Gov. Cuomo appoints former Google CEO to commission that will re-imagine how NY operates

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been brought in to head a 15-member commission to look at reforms in the wake of the pandemic.

News 12 Staff

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May 6, 2020, 3:11 PM

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Updated 1,542 days ago

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Gov. Cuomo says an alarming number of New Yorkers are still getting COVID-19 – 18% of which are from Long Island, where the governor was Wednesday for his daily briefing.

"With everything we've done – closed schools, closed businesses, everybody shelter at home, the precautions about wearing a mask, wear gloves…You still have 600 new cases that walked through the door yesterday," said Gov. Cuomo.

MORE: LIVE BLOG - Coronavirus updates from the tri-state area and beyond
TRACKER: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut coronavirus cases and deaths

The governor said 66% of those new patients were not essential workers. According to new data from hospitals, most patients are over 51 years old and were at home when they contracted the virus. The governor said that data will help when it comes to reopen New York state.

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"Our position in New York is the answer to the question is how do we reopen is to follow facts and data as opposed to emotion and politics," said Gov. Cuomo.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been brought in to head a 15-member commission to look at reforms in the wake of the pandemic.

New York's pause order ends on May 15. However, Long Island is not one of the regions that has hit the necessary metrics to reopen.

Briefing Notes:

Gov. Cuomo: "A painfully slow decline." Total hospitalization rate and the number of new cases are down again.
Gov. Cuomo: 232 New Yorkers died on Tuesday due to COVID-19.
Gov. Cuomo on reopening NY: Facts and data vs. emotion and politics.
Gov. Cuomo says the state is asking hospitals to provide information about new cases of COVID-19 over three days. Where are they coming from? How can the data help target the problem?
Most of those new cases are coming from downstate and disproportionately minorities.
Initial findings show that the majority of new cases of COVID-19 were from people who were not working, not traveling, predominately downstate, predominantly minority, predominantly older, predominantly nonessential employees and predominately at home. "It comes down to protecting yourself."
Gov. Cuomo welcomes Eric Schmidt, a former CEO and Executive Chairman of Google, to his briefing. Schmidt agrees to chair 15-member blue-ribbon commission on reopening the state.
Schmidt stresses using technology "to make things better" and make sure NY emerges stronger from COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Cuomo says using absentee ballots are "the best way" to vote in the June 23 primary in New York.
Gov. Cuomo says JetBlue is donating a pair of round-trip flights to 100,000 medical workers in the nation, starting with 10,000 in New York.

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