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NYC Mayor: Schools To Remain Closed Until End Of School Year; Widow Misses Husband's Funeral After Contracting Coronavirus; New Model Suggests Decline In Deaths Will Be "Very Slow"; World Health Organization Scrutinized Over Early Missteps; Crew Struggling After USS Theodore Roosevelt Captain's Firing Over Coronavirus Memo; NY Governor Cuomo Holds Coronavirus Briefing. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired April 11, 2020 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:07]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin with a sobering new milestone as the U.S. fights to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The number of confirmed cases has now surpassed 500,000 and the death toll is now over 18,000 in New York State alone. The number of cases exceeds 174,000 which is more than any country although many believe China's numbers are inaccurate.

And just this morning New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York public schools will remain closed throughout the end of the school year.

Meantime, the White House is also weighing in as to when to reopen the country's economy. And while officials say we haven't hit our peak, there are signs of encouragement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE COORDINATOR: You can see for the first time that in the United States we're starting to level on the logarithmic phase like Italy did about a week ago.

And so this gives us great heart that not only in specific places but we're starting to see that change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's begin our coverage in New York. CNN's Cristina Alesci is there. So Cristina, the mayor's decision to keep schools closed throughout the rest of this school year. What went into his decision-making?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Apparently it was a call with Dr. Fauci last night. And this just highlights the concern there is about reopening normal life too early and risking a spike in cases and deaths.

And here the fear factor in New York is high and for good reason. Every -- almost every New Yorker I speak to has been impacted one way or another by this, either because they know someone who's been infected or they have a family member on the front lines -- a nurse or a doctor in the family.

This is a collective impact on the city. And the death toll -- the death toll is just staggering. If you look at it, you're talking about it's nearing triple the amount of New Yorkers that were killed during the 9/11 attacks. That was the darkest day -- what we thought would be the darkest day in our generation for the city of New York. And it's turning out not to be with this deadly virus.

So the school closing is just another indication that there's a long way to go before life gets back to normal here.

Look, that said, there are some glimmers of hope emerging. Just behind me at the Javits Center -- this was a facility that has the capacity to take 2,500 people. And I'm hearing that the number of patients is actually close to 200 to 300 right now -- we're finalizing those figures.

Also we heard the governor yesterday say the three-day average of hospitalizations is declining. And that the admission to the ICU, the rate of admissions is also going down.

Look, we're going to hear from the Governor shortly. We'll get more up-to-date picture on the situation here but clearly. We, as he has said, we are not out of the woods yet -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Not by a long shot. All right. Thank you so much. Cristina Alesci there in New York.

All right. Michigan residents are now largely banned from traveling between two homes inside of that state. The new measures put in place as part of an expanded stay-at-home order aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

CNN's Ryan Young joining me now from Detroit. So Ryan -- what more are you learning about this?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They're trying to flatten the curve -- Fredricka.

And let me tell you something. One of the things we've noticed is a lot of the hospitals have been put under a lot of stress. The TCS Center, which is behind me, has 970 extra beds, the first 25 patients were taken in yesterday. We're seeing a large ramp up of operations here.

But for families this is tough. It's not about numbers. It's about their loved ones and about difficult decisions that they have to make.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't want to go away like this and he did. But just know this. We done the best that we could.

YOUNG: These short cell phone videos of her Ray Sean's (ph) funeral were the only way Marini Smith could see it from quarantine.

MARINI SMITH, COVID-19 PATIENT: His name is Ray Sean Smith.

YOUNG: She hasn't left her house since testing positive for the same virus that killed him.

SMITH: I didn't want him to be here alone. I just feel like, he was there for everybody and I feel like he was alone. Like nobody was able to be there for him.

I had to make an executive decision to keep myself and my daughter home. We don't want to go to another funeral.

YOUNG: In the last three weeks Marini says she, her father and her brother have all tested positive for COVID-19.

[11:04:57]

SMITH: People in the family started displaying flu-like symptoms. No idea it was corona, nothing like that. Just hey, I don't feel so good. My husband, his symptom was a high fever.

YOUNG: With strict social distancing rules in place, their trip to the hospital March 16th would be the last time she saw him.

SMITH: They was like you can't be here. You can't be here. And they sent my daughter and I out. You know, we were sitting in the car asleep, waiting to hear from him. He said Baby, get down there and meet (ph) me.

YOUNG: Their next conversation -- a last minute gesture from a worried nurse.

