Cuomo on the State of Things Today

In his press briefing today, Governor Andrew Cuomo reported that thirty-six of the fifty states are now seeing an increase in the rate of COVID-19 infection.    

July 8

This is a change from two days ago, when there were thirty-eight states seeing an increase in the rate of infection.

July 6

Noting that New York was the first state to mandate the wearing of masks and citing projections that show adopting a federal mask policy could prevent 45,000 deaths from COVID-19, Cuomo called on Donald Trump to sign an executive order requiring that masks be worn by all Americans.

On the subject of schools reopening in New York, Cuomo presented a schedule: finalized guidance for safe reopening will be available on Monday, July 13; school districts must submit their plans for reopening by July 31; sometime between August 1 and August 7 decisions will be made about reopening. 

Cuomo made it clear that the power to decide whether or not schools reopened in the fall belonged to the states not to the federal government.

Responding to a question from a reporter about Trump's threat to withhold federal funding from school districts that do not reopen, Cuomo said, "Threaten me, threaten me. It's not the first time. . . . You're not going to bully New Yorkers." Jim Malatras, president of Empire State College, provided the information that New York spends $70 billion on public education and only about $3 billion of that comes from the federal government. He went on to say that the unfortunate truth was that federal money "mostly goes to the highest need students," naming meal programs as an example of what was funded by the federal government.
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