Video, Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo's COVID-19 Update: New York Has the Nation's Lowest Rate of Transmission

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo gave an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Rate of Transmission (Rt) website rt.live, New York State has the nation's lowest Rt, at .77. An Rt of 1 or more means COVID-19 will spread quickly. Out of the 72,395 tests conducted in New York State yesterday, 822, or 1.1 percent, were positive. Each region's percentage of positive tests over the last three days is as follows:

The Governor also confirmed 822 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 381,714 cases. Of the 381,714 who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

When it comes to the reopening, the number for us to watch now is the daily testing number. We've been talking about a lot of numbers over the past couple of months, the hospital number, the ICU number. The number to watch now is the daily testing number. We do 50,000 tests per day, okay, more tests than any place in the country. Those 50,000 tests tell you immediately what's happening with the infection rate.

We're starting to reopen. we watch those daily testing numbers to see what's happening. And they're on a website, I tell the government leaders all the time, study these numbers, look at what's behind them. But for example, New York City was at 1.5 percent, which was the infection rate from the testing, then 1.7, yesterday it was 1.5. So we're watching those numbers, you'll see a little up and down, but if you see anything significant, then we would have to really take a deeper look. You can look at where it is in the boroughs. The boroughs have very different infection rates. One of the sad facts in this is the lower income communities, higher percentage minority communities have a higher infection rate. That's another symbol of the injustice in our society. They have less healthcare coverage. You see some zip codes in the outer boroughs, twice the infection rate of the city. The city's about 19 percent infection rate. You have some zip codes up to 50 percent infection rate. So, we're paying special attention to those.

Number of lives lost is 42 yesterday. You see the overall trend on this is down, and the numbers are probably at such a low level that I don't know if they'll drop much more than where we are. But this is also far away from where we've come. We wish all the families who lost loved ones that they find peace and we'll remember them in our prayers. You can see the journey over the past 100 days. We went right up the mountain, the number increased quickly, and then it took us a long time to come down.

But where we are today is a pivotal point in this entire situation with the coronavirus. You see states all across the nation where the infection rate is going up dramatically. You have states now that reopened that are scaling back their reopening. That's how bad the spikes are. Yesterday, 21 states said they had increase in COVID, 14 the new highs. Today, 23 states, 15 states hit a new high. We've seen these numbers increase before. We've been here. This is déjà vu. We have to be aware, and we have to be alert.

You look at what's happening to these states, they reopen and then the number goes up which is common sense on one level. The number came down because you closed everything down. When you reopen and you increase activity, don't be surprised when the infection rate goes up, unless you were very smart and disciplined about the way you reopened. That is the whole difference here. But the states that are having trouble reopened, and everybody wanted to reopen, reopen fast, there were protests, reopen fast, everything is fine. I had one person on the street tell me I can't see the virus, can you see the virus? There is no virus. I mean people had all sorts of theories. States that have reopened too quickly or uncontrolled are now starting to close down.