPE. If they're facility doesn't allow for isolation or quarantine. Whatever it is, if they cannot provide the proper care, they must, they must transfer the resident. Period. If they have a COVID positive person and they can't treat a COVID positive person, they must transfer the person or call the state Department of Health and the state Department of Health will transfer that person.
All nursing home staff must now be tested twice a week. That's not just the temperature check. That is a diagnostic test. We have the tests available. We have brought them online. The state is more testing capacity than any state in the country.
They have to test their staff twice a week. That is a rule. It's not a I'd appreciate it if you did. Hospitals, going forward cannot discharge a patient to a nursing home unless the patient tests negative for COVID-19. So, we're just not going to send a person who is positive to a nursing home after a hospital visit. Period.
Remember, I'm want the nursing home operators to understand this. We have alternative facilities for nursing home patients, COVID or non- COVID. Remember what we did here. We created 40,000 hospital beds because we had to. We had 50,000 bed capacity system. The early projections were we would need 110,000 beds, 140,000 beds. We created 40,000 additional beds, minimum. So, we have beds available.
We also set up COVID only facilities. So, we have available COVID only facilities that could accept nursing home residents. We're not reducing the number of hospital beds that we have available. We've always had more hospital beds available than we've used. Always. There's not been a day that we didn't have more beds available than we have used.
So, if a nursing home cannot take care of a person, we have facilities that can. And I understand the nursing home's perspective but if they cannot provide the appropriate care, they have to call the Department of Health and let's get that resident into an appropriate facility. I can't be more direct about that.
We have available COVID only facilities upstate as well as down state. So, we have the facilities available. If there's any issue, the resident must be referred to the Department of Health which will find alternative care.
If a nursing home operator does not follow these procedures, they will lose their license. Well, that's harsh. No. Harsh is having a nursing home resident who doesn't get the appropriate care. That's what's harsh. Having someone's parent or mother or brother in a situation where they're in a facility. They can't even get a visitor. They're isolated. They feel alone and they're not getting the appropriate care. That is what is harsh.
[12:15:00]
And if that's what happens then that facility operator should lose their license. I have no problem with that. I was the attorney general. I did investigations of nursing homes. I have tremendous respect for what they do. But this is the essence of their responsibility and obligation.
Again, we have the facilities. We have the beds. It's not like a situation where there were no options. We have options. And we want to use them. So, if there's any reason why you can't provide appropriate care, let us know and we will put them in a facility that has it.
Also, this is an issue that people need to be aware of. New York state is investigating 85 cases of a COVID related illness in children. Mostly toddler to elementary schools. It's symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease. What they call Kawasaki disease are toxic shock like syndrome.
This does not present as a normal COVID case. COVID cases tend to be respiratory. This presents as an inflammation of the blood vessels. Sometimes inflammation of the heart. It's possible that these cases were coming in and were not diagnosed as related to COVID because they don't appear as COVID. But it is a situation that has taken the lives of three New Yorkers. They're additional - two additional deaths that are currently under investigation as possibly related to the same situation.
The New York State Department of Health is going to notify all the other state Department of Health. Every state has a state Department of Health. They will notify their counterparts in other states to put them on notice of this. Again, we've recently found this and are investigating it. But it may be possible and it may even be probable that this is a situation that exists in other states and we want to make sure that they are aware of it.
New York State Department of Health is also actively pursuing a new drug therapy. Remdesivir has been showing to have some positive effect. And we're desperately looking for a treatment for this virus.
So, the CDC has started tests on this drug and New York state is working with HHS, Health and Human Services on the federal side, administering to 2,900 people at 15 hospitals. And we're looking for more doses to start with an additional 500 people.
This week is May 15th. May 15th, the PAUSE order, the close down order expires. We're looking region to region across the state as to where would be appropriate to reopen. This state, we have a clear uniform set of criteria. It's the same all across the state. So, it's all science based. It's all data based. And we'll look at those numbers. We'll look at those data points to see where it's safe to open.
Local governments should start to look at two things. Citizens also. Of those factors that we look at, many factors are just the rate of spread of the infection. And they're just purely linked to the rate of spread of the infection.
