Story at a glance
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo offered advice to states with emerging coronavirus cases.
- He advocates paying attention to numerical projections against hopeful intuition.
- Some increasingly vulnerable states include Michigan and Louisiana.
As New York City battles an onslaught of coronavirus cases amid personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilator shortages, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has a message for states seeing quick increases in coronavirus infections: Make the hard choices sooner.
When asked on CNN about states such as Michigan and Louisiana, whose cities such as Detroit and New Orleans are seeing a boom in coronavirus cases, Gov. Cuomo said elected leaders will need to make difficult decisions regarding public health and safety.
“Politicians don’t like to make the hard choices,” he said. “Closing the schools is hard, I know. Telling people nonessential workers have to stay home is hard, I know.”
While acknowledging the difficulties of making decisions to issue quarantine and stay-at-home orders, Cuomo asserted that “The sooner you do it, the better.”
Following reports that New Orleans is experiencing an increasing number of cases of COVID-19 and President Trump approving a major disaster declaration for the state of Louisiana, the official case count has increased by approximately 951 between Thursday and Friday, according to data from Louisiana’s Office of Public Health. The state case count is now at 2,746.
Similarly, Michigan is experiencing an uptick, with CNN reporting 2,856 active cases, mainly centered in Detroit and in the greater Wayne County area, where there are about 1,389 active cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) also recently received a major disaster declaration status from the federal government. A statewide stay-at-home order was issued on March 24.
In addition to making critical public health decisions as soon as possible, Cuomo also advised state leaders to make data-driven decisions and advocate for personal protective equipment for health care facilities.
“Get the numbers and be prepared for the numbers, and get the equipment and get it sooner…if you don’t get it now you’re not going to have it when you need it.”
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