Coronavirus Update: Cuomo Issues Executive Order Requiring Essential Workers Wear Masks, Calls For Repeal Of SALT Tax
ALBANY (CBSNewYork) -- The total number of hospitalizations related to coronavirus has decreased again, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
The numbers suggest the apex of cases is more of a plateau, and efforts to "flatten the curve" appear to be working.
"You're not seeing a great decline in the numbers, but you're seeing a flattening," he said. "It has been flattening at a terribly high level."
There were 758 additional COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, for a total of 9,385, Cuomo said.
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Cuomo issued an executive order requiring employers provide essential workers with a cloth or surgical mask to their employees when they interact with the public, free of charge.
Cuomo said the state wants to reopen "as soon as possible."
"The caveat is we need to be smart in the way we reopen. What a smart means is a coordinated approach, a regional approach, and a safe approach. Nobody wants to pick between a public health strategy and an economic strategy. And as governor of this state, I'm not going to pick one over the other. We need a public health strategy that is safe, that is consistent with an economic strategy," Cuomo said.
Web Extra: See Cuomo's 4/12 Coronavirus Presentation (.pdf)
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Cuomo called on federal lawmakers to address the budget shortfall the state is going to face in the aftermath of the crisis. He called on lawmakers to repeal their decision on the SALT deductions.
"A simple easy way to help New York is right the wrong that the federal government did when it passed the SALT tax, state local tax deductibility. That was just a political maneuver in the first place. You're trying to help places that are suffering from the virus? Repeal the SALT tax, which should have never been done, as I said in the first place," Cuomo said.
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Cuomo said he'd consider reopening drive-in theaters.
