ALBANY, N.Y. — To further stop the spread of coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo is signing an executive order requiring all people in public to wear a mask or mouth/nose covering. Cuomo says New Yorkers must wear a mask in a situation where social distancing is not possible.
The governor says this includes any situation in public where you cannot maintain social distancing.
Cuomo is giving the public a three-day notice to allow compliance with this executive order. At this time, there is no civil penalty for violating the executive order.
The governor once again reiterated that the curve in New York State appears to be flattening, with hospitalizations going down, ICU admissions going down and the number of intubations going down.
However, Cuomo says in order to safely reopen New York State, we need large scale testing, but this is not currently possible. Cuomo says the states need a partnership with the federal government in order to do more testing.
At this time New York State has conducted more than 500,000 coronavirus tests, which is more than any other state. California, Florida and Michigan combined have conducted 492,000 tests in the same time frame.
Cuomo says the more testing the state does, the more the economy will open.
The governor says there are two factors on reopening. The first is determining how essential a business, service or product is, and the second is determining the risk of infection spread by reopening that business. From there, the most essential and lower risk industries will be opened first.
From there, the key is testing, tracing and isolation. Testing people for the virus, tracing the spread of the virus, then isolating the virus. Cuomo says this is a massive undertaking but it would be possible with assistance and funding from the federal government.
