‘Dramatic and very, very fast’: COVID cases rise in New York as Cuomo plans action on vaccine fraud, evictions and his own salary
ALBANY — New York’s COVID stats skyrocketed over the weekend, but it remains unclear if the spike is a post-holiday surge or due to a dip in testing, Gov. Cuomo said Monday.
The percentage of New Yorkers who tested positive for the virus rose to 8.3% on Sunday, an uptick of three percentage points from two days before, which the governor called “statistically improbable.”
“This is a jump from Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Cuomo said during a briefing in Albany. “Two days after Christmas. We have been talking about potential for spread during Christmas; for it to go up in two days is dramatic and very, very fast.
“So we’re studying what the uptick in that number actually means. If you look around the country you’ve seen significant upticks in just the past couple of days,” he added.
The state reported the results of 124,866 COVID-19 tests statewide on Sunday, a slight drop as New York has been recording closer to 200,000 tests a day in recent weeks, Cuomo argued.
“Fewer people got tested and more of those people are showing symptoms, that’s why they went and got tested,” he said. “The number of positive cases didn’t go up, and the number of people getting tested dropped by half.”
The number of people being treated for coronavirus in hospitals, meanwhile, continues to climb with 7,559 patients currently hospitalized and 1,222 in intensive care units.
Another 114 New Yorkers died from COVID on Sunday.
The state will crack down on fraud related to vaccine distribution via an executive order from the governor that will raise fines up to $1 million and could lead to the loss of state-issued licenses for health care providers.
“Vaccines are valuable and there will be people who break the law, and we’re looking at one health care provider who may have done that,” Cuomo said. “We want to send a clear signal to the providers that if you violate the law on these vaccinations, we will find out and you will be prosecuted.”
The move comes as the state investigates ParCare Community Health, an Orange County-based provider, for fraudulently obtaining and distributing doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Cuomo said more than 140,000 New Yorkers have received their first round of COVID inoculations so far as the state prepares to expand who is eligible for the vaccine this week, covering urgent care center employees, health care workers administering the doses and residents of Office of Addiction Services and Supports facilities.
The governor voiced support for a sweeping piece of legislation slated to be approved by the Legislature before the end of the day that will bar most evictions in the state through May and provide some relief for home and property owners.
Cuomo also signed two other executive orders Monday, one relating to evictions and a second withholding pay increases for all commissioners and statewide elected officials, including himself.
A scheduled pay increase slated to take effect in January would have raised Cuomo’s salary by $25,000 to $250,000 and would have made him the highest-paid governor in the country.
“This is the right thing to do, I think,” he said. “It’s no reflection on what these commissioners have done; they’ve probably worked harder than anyone in their position in decades, there can be no test like this one.”
The Buffalo Bills, meanwhile, are still working with state officials to see whether they can devise a plan that would allow about 6,700 fans to attend an upcoming playoff game.
State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the current plan would involve rapid testing of attendees before the game. Contact tracing would be used to track anyone who becomes infected.
Cuomo said the experiment could serve as a basis for future events in the coming year as vaccinations continue.
“We’re working together to develop a pilot plan that would allow the Bills to operate,” the governor said. “This is not just about attending a football game. We are trying to find a way to reopen businesses and use our technology to reopen businesses.”