Second set of factors looks to the capacity of local government. Do they have enough hospital beds open in case that infection rate goes up? Do they have the testing tracing, isolation that we have all been talking about for weeks and weeks and weeks?
Do they have that operation in place? And do they have a compliance function in place where when we say manufacturing businesses can open but people must be six feet apart that they can actually monitor those businesses to make sure there's compliance?
So, one -- factor one are just the numbers. Infection rate, et cetera. And everybody knows what is in different parts across the state. Factor two is what local governments have to do to be ready and working together with their counterparts in that region. And we'll be speaking to this more tomorrow because May 15th comes at the end of the week.
Also, this week, Washington is going to be considering additional legislation. That is essential to what we're all trying to accomplish here.
[12:20:03]
The president has made it clear that the reopening is up to the states. It's up to the governors and I've been working with governors all across the country and by in large the people believe the governors are doing what they need to do.
But you can't ask someone to do that which they cannot do, right? You can't ask someone to do something that is beyond their capacity, beyond their limits. We can handle the reopening but every state, almost every state has a significant financial problem because of the loss of revenue due to the economy. Think of how a state works. You close down businesses. Their income drops. They're not paying an income tax. The state revenue drop proportionately.
And that is what has happened. You look at our economy was doing great. Really great in this state. But then comes the COVID virus and the impact on our financial plan is about $61 billion. We then have to pay for all of this COVID related work, all this hospital work and testing and everything that's going on. That's about another $5 billion per year.
We then have essential state agencies that are operating that also have taken a tremendous financial loss. The MTA operates the subways and buses, collects revenue from tolls when people go over bridges or tunnels or through tunnels. Yes, ridership is down 92 percent. And cars aren't driving and not paying their tolls. Tremendous revenue loss at the MTA. Port authority, tremendous revenue loss at airports.
So, the economic impact is beyond anything that any state can deal with. If the federal government doesn't help the states, then you're forcing the states to cut funding and the places where the state normally funds will suffer. If they force me to cut funding, I have to reduce the funding to schools, to local governments and to hospitals.
Why would you ever want to reduce funding to these essential agencies at this time, right? And why would you make me allocate pain among schools, hospitals, and local governments? It makes no sense at all. New York alone would need about $35 billion this year just to compensate for the total amount of losses.
And when you look at Washington and what Washington has done in the past. In the past legislation they've passed. When I say they treat it like pork barrel, why? I was in Washington for eight years in the Clinton administration. Everything becomes a political game. Every piece of legislation becomes a political game.
So, when they pass the pass legislation, the money they sent to states was supposed to be for COVID. The whole exercise was this was to compensate for what happened during the COVID virus. They just play politics. And everybody put money in for their home state.
So, when you look at what they actually accomplished, states like Alaska got like a hundred times what New York got for funding, right? We got about $23,000 for every COVID case. But states that didn't have many COVID cases also received a tremendous amount of funding. Our friends in Kentucky, $337,000 for every COVID case. Yes, we got $23,000.
So, it's -- what they have done in the past made no sense. Also, what they have done in the past is what they always - it seems wind up doing. They bailed out corporate America. That's what they did. You look at the past legislation. They bailed out corporate America. This legislation, this week going forward, let them fund working Americans. Because that's the need. You look at the past legislation. They funded hotels, restaurants, airlines, big corporations, public companies. Now it turns out they funded a tax break for millionaires in the COVID response legislation. That's what they did. Yes. And they didn't fund state and local governments. So, who does state and local governments fund?
[12:25:00]
I fund police, firefighters, nurses, schools, teachers, and food banks. You took care of corporate America. And I don't even want to go through that. But now you're going to starve police and fire and hospitals and schools. Everybody applauds the healthcare workers but now you don't want to provide any funding.
Separate, last point on Washington. Don't make the same mistake twice. Don't do what this nation did after the 2007-2008 mortgage crisis bailout where the government bailed out all these bankers and corporations that made a fortune running a mortgage scam. And then when the mortgage scam collapsed and the banks were going to go bankrupt then the taxpayers had to come in and fund the banks. How does this make sense?
