Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a group of reporters Monday that coronavirus projections from the experts were all misleading, and that he is no longer speculating because of it.
Cuomo said he could not predict when the death rate and hospitalization numbers will drop to the necessary standards required for reopening certain parts of the state, because he said all the experts “failed at predicting.”
“Now, people can speculate. People can guess. I think next week, I think two weeks, I think a month,” Cuomo told reporters on Memorial Day. “I’m out of that business because we all failed at that business. Right? All the early national experts. Here’s my projection model. Here’s my projection model. They were all wrong. They were all wrong.”
Cuomo’s remark came at a press conference at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York City when the Democrat New York governor was asked when New York City might reopen.
Cuomo mentioned some statewide criteria that regions needed to meet before reopening, including a 14-day downswing in deaths and hospitalizations.
But the governor said he did not want to guess when New York City could hit that benchmark because past projections have been wrong.
Cuomo said Saturday that New York’s one-day death toll fell below 100 for the first time since March, and Long Island and the mid-Hudson areas could open as soon as this week.
In order to reopen, state regions must have a decline in the number of deaths and hospitalizations and meet standards for testing and contact tracing.
New York state has seen more than 362,000 coronavirus cases, with more than 23,000 deaths, according to the latest data.