SMITH: Well, the nurse felt so bad for my daughter and I, she used her personal phone and Facetimed us, which I thought was really, really nice.

So she let us speak with him. And I just told, you know, I asked was he scared. He said yes. My husband -- everybody that know my husband know he's not afraid of anything. But he was very, very scared.

YOUNG: Just seven days after arriving at the hospital he was gone.

SMITH: He went in the hospital on a Monday and he passed away on a Monday.

YOUNG: The speed of the deadly and contagious coronavirus is leaving families like the Smiths holding unexpected and under-attended funerals at a frightening pace.

MAJOR CLORA, FUNERAL DIRECTOR: It's very, very challenging.

YOUNG: At Major Clora's Funeral home in Detroit, no more than 10 immediate family members can pay their respect in person.

CLORA: Just receiving so many death calls at once. You know, this week has been one of the, you know, most overwhelming weeks that I've ever had in my career.

SMITH: I'm doing everything I can to safeguard myself and my family.

YOUNG: And as for those still waiting to say their last good-byes.

SMITH: I promised her, when this is all over we're going somewhere, we're going to scream and cry and hold each other and we're going to go visit her dad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: Obviously a very tough decision to stay at home and miss that funeral. We are hearing these stories over and over again. And in fact, I was talking to that funeral director just today. He was telling me that he has families that have had three and four members dying all at the same time. He has over 80 bodies right now just at his funeral home.

But you also have to remember in the middle of that story, the nurse taking the time to do that last Facetime call. That was the last time they got a chance to speak with their loved ones.

So these stories have been repeated all across Detroit. Very tough to listen to on a day-to-day basis. And Fred -- your heart just goes out to them.

WHITFIELD: Yes. I mean the anguish -- this is just, you know, it's layer upon layer. It's just unimaginable.

YOUNG: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: Ryan Young -- thank you so much.

President Trump says reopening the country is the biggest decision he will ever have to make. But according to a new model from the University of Washington relaxing social distancing guidelines in May could mean a spike in cases by July.

I'm joined now by Dr. Ashish Jha. He's the director of Harvard's Global Health Institute. Doctor -- good to see you.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD'S GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Thanks for having me on.

WHITFIELD: So the White House, you know, wants to remain optimistic, it's aspirational about opening things up, you know, by May. But how are you assessing the big picture right now?

JHA: Yes. So we all want to open up, right, as soon as it's safe to do so. But that's the key part -- as soon as it is safe to do so. And given where we are as a country we are making progress as Dr. Birx said earlier. But we are far from ready from being able to open up. May 1st I think is completely unrealistic.

And as Dr. Fauci likes to say the virus makes the timeline; we don't make the timeline. So I think we have to wait until the metrics tell us that we can open up.

WHITFIELD: So last night after Chris Murray, the chairman of the Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington told our Anderson Cooper that recovery overall could be slow. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. CHRIS MURRAY, CHAIRMAN, HEALTH METRICS SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF Washington: Some states still haven't fully implemented social distancing. So we're seeing their peaks shifting out in time. And we're seeing a peak now but the decline is going to be very slow as some other states reach their peak later in April and even extending into May.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So you're nodding your head on that. You're in agreement?

JHA: I am in agreement. You know, the states have all been -- have taken their own time in terms of putting in social distancing and that means the peaks are going to vary. New York and New Jersey hopefully are peaking now but we're going to see states like Florida, others peaking, you know, much further down the line.

We're going to be struggle with this phase of the virus for many more weeks.

WHITFIELD: Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday that, you know, this new antibody test will scale up in the next week or so. How much of an impact do you believe it could make in determining who has had the coronavirus and, you know, how to move forward?

[11:09:48]

JHA: Yes. Fredricka -- I'm actually pretty enthusiastic about this antibody test. I think it's going to be helpful to us. It's still not the most important test we have. The most important test we have to focus on is the test that actually tests if you're infected or not and you have the virus. We're still way behind on being able to do that. That's really going to determine whether we can open up or not.

The antibody test will help in identifying people who might have been infected and didn't know, but that's going to be a small part of the population. That's not the most critical test right now.

WHITFIELD: And are you convinced that someone who has had, you know, COVID-19 or, you know, tested positive for coronavirus is more likely to develop an immunity in the short term, that they wouldn't get, you know, a second wave of it if exposed?