The banks make all profit on the way up. They then get into trouble on the mortgage fraud and we have to bail them out and who's going to bail them out? The taxpayers are going to bail them out. No. It's not that they reap all the profit on the way up and then the taxpayers provide a golden parachute on the way down.
That has to stop. There should be no subsidy for any corporation that lays off employees. Period. Because I'll tell you what's going to happen. You will see corporations using this pandemic to lay off workers. That's what you will see because they are already saying it to the market analysts. We're going to get lean during this period. We're going to right size during this period.
What does that mean? It means they're not going to rehire the same number of employees so they're going to boost their corporate profits by reducing the number of employees. That's what it means. That's what it means.
Government should not subsidize their reduction of employees and when they reduce employees, government is supposed to now subsidize those employees. Unemployment insurance, et cetera. We did it once. We can't do it again.
Here is my suggestion to my colleagues in Washington. The Americans first law. If the corporation does not rehire the same number of employees, no government money. All the billions that they just gave out, if you don't rehire the same number of employees you had pre- pandemic, you have to return those funds.
We're not going to subsidize you to lay off workers. If you can lay off workers and you're saving money by laying off workers, you don't need the American taxpayer to subsidize you. Otherwise, you'll never get those employment numbers back. Because that's what's going to happen all across the country. And we keep going because we're New York tough. We are smart, united, disciplined, and we are loving. Every time I say we are loving. I think people must think that's a strange word for a government official to be talking about that we are loving. You never hear government talking about loving. You never hear a lot of people talk about loving or love.
But at this time, where we're all going through so much pain and so much stress and so much anxiety and we're at a place where we have never before, it's probably the one thing we need more than anything else. And it's not easy to talk about love.
That's why I put it with New York tough. It's not easy to talk about love. I need love - show that vulnerability. It's hard to do that. That's why in some ways you have to be tough to be able to talk about love.
But we all need it now. Because this is hard on everyone. It is hard. I don't care who you are. You can be the governor of the state, a healthcare worker, a public employee, a daughter of a governor, a son. It is hard on everyone. And love is the one thing that can make everything better. And the one thing we need.
When I said, "Today is day 71?" with a question mark because today is not really just day 71.
[12:30:00]
Today is Mother's Day. And that dwarves all else. Day 71, day 70, day 69. It's Mother's Day. And for me, you want to talk about love. The personification of love for me has always been my mother.
My father was loving in his way. But he was not warm and cuddly kind of loving. My mother has just always been pure love. Just pure sweetness, pure goodness, pure affirmation, unconditional love. Whatever you did. However stupid I was. And I can be pretty stupid. Just that total love of a mother.
So, today, more than anything else mothers are special. Special every day but how about going through this talking about nursing homes. You have mothers in nursing homes, families can't get to see them. Mothers have been doing double duty stuck at home dealing with all that stress, all that situation. Mothers who have lost mothers. Mothers who we have lost during this hellacious period with so many people have lost their parents.
So, today is Mother's Day first and foremost. And today is about love and showing love and expressing it and appreciation for our mothers. And my mother, who I cannot see today because I am in a position where I am exposed to too many people and if I go see my mother, Dr. Zucker - blame Dr. Zucker, the health commissioner says it would be risky for me to see my mother because I want to make sure that I don't infect her with anything.
She's stronger than I am. She's smarter than I am, but I just want to make sure that we don't do that. But I get to say Happy Mother's Day to my mother with my daughters. They're all here through one means or the other, whatever this is. Zoom this, Zoom that. Happy Mother's Day to you mom. I miss you. I love you so, so much. I wish I could be with you, but I can't be. But I can't be because I love you. That's why I can't be with you because I love you. But I know Maria is taking good care of you.
MATILDA CUOMO, GOV. ANDREW CUOMO'S MOTHER: I miss you too, a lot and your beautiful daughters. So --
CARA CUOMO, GOV. ANDREW CUOMO'S DAUGHTER: Happy Mother's Day, Grandma.
