Cuomo says he feels like for the first time New York is 'ahead of the virus'

At his daily press conference on Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he feels like, for the first time, the state is “ahead” of the coronavirus because of efforts made to control the outbreak.

Video Transcript

ANDREW CUOMO: The good news on the overall is we're finally ahead of this virus, right? For so long, we were playing catchup. We talked about the facts and circumstances that we found out about it. It was in China. It had moved. And we were playing catchup. We were behind it.

Now, I feel, for the first time, we're actually ahead of it. We have showed that we can control the beast. You look at those numbers coming down. Remember, our numbers are coming down in New York. Most states in this country, you still see the numbers going up. You take New York out of the national numbers, and you see the cases are on the incline. We have it on the decline. So we have the beast on the run. There's no doubt about that.

We haven't killed the beast. But we are-- we're ahead of it. And the hospitalization rate's coming down. And the death rate is coming down. So that's all good news.

And I feel that we are, for the first time in this engagement, we're actually ahead of the virus. We have to stay there. And we have to figure out what the next move is that the virus is going to make. And we have to stay ahead of it. But we are ahead of it. And we are in control of our own destiny.

You know, why is that virus on decline? Why are those cases going down? Because we're making the number of cases go down. We are reducing the number of infections. If we didn't do anything, you would have seen that infection number keep going straight up.

We reopen irresponsibly, you will see that infection number go straight up. We are reducing the rate of infection by our actions-- wearing the masks, the closed downs, the precautions. We turned that curve, no one else.

And we are going to determine what that rate of infection is going forward. You tell me how we behave today, I will tell you the rate of infection three days from now. You tell me how we behave today, I'll tell you the number of people who walk into a hospital in seven days or 10 days. It is that clear, cause and effect. It is that clear.

That's also liberating. Finally, our destiny, our future is in our hands. And it's not subject to the whims of the virus. We are in control of the spread of the virus. And that is good news to me. We just have to stay there. And we will.