JHA: Yes, so the best evidence we have right now -- again, this is a new virus, right. So we don't have a whole lot of experience, but the best evidence we have right now is if you've been infected and have recovered, you should be immune.

And we'll see if the science ends up contradicting that, but that's what I think most of us believe today.

WHITFIELD: And what about the notion still of a possible national stay-at-home order? Do you believe it'll make a direct impact on the rate of the spread?

JHA: Well, I think, you know, as Dr. Murray said in that little clip you played, there are still states that are not quite doing social distancing. The good news is most of America is staying at home and I think that's fantastic. It would help if the rest of America did so because it would make it more effective for everybody.

So yes, I think it would be helpful but good news is most Americans are doing it already.

WHITFIELD: There's a new report out of Johns Hopkins that says we will need 100,000 health care workers to identify and trace all coronavirus cases to help return the U.S. to a sense of normalcy.

Now, that would be a massive undertaking in and of itself but that would also mean having enough tests, you know, to go around. Can the U.S. get ahead of this disease, you know, if the testing still isn't up to par, regardless of the number of health care workers on deck?

JHA: Yes. So if we want to open up and if we want to stay open, there are two things we need to do right. We need absolutely to scale up our tests massively.

If we don't do that, there's no way we can open up safely and not have to close down again. The good news about hiring hundreds of thousands of workers to do the public health tracing we just had 16 million people file for unemployment in the last few weeks. There's a large group of people who could be employed and that would be both good great for them and it will be great for America.

WHITFIELD: Dr. Ashish Jha -- good to see you. Thank you so much.

JHA: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And CNN viewers and readers from around the world have asked more than 90,000 questions about coronavirus on CNN.com. and at 2:30 Eastern today right here on CNN, a panel of experts will join me to answer some of your questions.

Go to CNN.com to submit your questions on health, family life, your money. Again that's at 2:30 Eastern today right here on CNN.

All right. Still to come, the Navy admiral now in charge of the virus stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt talks to CNN revealing sailors are quote, "struggling after their commanding officer was removed. A CNN exclusive, next.

And as we head to break watch as hospital workers in Kentucky salute a survivor of coronavirus after he was taken off his ventilator and released from the intensive care unit.

[11:13:23]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The World Health Organization is under fire for its handling of the coronavirus. Here is Isa Soares.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On March 11th, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. At this stage China had been openly battling the virus for about two months which the WHO says it has been monitoring closely since early January. But the WHO's actions and words have done little to convince some it has been ahead of the crisis.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They called it wrong. They called it wrong. They really -- they missed the call. They could have called it months earlier.

SOARES: To put it into perspective, according to the WHO by March 11th, 114 countries had already reported cases of COVID-19 with well over 4,000 killed worldwide. In the U.S. alone, CNN's tally puts the cases at over 1,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the early stages of this crisis, China was keeping experts from the WHO and the CDC out. And that was a major mess up by China and we are all suffering the results of that.

Then the World Health Organization went in, could they have sounded the alarm earlier? Absolutely, yes.

SOARES: It's not just the WHO's handling of the virus that is under attack but also the body's decision not to support the President's early travel restrictions to China.

TRUMP: He wanted me to keep the borders open.

SOARES: On its Web site the WHO makes the case that opposes most travel restrictions because they are usually ineffective that may have a significant economic and social impact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There seems to be good evidence that the WHO prioritized the sensitivity of the Chinese government over its basic duty over the public health of people of the world.

SOARES: President Trump is not alone in his criticism of the WHO. The deputy prime minister of Japan Taro Aso has slammed the WHO saying it should be renamed CHO -- China Health Organization, for what he argues is a soft stance towards Communist China.

TARO ASO, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, JAPAN: Early on if the WHO had not insisted to the world that China had no pneumonia epidemic, then everyone would have taken precautions.

SOARES: The WHO argues it's color-blind and has no favorites.

[11:19:55]

SOARES: Taiwan, who is blocked from WHO membership because of its complex relationship with China, says it asked the WHO about human-to- human transmission in late December but was ignored. In a statement to CNN, the WHO says it replied to that email from Taiwan but it had no mention of human-to-human transmission.

As it battles coronavirus, the WHO is also fighting back at criticism of the body and is defending its response to the crisis.

DR. GHEBREYESUS: We will do everything that will help us to have no regrets at all. But in that process, we may make mistakes. We are not angels. We are human beings.

