AIR SCARE
Coronavirus can linger as droplets in air for THREE HOURS before it falls to ground, Gov. Cuomo warns
GOVERNOR Cuomo reminded New Yorkers coronavirus can live in the air for three hours and survive on surfaces amid calls for reopening.
As well as surviving , the virus can live for up to , up to 24 hours on cardboard, and up to four hours on copper, Cuomo said.
He addressed the stealthy spread of the virus in relation to the state's reopening strategy after 16 other states submitted their reopening plans to the feds.
"How long does " he said. "It's something we need to know and frankly, I think it's something everybody needs to know.
"Just think about this from a transit point of view [...] it can live on a vinyl car seat for up to 72 hours, a pole on a bus, or a seat on bus.
"This was a shock to me: when they were talking about droplets I thought it was a droplet and then it falls. But it's a droplet that can hang in the air for three hours - I don't even know how that works."
Cuomo urged people to "factor that in," as well as the fact that who were asymptomatic, after confirming 422 more deaths.
Although hospitalizations and intubation rates were declining, the rate of new patients being admitted was still relatively flat in-state, he said.
Cuomo told reporters rates needed to be on a steady decline for two weeks before the stay-home orders were lifted, revealing that they were .
After again blasting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's statements about - which he described as the - Cuomo explained why New experienced so much infection.
From January until the state's March 19 shutdown, around 13,000 flights from Europe landed in New York and New Jersey airports carrying 2.2 million passengers.
"The flights from Europe landed in ," Cuomo said. "That's why we have the coronavirus cases."
"The virus probably got on a plane in and came here," he added. "The flights landed here, that’s why New York has coronavirus cases."
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants states to consider bankruptcy
Cuomo noted that 's travel ban on China was issued two months after the virus emerged in Wuhan, China, saying "the horse had already left the barn by the time we moved."
"We closed the front door with a China travel ban which was right but we left the back door open because the virus had left China," the governor said. "An outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere."
He branded McConnell a "taker not a giver" for suggesting bankruptcy as a viable route, daring him to pass a bill enabling states to do so.
"You’re not bailing out New York: New York has bailed you out every year," Cuomo said, adding "every year was the No.3 state that took out what they put in" from the federal pot.
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During the conference, Cuomo also read out a letter from a farmer in northeast who sent an N95 mask to help out hard-hit medics in the Empire State.
"It's that love that courage that generosity of spirit that makes this country so beautiful," the governor said.
"And makes Americans so beautiful, and it's that generosity of spirit, for me, makes up for all the ugliness that you see. Take one mask, I'll keep four."
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