
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations is "purely contingent on what we do" and reopening the economy too quickly without a specific plan could cause the numbers to increase again.
"If we went through this, and lost all of these people and forced the essential workers and the hospital workers to do unbelievable tasks to get us through this crisis, and we recreate the crisis, then shame on us," Cuomo said at a news conference today.
"We can control the beast. Yes, but the beast is still alive. We did not kill the beast –– and the beast can rise up again," Cuomo added.
On antibody testing: Cuomo said said the FDA has approved the state's antibody tests.
“Now that we have the approved test we’re going to be rolling it out to do the largest survey of any state population that has been done,” he said.
Cuomo said the state can conduct 2,000 antibody tests per day, or about 14,000 per week. He mentioned that while this sounds like a large number, it is only a small percentage of New York's population of more than 19 million people.
Cuomo said this is the first real statistical number on exactly “where we are as a population,” and will provide a true “baseline.”
“We have not had hard data on where we are," Cuomo said.