SOARES: While President Trump criticizes the WHO and threatens to suspend the U.S. contribution to its budget, leaders from the European Union and Africa have thrown their support behind Mr. Tedros, praising the Director General's leadership and calling for global unity, solidarity, and cooperation.

Isa Soares, CNN -- London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And in this exclusive new interview, the Navy's top admiral overseeing the USS Theodore Roosevelt tells CNN that some of the crew has been quote, "upset and struggling" ever since their commanding officer Capt. Brett Crozier was removed for sounding the alarm over coronavirus after more than 100 sailors at the time on board the aircraft carrier tested positive for the virus.

Vice Admiral Bill Merz also echoed the captain's concern saying quote, "There was lots of anxiety about the virus. As you can imagine, the morale covers the spectrum, considering what they have been through."

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joining me right now. So Barbara -- what else are you hearing about the crew's morale?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi there. You know, I talked to Admiral Merz from his quarters in Japan where he is now undergoing a precautionary 14-day isolation after he went on board the TR, the Teddy Roosevelt for about 6.5 hours several days ago.

He wanted to go on board. He wanted to talk to the sailors that he oversees in the region, directly find out what they thought had happened and what their concerns are.

And yes, he came back and said he found them struggling. There was anxiety. They were upset over losing their CO, their commanding officer, Captain Crozier and also the sense that they had that they didn't know what was being done to help them, that they didn't think there enough -- enough being done to help them. They didn't have enough information.

That pretty much echoes some of what Captain Crozier's concerns were when he sounded the alarm. He wanted the whole situation dealt with more rapidly.

So Admiral Merz told us that he talked to them over several hours. He talked to all ranks, all kinds of folks across the ship's crew to find out these concerns. You know, he let them blow off clearly some anxiety, some steam about all of this.

And he said, and then they got down -- back down to sort of Navy business. How they were going to be dealt with regarding the virus. How they would be tested. Their isolation protocols. And how soon they could get back out to sea, back on their routine patrols.

So he feels that, you know, some progress has been made once and for all in communicating with the troops. And that may be a major question -- Fred this week. the investigation into what happened may become public this week. We may find out the ultimate fate of Captain Crozier and answer that key question. How could the crew not have enough information about what was being done to try and help them -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And Barbara -- you know, better than anybody else. I mean the kind of relationship of a commanding officer. This Captain Crozier -- he is almost like, you know, a parent I mean in this, you know, this floating city, you know. And people are living in close confines, quarters, and you know, there's a lot of anxiety that comes with that kind of sudden separation as we're now hearing from your reporting and others.

STARR: Well, that's right. And I think anybody who deals with the U.S. military, whether it's the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, will tell you that young troops, the one thing that they really don't want is to not feel like they have full and complete information about what is happening to them. Whether they're about to go into battle, whether, you know, they're facing a virus, whether they're facing any kind of situation on their bases back home, they want information.

And if that information is not communicated properly to them, that's how you get these kinds of situations. Any commander will tell you, that's what you want to avoid. And that's one of the reasons the Navy really has to look into this very carefully and find out.

It was an extraordinary circumstance. You had, you know, the crew basically a few days ago, yelling back at the acting Navy Secretary and he eventually was removed from office because of his attitude about the whole thing.

[11:24:54]

STARR: So it's been -- there's no way around it.

WHITFIELD: Right.

STARR: It's just been a big mess. But the important thing, of course, is that those more than 4,000 troops get any medical attention they may need, Captain Crozier himself, we are told, has tested positive for the virus and at least one crew member, very sadly, is now in intensive care in Guam where the ship is docked -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And we are wishing that person well.

All tight. Barbara Starr -- thank you so much. Appreciate it.

STARR: Sure.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, a new tracking app and a path to get around town. How Russia is handling the coronavirus pandemic, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:29:59]

WHITFIELD: Coronavirus cases continue to rise in the U.S. and around the globe with more than 1.7 million total cases confirmed now worldwide. And the number of deaths is now more than 103,000.

Meanwhile, Russia is taking strict new steps to try to curb the outbreak there. Starting Monday, anyone wanting to travel around Moscow will need a pass, even to go to their jobs.

Matthew Chance is in London for us. So what can you tell us about this pass system and other measures?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka -- there are quite a lot of measures that the Russians are implementing because they've been stung by criticism that early when this pandemic broke out, they weren't doing enough, weren't taking it seriously enough. Just a couple weeks ago Vladimir Putin came on national television, the Russian president, saying that it was all ok and it was all under control.