MATILDA: Thank you. Thank you, Cara.
CUOMO: You have Cara there. Kara is with Mariah.
Mariah, you want to say Happy Mother's Day, Grandmother's day?
MARIAH CUOMO, GOV. ANDREW CUOMO'S DAUGHTER: Yes. Happy Mother's Day, grandma. I just was thinking today about this story that I love hearing you tell about how you met the pope and how he looked you in the eye and put your hand in his and he said La Familia. He really captured your spirit. Thank you so much for teaching us the meaning of family is both from our own little group (ph) to the family of New York. I love you.
MATILDA: Thank you. Very well said.
CUOMO: And I have my Michaela here with me.
MICHAELA CUOMO, GOV. ANDREW CUOMO'S DAUGHTER: Hi grandma. Happy Mother's Day. We are --
MATILDA: You're up at the capital.
MICHAELA: Yes. But I'm so glad to see your face. We're so grateful to have such a caring grandma.
MATILDA: Thank you.
MICHAELA: And one who was great mother and role model to our dad and aunts and uncles and such a great mother to so many children beyond our family. So, thank you. Love you so much grandma.
MATILDA: Thank you for that. Thank you so much. I can't forget you girls. I will never forget this.
CUOMO: Well, you look good. This is going to be over. And then we're going to get back to life as normal and we're going to have fun. And then you can spend more time with me. I know I am your favorite. I know you don't want to say that because you have maria there. But we'll get to spend time together. And we'll look back at this and we'll say that we're the better for it. Right?
MATILDA: That's right. Time for everything, Andrew.
CUOMO: All right. Well, you have fun there. Anything you need? Is maria taking good care of you? You sure Maria is taking good care of you?
MATILDA: I have your sister, Maria, here. And I have beautiful granddaughters here as well. So, I'm in good company. And all the children. All my grandchildren.
[12:35:00]
I am so blessed as many mothers today are. And I just thank you so much for everything you do, Andrew, to make families really better than ever. Thank you.
CUOMO: All right. You have a beautiful day. I'll see you soon. I know you want to see me because I know I'm your favorite deep down inside, but you don't want to say it. I love you, honey. I'll talk to you later.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love you, grandma.
MATILDA: Thank you very much, Andrew. Thank you. Thank you.
CUOMO: Questions?
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) -- all nursing home residents?
CUOMO: We are testing nursing home residents.
QUESTION: Or mass testing everyone?
CUOMO: We are mass testing as many as we can.
QUESTION: And what the state have done early March that hundreds of nursing homes said that they can't care for their patients. It is very contagious, devastating unknown disease. Did you have any overflow beds for them in early March and did you tell them, the nursing homes about it in early March?
CUOMO: Yes. Let's just do this again. The nursing home must refer a person if they can't provide the adequate care. Period.
That's the nursing home's obligation. If they cannot provide care for any reason. They don't even have to give a reason, by the way. I don't have staff. My staff is sick. I don't have PPE. I don't have isolation facilities. I don't have quarantine facilities. I don't have enough beds. I don't have enough pillowcases.
It does not matter. If they can't provide care, they call the Department of Health. The Department of Health sends them somewhere else. We have always had more beds than we have needed. Always had more beds than we needed. And that is extraordinary. Because we had to create 40,000 beds.
You know, people say well we created more beds than we need. Actually, they raise the criticism that we created more beds than we need, right? The federal government says we created Javits. We brought up the U.S. Navy Ship Comfort. We didn't even need it. Yes. At the end of the day, we didn't need it. Thank God we didn't need it because we reduced the curve and saved lives. But if we hadn't reduced the curve, we would have needed it. If that's where the projections were. But that was true from day one.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) - early on?
CUOMO: Yes. Yes.
QUESTION: The hundreds of nursing homes that they couldn't care for them.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Yes. Yes. And they should have done it by law.
QUESTION: Governor, the (INAUDIBLE) system is currently operating on a larger virtual function. Can you please comment on when new nonessential lawsuits are going to be able to be filed?
CUOMO: Yes. I don't know. Does anyone know when nonessential lawsuits will be filed?
