New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) placed blame on the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic within his state on Europe instead of China, where the novel virus originated from, during his daily press conference on Monday.
Cuomo said the state and New York City was worse off because the "European virus" attacked them and no one saw it coming.
"We were really at a very, very bad place. Again, through no fault of our own. Virus came from Europe. Whoever would have figured that? Somebody should have, but above my pay grade," Cuomo said.
"We took the worst situation in the nation and changed the trajectory so now we are on a decline. The rest of the nation, the cases are still on the incline," he continued. "That’s because of what the people in this state did. If you had said, when we started this, 'Yes, we had more cases than anyone else. Yes, we had this European virus attack us and nobody expected it. But we are not going to change our trajectory. We are going to change the trajectory more dramatically than any place else in the nation.’ And when you look at the nation compared to New York, you will see us on the decline and the rest of the nation on the incline. People would have said it’s impossible, but we did it. But we have to stay smart."
Cuomo was likely referring to how a report that showed most cases that appeared in New York City in the early stages of their outbreaks came from Europe instead of China. This would bolster President Trump's decision to restrict flights from China in late January, but European travel restrictions were not put in place until later.
As of Tuesday, New York has a had a total of 338, 485 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 21,845 deaths, according to the state's health department.
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