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Gov. Cuomo Heaps Praise on Trump for Responsiveness and Decisiveness Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Bronson Stocking
Bronson Stocking  |  April 12, 2020 9:00 AM

New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo praised President Trump for his responsiveness and decisiveness in working with New York amid the state's ongoing Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

"I've worked very hard with the President of the United States," Gov. Cuomo said during a coronavirus briefing on Saturday. "We've had our political differences in the past, no doubt, but there's also no doubt that I've worked hand and glove with the president here and he has been responsive to New York and responsive to New York's needs, and he's done it quickly and he's done it efficiently."

The governor also marveled at the president's decisiveness and how quickly the president was able to respond to meet the needs of New Yorkers. 

"I've literally had conversations with him in the morning where he turned around a decision by that afternoon," the governor said admiringly. "I've been in the federal government. I know what it's like to make a decision, and he has really responded to New York's needs."

President Trump was initially criticized for pushing back on Gov. Cuomo's projection that New York would need some 40,000 ventilators and more than 140,000 hospital beds at the peak of the state's outbreak.  

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"I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity back in March. 

Now, new models from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation confirm the president's suspicion, showing New York already reached its peak on April 8 as to the maximum number of ventilators and hospital beds the state would need to treat patients. Instead of 140,000 hospital beds, fewer than 23,000 were actually needed. Instead of 40,000 ventilators, a projected 5,008 were needed.

As of Saturday, around 180,000 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have been reported in New York and more than 8,600 people have died. While the death toll continues to mount, the number of hospitalizations is beginning to fall, as is the number of intubations. The governor said that potential new hot spots in upstate New York and Long Island now appear stable after aggressive actions were taken to mitigate the virus in those areas.