It's clearly not. The number of cases have been escalating dramatically. The number of infections vis-a-vis, different people has been accelerating dramatically.

And so they've instituted these new measures to try and control that rate of spread of the virus. They're instituting passes -- electronic passes that comes with a force on Monday morning. They'll be in three categories -- people who are doing essential jobs, of course, like medical workers and transport workers. They'll still be able to get passes.

But you're going to need passes if you just want to go on a commute to do something else, like if you're going to go to the dentist or you're going to travel to go to the supermarket. And they're even considering instituting passes for people to actually leave their immediate sort of compounds or buildings or apartment blocks where they live.

And so, you know, even in a country which is, you know, got backdrop with a history of controlling its population to a pretty large extent, you know, this is a big ratcheting up of the measures they're imposing against the Russian people.

There's another issue as well, which is an electronic app on your cell phone which uses facial technology, facial recognition technology and geolocation technology to determine exactly where everybody is.

Now, they're doing that, of course, for a good reason, but the concern is, of course, in a country like Russia, you know, where this is this authoritarian backdrop the authorities may be reluctant to let go of that information. So that's why human rights activists at the moment are concerned at what's taking place even though they accept that it is necessary for the moment.

WHITFIELD: And then Matthew -- what about the numbers of cases, deaths? I mean are those numbers to be trusted given Russia likes to control the message?

CHANCE: Well, I mean, it's interesting because initially I would have said, no, shouldn't be trusted because they were clearly trying to play down the extent to which the virus was ravaging through the population. You know, a couple of weeks ago there was almost this sort of smugness on the part of Russia where they were sort of looking at the catastrophe unfolding to the west and saying look, you know, that's not happening to us. We implemented measures that prevented this.

But now, slowly they're admitting that the situation is much, much worse than they previously accepted. I mean Sergey Sobyanin, who's the mayor of Moscow, who's become the front man to -- sort of public face if you like of the Russian response to the coronavirus outbreak, is saying not only are we not at the peak in Russia but we're not even halfway up. In fact, we're nearly at the --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Matthew -- sorry to interrupt. It is important what you're saying but we also want to go to New York now and Andrew Cuomo.

(LIVE EVENT)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The good news is the curve of the increase is continuing to flatten. The number of hospitalizations appears to have hit an apex and the apex appears to be a plateau which is what many of the models predicted that it wasn't going to be a straight up and straight down. It was going to be straight up, you know, hit the top number and then you plateau for a period of time. And that looks like what we are doing.

The hospitalization rate is down and that's important. We have more people getting infected still. We have more people going into the hospitals but we have a lower number. That's all this is saying is fewer people are going into the hospitals. Still net positive.

The three day average, which is what we look at because day-to-day can be somewhat deceiving, especially when you get towards the weekend because the weekend reporting gets a little different. But all the numbers are on the downward slope. Still people getting infected, still people going to the hospital but again a lower rate of increase.

The number of ICU admissions is down. The three day average on ICU admissions is down. This is a little deceptive because at one time hospitals had discreet ICU wards or ICU beds. Effectively now in a hospital all the beds are ICU beds. It's like the entire hospital has turned into an ICU facility.

[11:34:57]

CUOMO: So this distinction is actually -- I don't know how enlightening this is.

This, however, is still a discreet category -- the increase in the number of intubations. And as we've discussed, the intubations are a bad sign from a health diagnostic perspective. And when we talk about the number of deaths, those tend to be people who have been intubated for the longest period of time.

So while ICU beds may not mean anything anymore in the hospital system, intubations are still intubations. And this is a very good sign that the intubations are down.

We were worried about the spread from New York City to Long Island and upstate. If you look at the bar chart, you can see almost a wave, where it did start to move. We have been working very hard in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland which are the surrounding suburbs to New York City. And so far we've had hot spots but we've attacked them aggressively. And we believe that we have stabilized the situation upstate and in the suburbs which is what you see in that chart.

Terrible news is the number of lives lost -- 783 yesterday. That is not an all-time high and you can see that the number is somewhat stabilizing but it is stabilizing at a horrific rate. 783 people, 777, 799 -- these are just incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and pain. That we really, especially this week, all 783 individuals and their families are in our thoughts and in our prayers.