MELISA DEROSA, SECRETARY, OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR NEW YORK: That's something that we're working with the courts on. And the larger issue is around - is around secrecy issues for when you can convene grand juries. And so, we're working hand in glove with (INAUDIBLE) in the courts on that. But the answer is we're trying to get online as soon as possible.
QUESTION: Can you speak to when grand juries might fall into this reopening plan?
DEROSA: It's something - it's something that we're looking at. We're looking at what other states are doing if there's a way to accommodate it virtually. But again, the issue is the secrecy laws that govern. And so, we're working with the courts and we're trying to get online as soon as possible.
QUESTION: Are there any concerns about, you know, bringing people if they will actually show up for a jury - considering this --
DEROSA: Yes - that is - that is exactly the concern which is why we're looking into virtual options. But as I said, the secrecy laws that govern supersede that. And so, we're trying to see what other states are doing, get creative because we want the court system to be up and running as soon as possible.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
DEROSA: That govern grand jury.
CUOMO: The grand jury secrecy.
Reopening the courts is not an executive decision or managing the court is not an executive decision, right? That's a separate branch of government, the court system. Chief Judge is in charge of that. We're working with the chief judge following her recommendations which have been extraordinary, much of there are still a lot of work going done even though the courts have been closed.
And their transition to remote services has been great. So, we're working together. But the question as you raised are going to be more to the discretion of the judicial system.
QUESTION: Why did the -- it sounds like the state is (INAUDIBLE) the March 25th order regarding nursing homes. What went into the change of thinking in that? Why do it now and not do it two weeks ago when people first started sounding the alarm on it?
CUOMO: I don't know the March 25th.
JIM MALATRAS, PRESIDENT, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE: (INAUDIBLE) You still can't discriminate against the patients solely in the nursing home based or their COVID status. This is say, the hospitals now if you have a COVID patient that you got for some reason, acute care needed or whatever. They should test positive before being discharged from the hospital itself.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: So, a hospital can't send a resident back to their nursing home if they still test positive. How is that different from March 23rd (ph)?
MALTRAS: Because you're not the only avenue of coming to a nursing home. It is not just the hospital. They could have been a new patient. It could have been from another facility besides the hospital.
[12:40:00]
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) - March 25th, correct?
MALATRAS: You still cannot discriminate against a nursing home patient. What we're saying is if you're in a hospital for another reason, you can't discharge that patient until they are negative.
DEROSA: The two orders coexist, Jessy (ph). What we're saying is you still can't discriminate entrants to a nursing home facility solely on a basis of being COVID positive or being suspected COVID positive. This puts the obligation on hospitals which is saying a hospital cannot release a COVID positive patient into a nursing home facility until they test negative.
What Jim is accurately saying is the only -- hospitals are not the only avenue into nursing homes. There are other ways in which people enter nursing homes. The fact still remains that you cannot discriminate based on COVID positive status.
However, as the governor has said 17 times, you also -- a nursing home cannot accept a patient if they cannot care for them. They have to be able to cohort the patients. There has to be segregated staff. You have to have the appropriate level of PPE. And you cannot meet those standards, you cannot accept the patient. You call DOH. DOH funds a facility for them.
CUOMO: Let's do it - no, let's do it the other way because it's complicated. This is binding on a hospital not on a nursing home. If you want to refer your mother who is COVID positive to a nursing home, the nursing home cannot say to you, I'm discriminating against your mother. I don't take COVID positive people. That would be discrimination.
The nursing home can say, look, I'm not equipped at this time to handle COVID patients. I refer you to the Department of Health to find a facility that can. But they can't discriminate on the basis of COVID positive.
A hospital cannot discharge to a nursing home. And that is new. Cannot discharge a person who is COVID positive to a nursing home. The hospital can discharge - they can hold the COVID positive person or discharge them to one of our other facilities like our COVID positive facilities, et cetera. This will reduce the burden on nursing homes all across the board because they're not going to get any COVID people from a hospital.
