Cuomo Urges New Yorkers to Get Tests -- and Takes One Himself

(Bloomberg) --

Governor Andrew Cuomo pleaded on Sunday for more New Yorkers to get tested for the coronavirus as the state reopens for business, engaging in a bit of political theater as he underwent a nasal swab test himself at his daily briefing.

“I’m not in pain, I’m not in discomfort,” he said after a doctor inserted a long swab into his nostril to collect a sample. “There is no reason why you should not get the test.”

As new deaths remained steady -- 139 were reported Sunday, a seven-week low -- Cuomo said the state is performing 40,000 tests a day and has the capacity to do more to make sure it avoids a new spike in cases. He said two more regions in the state are now qualified to reopen, and he expanded who is qualified for testing: those in the sectors returning to work first, in construction, manufacturing and curbside retail.

Until now, those permitted to get tests included anyone with Covid-19 symptoms, medical and emergency personnel and essential workers.

“The more tests, the better for the state,” he said, saying New York is testing at a rate double that of the nation as a whole.

The state reported 1,889 new virus cases on Sunday, for a total of 350,121. New and total hospitalizations continue to fall, the governor said.

New York -- the center of the outbreak in the U.S., which has suffered almost 25,000 deaths -- has moved to reopen more cautiously than other states, and especially in hard-hit New York City.

But Cuomo has steadily announced more measures: He said Sunday two more regions, in western New York and near the capital of Albany, would begin reopening shortly, joining five others that began after the state’s nearly two-month “pause” expired on May 15. The state has 10 regions.

On Saturday, he said some horse and car racing could open in June, though without fans, and the day before that the state’s beaches would be open, at half capacity, for Memorial Day. New York City and surrounding areas remain on lockdown for at least two more weeks, though the warmer weather has brought more people to parks and the streets, some masked and socially distanced, others not.

He said the trajectory of the death rate in New York underscored the importance of avoiding a new surge in cases – which he said means a slow reopening and monitoring with testing and tracing of cases.

Sunday was the seventh day in a row that the number of new fatalities was under 200, while the number rocketed up quickly as the virus took hold in New York to a peak of 799 on April 9.

“That’s why those spikes are dangerous,” he said. “Once you have the spike, coming down from the spike, there’s a prolonged period of time.”

As the state considers whether to allow summer camps and when to reopen schools in the fall, he said that the number of children being investigated for a rare condition and potentially fatal condition has risen to 120 -- a number he said he believed would rise.

At least three children have died in New York from what is being called pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, in which victims develop not the usual respiratory symptoms of Covid-19 but dangerous internal inflammations, including to the heart.

He said 16 states and five countries are also looking at cases. “We were told children were not affected,” he said, saying the condition underscored how little is still understood about the coronavirus.

“There is an assumption that someone always knows the answer and they’re just not telling us,” he said. “I’m telling you, nobody knows.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.