Total number of lives lost 8,627 that's up from 7,844. People ask when is it over, when is it over, when is it over? My children ask that every day. I'm sure everyone is living with the same question. Every time you wake up, you say when does this nightmare end?

And everybody wants to hear that it ends in two weeks or three weeks or four weeks. So here's a date I can tell you that it's over. Just give me some certainty, some closure, some control of my life back.

But I also said from day one and when I raised my hand to take the oath originally I would never tell you anything but the truth, even if the truth is inconvenient or painful.

Winston Churchill, a hero of mine, his granddaughter (INAUDIBLE) sent me a portrait, a tribute to Winston Churchill, and I thank her for that. But Winston Churchill said, "Now this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning." It's just a great Churchill quote, you know. It's precise and how he uses language. I think that's a fair statement of where we are now. This is the beginning that we are in, this was a beginning phase. We're all trying to figure it out, we're all trying to adjust. But it's the end of that beginning phase.

What do we do now? We stay the course. What we're experiencing is a product of our actions, period. We do something different you will see a different reaction in those numbers.

Everyone wants to turn to the question of when do we reopen? I get it. I think the first caution for me is, as we enter this new phase of reopen, when do we do it, how do we do it. This person's opinion is here, this person's opinion is here. The best thing we have done to date is we have kept politics out of the discussion.

Even though this is a hyper partisan time, even though we're in the middle of a presidential election, even though it's one of the ugliest political periods I can recall, we have kept politics out of this crisis. And I've worked very hard to do that, I've worked very hard to keep myself out of the politics. I have no personal politics, not running for anything. I'm governor of New York, thank you. And that's where I'm going to stay.

[11:40:01]

CUOMO: I've worked very hard with the President of the United States. We've had our political differences in the past, no doubt. But there's also no doubt that I've worked hand in glove with the President here. And he has been responsive to New York and responsive to New York's needs and he's done it quickly and he's done it efficiently.

I've literally had conversations with him in the morning where he turned around a decision by that afternoon. I've been in the federal government, I know what it's like to make a decision. And he has really responded to New York's needs.

So keep politics out of it. Focus on government and focus on policy and keep politics out of it. It's very hard especially at this time. And you start to hear this dialogue on reopening and you start to hear people with political theories on whether we should reopen faster, whether we should reopen sooner, why are people against reopening, why are people in favor of reopening.

That is corrosive and destructive, and if we don't stop it, it will feed on itself. There are no political conspiracies here. All the projection models have basically said the same thing. Everyone has basically said the same thing, which is first of all, no one has been here before.

Second of all, everyone, all the experts -- I didn't have an opinion because I'm not an expert -- all the experts had higher projection numbers that -- than we actually experienced.

And they all said, caveat, government action could flatten the curve but we don't know what governments will do and we don't know if people will even listen to what governments will do. But almost all the experts when you go back and look at it had the same basic heightened fears. From the New York state projection point of view. Columbia University, highly credible organization, 136,000 New York City only. Mackenzie, great organization, 110,000 statewide. 55,000 on a moderate level. Gates 73,000 -- Gates funded IHME, 73,000 statewide. The Gates funded model I think is the one that the White House most relies on now, currently.

All of those models were projections. They all said depending on what people do. Not even government -- what people wind up doing. But it wasn't just these academic, private organizations. The White House task force was talking about 1.5 to 2.2 million deaths without mitigation. With mitigation, they were projecting 100,000 to 240,000 deaths as the best case scenario. This is the White House task force.

The actual estimate has now been adjusted down, but they're still at 60,000 deaths that they're projecting. The Peter Navarro White House memo was talking about loss of life, 1 million to 2 million souls -- 1 million to 2 million. Infecting as many as 100 million Americans.

CDC was talking about 160 million to 214 million people infected. The whole population is only 328 million. So the CDC was projecting that more than half the population would be infected.

They were talking about 2.4 million to 21 million people being hospitalized. We only have 925,000 beds in the United States of America. How would you hospitalize 2.4 million to 21 million people? And that was the CDC.

So there was no political conspiracy theory. There is no political conspiracy theory. It's uncharted waters for all of us. So let's focus on the facts. Let's focus on the data and let's make decisions that way.

[11:44:57]

CUOMO: And also, if someone says, well, CDC was wrong and the White House task force is wrong and Peter Navarro is wrong and Columbia is wrong and Cornell is wrong and McKenzie is Wrong and the Gates funded IHME -- they were all wrong.