QUESTION: They could get it from a person on the street who wants to put their COVID positive --
CUOMO: If -- big if. Big if. If they can handle it. And that's what you've never really communicated. And I don't think you've done the residents or the families a service -- you, generically.
The nursing home, if they cannot take care of a person, I can't do -- I'm a nursing home operator. I can't take care of a COVID positive person. I don't have enough staff. I can't quarantine on my facilities. I don't have the PPE. It's their obligation to inform and it is their obligation to call the Department of Health and say you have to come get this person. I can't care for them. That has always been the case.
QUESTION: Is this a policy or something of a recognition though that the idea of sending COVID positive people from hospitals back into nursing homes may have been flawed? Is that a mistake?
CUOMO: No, no. First of all, if you look at the facts, which is always fun. The -- you can test your hypothesis on what's flawed. Look at how many residents we have in nursing homes. Look at the percentage of our deaths in nursing homes vis-a-vis other states, right? We're down by like number 34. So, whatever we're doing has worked on the facts.
Second, well, at one time hospital beds were precious. When we started this, remember the whole question was will you have enough hospital beds. We're in a scramble to provide more hospital beds, right? Go to 50,000 to 40,000, 110,000. So, the last thing you would be doing would be gratuitously saying we're going to keep a person in a hospital bed who doesn't need a hospital bed who could be at another facility. You would never do that. It would be reckless. It would be negligent. Because you needed the hospital beds so badly.
What we're saying today is we excess capacity all across the board. And the hospital can discharge to another one of our facilities.
[12:45:00]
They don't have to discharge to the nursing home. They can discharge to any one of our facilities which was always the case and initially it presumed the system, yes, a hospital could have -- initially a hospital could have discharged to a nursing home or to one of our other facilities. Discharge to the nursing home presuming they could handle it and they said they could handle it. And if they couldn't handle the discharged person, they would have said I can't take this person. Your premises, they were accepting people who legally they shouldn't have accepted. That's what you would have to say.
QUESTION: No, because my point is optically, if you've used the metaphor of dry grass, right? So, optically, to put a COVID positive person who is a tinder, if you excuse the metaphor, into dry grass from a hospital into a nursing home where there are this kind of vulnerable population base, the optics on that seem illogical.
CUOMO: Well they have - well, if you're right and that facility did not have the accommodations to accept that person and isolate them and quarantine them, which is what they are supposed to do. They don't put the piece of tinder in the dry grass, you're at the other end of the facility in an isolated quarantine situation like you are by the way in every other facility. When you go into a hospital. You can go hospital has just COVID people. No, the hospital has is also tinder in dry grass, right? You have all sorts of people in the hospital.
So, you have to treat that person without infecting other people. That's what you're doing in a hospital system. That's what you're doing in any facility that has mixed populations. That's what you have to do in a nursing home. And if you can't do it, you say, I can't do it. And that was it. End of discussion. You say, I can't do it. You don't get the patient discharged to you.
QUESTION: On another issue. On the issue of these Kawasaki-like deaths. Can we get any more details on the victims themselves? I mean, obviously, this must be deeply upsetting and deeply concerning to parents. Do we have ages? Do we have regions? Do we have preexisting --
CUOMO: The question is what we can give you without violating the health and law. Now there's doctors who are -- but you're right. And the reason why we're spending so much attention to it, taking so much time on it. This is -- you want to talk about Mother's Day. This is every mother's nightmare. This is every parent's nightmare. No one knew about it. Nobody was watching for it.
You know, it's same story of this virus from day one. The virus has been ahead of us every step of the way. And we have been playing catch up every step of the way. We played. It was ahead of us when it was coming here from Europe and nobody told us.
And now, we thought that it wasn't affecting children and now we find out it may be affecting children. That's why we're notifying all the other states. We've notified the CDC. We're watching it for the CDC. The CDC will communicate, but nobody knows that it wasn't here and just not diagnosed because it doesn't look like a COVID case. But Howard, is there anything else we can say?
