Cuomo Says a New York COVID-19 Shutdown Is ‘Totally Avoidable’

EXCERPT:

CUOMO: "Big question. Will we have shutdowns? That’s the question everybody asks me. Nobody can answer that question today. People can have opinions, but it is purely up to us because it is a question of future actions. It will be determined by us by what we do over the coming weeks. I do not believe that we are destined to have a shutdown. There is no destiny here. Destiny is what we make it. The future is what we make it. It is totally in our control and a shutdown is totally avoidable. Totally. I believe New Yorkers can slow the spread and that hospitals can manage the increase. Those are the two variables. Can you slow the spread? And can the hospitals manage the increase? On the hospitals, we’ve spent a lot of time working with the hospitals, their capacity, their communication, their ability to deal with a surge. And we’ve spoken with many of them. They have now shifted to crisis management. We have added capacity, especially in downstate New York. And we have about 31,000 available hospital beds now in downstate New York, which is after our Department of Health mandate saying add an additional 25 percent capacity.”