If I'm representing them, I say it's too soon to tell. It's too soon for Monday quarterbacking because the game isn't even over yet. What do you think we're in? Sixth inning for baseball? You think we're halftime if it's a football game? You don't know yet what the actual issue is going to be. And you don't know yet how this turns out because many decisions have to be made.

You have to reopen. You have to decide how to reopen. You have to decide when to reopen. And that is going to be impactful. We don't know if there's going to be a second wave or not. All of these things are yet to come.

So anyone who wants to say, well, at -- here's the score at halftime, and I'm going to now claim that -- try to collect my bet because it's halftime, it doesn't work that way. The game has to be over. And this game isn't over.

What do we do now? Well, we need to do more testing and more advanced testing and we have to do it faster. That's both a diagnostic testing. That's the antibody testing. But we have to get better at both and we have to be able to create a higher volume faster.

We have to be more prepared. We should never go through what we went through on this preparation drill.

The federal stimulus bill is going to be key. And that legislation, in my opinion, has to be better than the past legislation. It has to be less political, less pork barrel, and more targeted to the actual purpose. You want to help the places that were impacted.

I'll tell you what the federal legislation should do, it should repeal SALT. You want to help New York, which was the most heavily impacted and by the way, you think you're going to reopen the economy without the engine of the New York metropolitan area, you're kidding yourself.

You want to help New York, the places affected, then repeal the SALT provisions, which was a gratuitous, offensive, illegal in my opinion action to begin with but which literally targeted New York and some of these places -- Michigan, Detroit, California. Repeal that if you really want to help places that are affected.

And to my delegation, they know this issue very well as does the California delegation, as does the Michigan delegation. That's what you can do if you actually want to stop with the politics and help people.

In the meantime, here you're going to have many people who are struggling, many businesses who are struggling.

We have government programs, yes, but trying to access a government program is like trying to break into a bank sometimes, right. It's not that easy.

The New York state court system and our chief judge is going to organize lawyers statewide to do pro bono legal assistance to help people with issues they may have. Housing issues, access to government program issues, et cetera. And many legal issues are going to stem from this, and many places where people need help. So lawyers who have time on their hands, who are not working -- they're looking for volunteers.

And most of all, we have to think before we act. These are all big decisions -- reopening. Reopening is both a public health question and an economic question. And I'm unwilling to divorce the two. There is no economic answer that does not attend to public health.

In my opinion you can't ask the people of this state or this country to choose between lives lost and dollars gained. No one is going to make that quid pro quo.

I understand the need to bring back the economy as quickly as possible. I understand people need to work. I also know we need to save lives and we have. And one cannot be at the expense of the other.

[11:49:51]

CUOMO: As we look forward, I'm still troubled by what we just went through. If no one sounded the alarm in January and February, how do we know that it's safe to proceed now? There are stories, and there is information that says some of these places that reopened too quickly are now seeing a growth in the number of cases. They're seeing a growth in the infection rate again. Or they're seeing the second wave.

So there's troubling signs on the horizon. And I want to make sure that we know this time that we've learned from the other experiences. And we're going to be putting together in New York a team of the best minds that look at what happened in Wuhan, look at what happened in Italy on the reopening and making sure that what we are doing is based on all the science available internationally.

And what is the probability, what is the possibility of a second wave happening? What is the possibility of people reexperiencing the virus. There's some reports from South Korea. Let's understand because it's fool me once -- it's one thing to make a mistake once, but this nation should not go through it again. And before we make these decisions, let them be informed by the experiences we're seeing all across the globe.

But there's no doubt that what we're doing now is as impactful and as important as anything that has been done. This is a time where our actions literally will determine life and death. I've been in government most of my adult life on many levels, through many circumstances.

This is no doubt the most important period for government in my lifetime. There is no doubt about that -- the decisions that we make now. Also the potential for the decisions we make now. These are big questions. And we should think about them both in the short term and the long term.

How do we reopen? What do we rebuild when we open? How do we do it? Did we learn the lessons from the past? Did we learn the lessons from what we just went through? And are we the better for it? And do we take this moment and make it a moment of positive growth?

It's transformational, yes. But are we fully experiencing the reality of what we went through, learning from it and actually going to be the better for it? And are we doing that as a society and are we doing that as individuals?

I know the pain. I know the pressure. I know everybody wants to get out of the house and they want to get out of the house tomorrow. And they want me to say we're going to be reopening the economy in two weeks and we beat the beast.