DR. HOWARD ZUCKER, COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH, NEW YORK: So, as the governor mentioned, there are 85 - there are 85 children that were evaluated. I have a team of over 30 - around 30 to 40 people who are looking at the charts of all those patients to assess exactly what has happened to them. We do know about the ages of those who have died, as the governor mentioned too, are in elementary school aged along with the adolescent in three different counties. We'll have more information.
I'm always careful about what I share because of the privacy issues, as the governor mentioned. We are evaluating those charts as a pediatric cardiologist myself. I personally have looked over the chart of the child that died. The five-year-old we spoke about. And the other two I will over as well. As well as other charts.
This is something which as the governor mentioned, we weren't looking for this because these children did not present with respiratory illnesses. So, all of a sudden, we hear about children with cardiac problems, inflammation in their blood vessels. We try to figure out what is happening here. So, the CDC has sent people up as well. We have a whole team investing all these charts. We're going to find and get to the bottom of it, come up with what are the criteria and provide that to the rest of the states.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) - or were these healthy children that died?
ZUCKER: Well, the - like I've said, the 85 charts. We're looking through those. The other ones are right now know the three that have died - did not that we've heard about. But we will -- this is why we need to investigate all this. And this is why we have over 30 people looking at the charts.
[12:50:03]
QUESTION: Is there anything - the parents - I mean, the symptoms of this appeared to be somewhat common places, with extremities, with tongue, rashes -- how do you differentiate kind of a common fever or something like that from something more serious?
ZUCKER: This is very heartbreaking because it's kids and obviously, we worry about children who have vague symptoms. They present with nausea, vomiting. But I think what I would tell parents if I (INAUDIBLE) on their head, I would tell parents that if your child has any nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, color -- the color of your face changes, color of their lips and fingers, if they have any chest pains.
If they're older, they can complain about that. They should call their doctor. And they need to be evaluated. I think that once we look at these other - these 85 charts and we get more information. We'll have more answers for you about this. But right now the most important thing parents should do is be on the side of caution.
CUOMO: And Jessy (ph), you're right. And this is a delicate balance here, right? Because the symptoms that we suggested people look for are very broad. And you're talking about young children who come up with a lot of symptoms all the time, seems like. The common denominator is had the coronavirus antibodies or are positive for coronavirus, right? That's the common denominator here. You would not know that without the virus test.
Now, we don't want to create a situation where a child gets a rash and every parent gets nervous that they think their child needs a coronavirus test. That's why as much information as we can get from these investigations as quickly as we can get it. Because I understand leaving the question mark hanging out there makes people nervous. At the same time, we want the other states to know what we know. And we want the CDC to know what we know.
But I think Dr. Zucker's advice is good. You don't overreact. If you think your child may have been exposed to the coronavirus and there are those symptoms, well, you know, that might be a different situation.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Friday -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) one adolescent at this point. Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) New York City released someone's data -
CUOMO: I'll take one more. Anyone who didn't ask a question?
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) -- on Monday you said no region have met the standard to reopen. Are there any updates today if any regions have met the standards to reopening?
CUOMO: Tomorrow, we're going to invite all the county executives, local officials to participate in the briefing. We'll be going through it explicitly. But short answer is, yes, there will be regions that are eligible on the 15th. Is that right, Jim?
MALTRAS: That's correct.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
CUOMO: I think if you look at - Jim can talk to you about this afterwards. But I think if we took Rockland, Westchester out of the region, the region still wouldn't qualify because the duchess numbers themselves don't qualify. But Jim can give you more information.
Thank you, guys.
Happy Mother's Day to everyone. WHITFIELD: All right. You're listening from the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo there who says more attention is going to be paid to the more vulnerable of the population. Particularly at nursing homes. And this comes after some criticism of Cuomo and his handling of the nation's highest death toll among nursing homes. Some 5,300 deaths from this pandemic and his answer is to put more resources into the nursing home care.
And then also, the governor announcing that they will be investigating some 85 cases of COVID in children. Many children experiencing symptoms that are similar to Kawasaki disease.
I've got with me now CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro in New York and CNN medical analyst Dr. Saju Mathew. He's a primary care physician and a public health specialist. Good to see both of you.
