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Thursday, 28 March 2024

'Look at us today, see yourself tomorrow,' NY Gov. Cuomo warns

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'Look at us today, see yourself tomorrow,' NY Gov. Cuomo warns
'Look at us today, see yourself tomorrow,' NY Gov. Cuomo warns

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday warned that no one is immune from getting the coronavirus, including young people, those in rural areas of the country - and his own brother, Chris, a CNN anchor who revealed one day earlier he tested positive for the virus.

Lisa Bernhard has more.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: “The numbers are going up….” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that his state, the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, now has nearly 84,000 cases – a one-day jump of almost 8,000 - with the number of deaths approaching 2000… up by nearly 400 from the day before.

Despite the surge in cases, Cuomo says young people are still not getting the message, so he’s closing all the New York City playgrounds.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: “I warned people that if they didn’t stop the density and the games in the playgrounds – you can’t play basketball, you can’t come in contact with each other.” (SOUNDBITE) (English) DR MONALISA MUCHATUTA, SAYING: "We are running out of medications, we're running out of equipment, we are even running out of oxygen which is something that patients with COVID-19 need." Doctors at a Brooklyn hospital overwhelmed by coronavirus patients took to social media to plead with young people to stay at home, both for the sake of others and their own.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DR BENJAMIN OBASEKI, SAYING: “There’s a common misconception going around that it’s only elder people in our population that are being affected.

This is simply untrue.

Every day we are having younger adults come in who have very little co-morbidities or other illnesses going on who are being seriously affected by this illness.

Affected to the point to where they have to be put on a ventilator just to breath.

The one that’s beeping in the background is a young patient who was presumably healthy before they came in.

Please hear this warning and do whatever is necessary to prevent this from spreading.” One model, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that 16,000 New Yorkers could lose their lives, with the total number of fatalities near 100,000 – meaning that tens of thousands of Americans across the country could die.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: “So to the extent that people in Kansas watch the nightly news and say, ‘Well, this is a New York problem, that’s not what these numbers say.’ That’s why I say to my fellow governors and elected officials all across this country, ‘Look at us today, see yourself tomorrow.’” He also spoke of his own brother, Chris Cuomo - a CNN anchor who revealed Tuesday that he tested positive for the virus - as further proof that anyone can contract the disease.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: “I couldn’t protect my own brother.

This is my best friend.

Talk to him several times a day.

Basically spent my whole life with him.

And it is frightening on a fundamental level.” Cuomo pointed to models showing the outbreak could reach its apex in New York at the end of April.

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