The worst thing that can happen is we make a misstep and we let our emotions get ahead of our logic and fact. And we go through this again in any manner, shape or form. So that's what we have to do. To all my friends, enjoy this holy week. I know it's different. I'm a former altar boy, and this was the hectic, busy week when you were an altar boy -- Good Friday, Holy Saturday. Tomorrow is Easter for Christians, Catholics. It's a very high time of the holy year. Passover week to our Jewish brothers and sisters.

And it's -- to say different, everything has been different. But not going to church, not celebrating Palm Sunday was last Sunday, not celebrating Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday is different and hard.

But, you know, it is the same message, right, whether you do it from home, whether you do it over a television or through a computer screen. It's the same message. And, if anything, that message is more profound during this situation than it normally is.

[11:54:58]

CUOMO: New York paused. You know, we paused. We slowed down. The activity level slowed down. You reflect more. You think more. And I think that's important during this holy week.

In the meantime, we say New York tough, which is smart, which is united, which is disciplined, which is loving. And we're going to get through this.

Questions?

M: Governor -- Mayor de Blasio canceled school for the rest of the year in New York City today. Can we get a reaction to that? And could that be a precursor of canceling school statewide, do you think?

CUOMO: Yes. I understand the Mayor's position, which is he thinks schools should be canceled for the rest of the year. When we made the decision to close the schools, we made it for the entire metropolitan region -- Suffolk, Nassau, New York City, Westchester, Rockland. You can't make a decision just within New York City without coordinating that decision with the whole metropolitan region because it all works together.

So when we decided to close the schools, I spoke to Nassau, I spoke to Suffolk, I spoke to New York City, spoke to Westchester and we closed all the schools at once. Any decision to reopen them will also be a coordinated decision.

The mayor has an opinion in New York City. Laura Curran -- county executive of Nassau will have an opinion on Nassau. Steve Bellone will have an opinion in Suffolk. George Latimer will have an opinion in Westchester.

But I want to coordinate all those opinions and reopen them at the same time. I'd also like to ideally coordinate that with Connecticut and New Jersey. So whatever we do, we do all at the same time.

So I understand the mayor's position, which is he wants to close them until June. And we may do that. But we're going to do it in a coordinated sense with the other localities. It makes no sense for one locality to take an action that's not coordinated with the others.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that action invalid?

CUOMO: Well, that's his opinion, but he didn't close them and he can't open them. It happened on a metropolitan-wide basis. And we're going to either -- we'll act on a metropolitan basis, coordinated with Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester. And ideally, I'd like to coordinate with New Jersey and Connecticut if we can.

The New Jersey and Connecticut coordination is not a legal matter. It's a mutual basis of interest. Legally, I want the metropolitan area coordinated. I don't want Suffolk doing something that Nassau doesn't do that New York City doesn't do that Westchester doesn't do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To clarify for parents in the New York City metropolitan region who have kids in public schools, should they anticipate them going back to school or is school off this year --

CUOMO: There has been no decision. That's the mayor's opinion, I value it. I value Laura Curran's opinion, Steve Bellone's opinion, George Latimer's opinion but the decision will be coordinated among all of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor -- could you please speak to any more specifics about the outreach effort from --

CUOMO: So there has been no decision, Jesse, on the schools. I understand the mayor's position. Also businesses will probably open in May. I respect his opinion on opening businesses in May. Again, no decision has been made on whether or not businesses will open. And we're not going to open any businesses in New York City without coordinating it, same as the schools -- Nassau, Westchester, Suffolk and, again, hopefully with New Jersey and Connecticut.

So there's been no decision on businesses. The mayor's position is they might open in May. I get it. Laura Curran has a position. Steve Bellone has a position. And on schools, the same thing. There's been no decision on schools.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor -- could you please provide any more specifics on the court's outreach efforts to pro bono lawyers. You know, what services are you wanting them to connect with and when do you think those services --

CUOMO: Look, you're going to have a host of legal issues that people need help on. You're going to have housing issues. We talk about these government programs -- SBA has loans available. Yes, look at an SBA loan application and tell me how easy it is to fill out all these federal programs that have been set up.

[11:59:50]

CUOMO: Yes. But you have to figure out how to access each one. By the way, just accessing like the super programs like the SNAP food stamp program, these are -- you're dealing with bureaucracies and applications. So there's a host of need on the legal front. We're hearing about it all across the board.