CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) on Coronavirus

Interview

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Meanwhile, here in the United States, several local and state governments are voicing their deep frustrations with the federal government's response to this outbreak. The New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, wrote an op-ed in "The New York Times," pleading with President Trump to step up efforts saying, and I'm quoting Cuomo now, "Mr. Trump, don't let bureaucracy get in the way of fighting this virus. Break the logjam, let states fully take over testing so they can unleash hundreds of labs tomorrow and bring testing to scale. It is the only way we will have a chance of keeping up with this rapid spread of this contagion."

Joining us now, the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo.

Governor, thank you so much for joining us especially on a critically important day like today. In that op-ed that you just wrote, you made three specific suggestions to help slow the spread. You said localized testing, federalized shutdowns of schools and businesses, and mobilize the Army Corps of Engineers to expand hospital capacity.

Do you anticipate, Governor, that the president will take your advice?

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: I certainly hope so, Wolf. I had a good conversation with the president on testing and he's actually allowed New York state to start doing its own testing. But look, here's the big point, we have been behind on this disease from day one. OK? It was happening in China, we knew it was happening in China, what was happening in China. We knew someone was going to get on an airplane and come to the United States of America.

We've always been behind. Right? They say, don't fight the last word. We have to get ahead of this. Everybody talks about flattening the curve. And we're doing everything we can to flatten the curve, the testing, the density reduction, et cetera. I believe on any projection that that flattening of the curve is not going to be enough. I don't see it as a curve. I see it as a wave. And the wave is going to crash on to our hospital system.

Our hospital system does not have the capacity to deal with any of these projections. These people, Wolf, all need intensive care. They need ventilators, it's a respiratory illness. I already have 60 people in intensive care.

[16:15:04] I only have 600 available intensive care beds in the state of New York. We're already at 60. Now, a state cannot build hospitals in this period of time. We can, we can use the Army Corps of Engineers to come in, retrofit dormitories, retrofit old facilities, and come up with medical facilities that could at least take some of the people out of hospital beds into these medical facilities to free up capacity.

What happened in Italy was the health care system became overwhelmed. We will be overwhelmed, every number says it. We were slow on testing. Let's not make the same mistake and sit here six weeks from now and say, we should have been building more medical facilities.

BLITZER: Yes.

CUOMO: Because we left people on gurneys in the hallway.

BLITZER: Yes, it's a real serious problem. And older people are already nervous that if they come down with the coronavirus and they go to the hospital, the medical personnel will focus in on the younger patients and they're worried about that, as you well know.

You've also called, Governor, for federal guidance on shutting down schools. You're leaving school closings in New York state up to the local school districts. Why not do what several other states have already done, cancel classes on a state level.

CUOMO: Well, in this state, Wolf, and you know this state, it's a different picture all across the state. We have down state New York, we have upstate New York, we have some counties that virtually have no cases whatsoever. And then I have New Rochelle in Westchester that has the highest cluster in the United States of America. So in the areas where it is dense, we are taking action. We just said the Nassau schools, Suffolk schools, Westchester schools were going to close. I said the New York City schools should close and must close.

But in New York, it's not as easy as just saying, close the schools. I want to make sure we have child care capacity for our central workers. We need our first responders coming to work. It can't be that we close a school and the police officer calls up the next morning and says, I can't show up because I have to stay home with my child. So we do need to have child care. We do need to have the food programs in place. Many of the schoolchildren in New York get breakfast and lunch at school, but we have to close the schools.

So we will be closing schools, New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester County. That's all of downstate New York. And then we'll see what happens upstate New York.

BLITZER: All right. We'll see what happens. The New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is looking to establish a statewide curfew right now. The mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, is doing the same thing.

Do you see your state, New York state, imposing a statewide curfew at some point?

CUOMO: You know, curfew, that word makes me nervous. Wolf, I do -- we have already started having businesses reduce their capacity, reduce their size. I see that continuing. I could see setting a time for businesses to close earlier than usual. But, you know, curfew, depending on what you mean by that, it depends, but the word has a bad connotation to me.

Governor Murphy's a good friend of mine. We work together. And it is very important that states coordinate these efforts. And that's why I would like to see the federal government do more, because when every state, Wolf, comes up with their own policies, you just have people shop among states. New Jersey creates a curfew, I don't. Everybody will drive to New York. You know.

Connecticut does something, I don't, everybody will drive to Connecticut. So that's why it would have been nice to have a federal government that really stepped up to the plate and said, once and for all, this is what we're going to do. All schools, all stores of this size, et cetera. I do believe this is a federal role. None of these other countries, China, South Korea, Italy, none of them have done this with 100 different strategies from different states and local governments.

This is a federal responsibility. Let local governments do the testing. Make the set rules. Make the decision on schools, make the decision on businesses, and get the Army Corps of Engineers building medical facilities. It's going to be too late, and we're going to regret that we never did it. You mark my words, Wolf.

BLITZER: The New York City Council speaker, Cory Johnson, Governor, he's calling on a complete shutdown of nonessential services, including bars and restaurants. Do you see that happening at some point down the road in New York state?

[16:20:07]

CUOMO: I could see businesses being closed over a period of time, right? This is -- I make my decisions based on science and based on data, so these are not political decisions to me. They are data- related decisions. As those numbers continue to go up, do you have to have more and more restrictions? Yes, you do.

BLITZER: And you make an important point, what may be good in New York City may not necessarily be good in my hometown of Buffalo, New York. So we're watching all of this carefully.

Governor Cuomo, as usual, I know you're incredibly busy right now. Thanks for spending a few moments with us.

CUOMO: Buffalo is doing OK, Wolf. Don't you -- I have Buffalo. You take --

BLITZER: All right.

CUOMO: You take the country.

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