Cuomo says Trump is not a king, can’t force states to reopen
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo took to morning TV shows Tuesday to push back against President Donald Trump’s claim of “total” authority to reopen the nation’s virus-stalled economy, noting that a president is not an absolute monarch.
“We don’t have a king,” Cuomo said on NBC’s Today. “We have a president. That was a big decision. We ran away from having a king, and George Washington was president, not King Washington. So the president doesn’t have total authority.”
The Democratic governor, whose state has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, was reacting to Trump’s assertion Monday that “when somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total.”
Sunday was the sixth straight day that the city’s medical call volume was lower than the previous day. Numbers for Monday will be released later Tuesday.
The fire department said it’s too early to know exactly why volume has dropped.
At the peak, operators were answering four new calls a minute.
The fire department said the heavy volume of coronavirus patients had been pushing response times for the most serious calls to an average of more than 10 minutes, up from about 6½ to 7 minutes under normal circumstances.
Made in New York
New York City will move toward coronavirus self-sufficiency by starting production of virus test kits, face shields and surgical gowns, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.
“Starting in a few weeks we will be producing here in New York City 50,000 test kits per week with components put together right here, with companies, universities, New York City workers right here building a brand new supply chain to feed this industry that will now develop in New York City,” de Blasio said, adding, “if we can go further, we’re going to build it up rapidly.”
State and city officials have stressed the need to greatly expand coronavirus testing before any relaxation of social distancing guidelines can be contemplated, and health care workers have complained throughout the virus pandemic of shortages of personal protective equipment like gowns and face shields.
De Blasio said eight city companies are now making 240,000 face shields a week and will ramp up to 465,000 by April 24 and to 620,000 soon after.
He said five companies are making 30,000 surgical gowns a week and the goal is more than 250,000 weekly.
De Blasio said the city will purchase 50,000 test kits a week from Indiana-based Aria-Diagnostics and additionally will start producing its own test kits.
He said the names of the companies involved in the initiatives would be announced later.
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