The governor also putting in an extra plea, Evan, that federal assistance sure would be helpful so that states don't have to look at making staff more lean at say, hospitals and even schools.
EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred. I mean, the central message of this press conference is actually a preview of a change that's coming to New York story of COVID. Is it to - this story that's been one narrative this whole time, an entire state shutdown trying to deal with this pandemic?
[12:55:03]
It's not going to shift into a sort of two narrative story where starting on Friday, some of those closing issues will lift and the governor will be talking about starting to reopen parts of the state while on the other hand, still dealing with the pandemic at a very acute way here in places like New York City where I am.
And part of that conversation is this continuing talk from the governor about trying to get federal dollars, more federal dollars into state coffers to try to make up for some of the money that's been lost during this economic hardship. And the governor saying that unless he gets that money, steep cuts and job losses will occur at the state and local level. And something he just says shouldn't be acceptable if we're talking about bailing out the rest of the country.
WHITFIELD: Dr. Mathew, let's talk about the investigation now. They are launching of these COVID cases involving children, 85. These symptoms that the governor underscored and the doctor there. Talking about you know diarrhea, color change, rashes. And for a lot of parents that could look like a lot of other types of ailments you know. What will this investigation entail, in your view?
DR. SAJU MATHEW, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: So, Fredricka, you know what is definitely concerning is that these symptoms that these kids are presenting with, they're so subtle. I have taken care of kids with Kawasaki syndrome during my residency and Kawasaki syndrome is an inflammation where kids usually less than 5 years old present with rash, fever, for greater than 10 days. It's fairly easy diagnosis to make once you meet that criteria. And most kids, by the way, do well with Kawasaki syndrome.
What's concerning about this is that a lot of these kids tested positive for COVID-19 or had antibodies and then are presenting to the emergency room not with respiratory symptoms like the typical COVID-19 patient but some of these patients actually going into cardiac arrest. So, there's a lot of questions and a lot of investigation that needs to happen to find out if there really is a link between COVID-19 and the kids presenting with this syndrome.
WHITFIELD: And doctor, is it your concern that while they investigate these 85 cases that perhaps they will discover the number might be higher now that they have a little bit more specificity about what look for?
MATHEW: Yes, that's correct. I think that again, it's so early like the doctor just mentioned during the press conference to really make a direct tie between COVID-19 and this pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, if you will. But I think what really needs to happen is now that we know about these few cases, everybody should be looking out for it and the most important thing, Fredricka, is to tell parents, number one, don't panic.
But if your kids have these subtle symptoms of diarrhea, rash, peeling skin, maybe even chest pain, that you should really err on the side of being conservative and talk to your pediatrician or go to a pediatric hospital quickly.
WHITFIELD: And, Evan, is there a feeling from what the governor was saying that there will be more resources. Yes, he said there's more direction going to some of the nursing homes about how to handle patients who test positive but there also seem to be some real confusion about the transfer of patients who are positive whether it's appropriate to transfer to a hospital or from a hospital to a nursing home. Did that seem to clear things up or make it more confusing?
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Well, this is part of that twin story that's going ahead because you and I have been talking many weekends about these press conferences and this is the one that's going to kick off this week. They say it's going to start to open.
But at the same time, you're still dealing with questions about nursing homes and kids and new cases. When it comes to nursing homes, the governor is saying, essentially, they're going to be putting resources in nursing homes. They're going to be requiring nursing home staff to get tested twice a week. And they're going to be saying that if you have a COVID positive person will not be transferred into a nursing home, will instead be taken to either stay in a hospital or taken to a COVID specific nursing home.
It's all an attempt to sort of round out these questions but it also speaks to how ongoing this problem is even as the state moves into a period where we're going to maybe see some parts of some regions shifting into reopening.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Evan McMorris-Santoro, Dr. Saju Mathew. Appreciate it. Thank you. And Happy Mother's Day to the moms in your life.
All right. What happens after the coronavirus pandemic? Ahead, a look at how geopolitics and the global economy might be reshaped.
Plus, what's the impact on our everyday lives? "The Post-COVID-19 World," a Fareed Zakaria GPS special, next.
