New York governor Andrew Cuomo to get Emmy for his TV coronavirus briefings

Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, is to receive an Emmy award for his once-daily televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic that killed tens of thousands of New Yorkers this spring.

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced it plans to present the award to the Democratic politician, in a highly unusual decision that was met with a mix of praise and derision.

Bruce Paisner, the International Academy’s president and CEO, said Mr Cuomo is being honoured for using his briefings to inform and calm the public. Previous recipients include former Vice President Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, and director Steven Spielberg.

"The governor's 111 daily briefings worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure," he said.

"People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on, and New York tough became a symbol of the determination to fight back."

The 111 consecutive daily briefings, which ended on June 19, drew a total of 59 million viewers, the Academy said.

Mr Cuomo used Powerpoint-driven slideshows and his sometimes emotional, sometimes acerbic style to provide daily updates and detail his administration's efforts to shutter the economy and avoid predictions of as many as 100,000 people hospitalised at once.

However, he was criticised for the decision to direct nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients, which led to the deaths of more than 6,500 residents and is now subject to a Department of Justice investigation. The governor claimed he was following federal advice.

He later wrote a book on the subject, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic.

“This is shameful,” tweeted Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Republican Senator John McCain.

“Giving Andrew Cuomo an Emmy is the equivalent of giving Hannibal Lecter the Nobel Peace Prize,” wrote Lauren Boebert, member-elect to the US House of Representatives for Colorado's 3rd congressional district.

It came as New York City decided to close down schools, a decision the Center for Disease Control and Prevention described as unnecessary and an “emotional response” to rising Covid-19 cases.

Numbers of new cases in the US have reached record highs this week. Donald Trump Jnr, who said previously the figures of new cases were “next to nothing”, revealed on Friday that he had tested positive earlier in the week.