#Cuomo admits NY made ‘a lot of mistakes’ in coronavirus fight

Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted Monday that New York made “a lot of mistakes” in its battle against coronavirus which has so far claimed 25,056, according to state data.

“It is hard. We made a lot of mistakes, but if we learn from half of the mistakes we made in doing it we are the wiser for it,” Cuomo said during a press briefing alongside Savannah, Ga. Mayor Van Johnson, a Democrat and Brooklyn native.

The New York governor did not specify exactly what mistakes he or his administration made, but Cuomo has been widely criticized for his fateful March mandate that may have led to some 6,600 COVID-19-related deaths in nursing homes alone.

“We got assaulted by the COVID virus in New York,” said Cuomo as he noted that the state had its first confirmed coronavirus case on March 1 but was not shut down until nearly three weeks later on March 20.

“The numbers just exploded on us,” said Cuomo.

Cuomo, along with members of the state’s COVID-19 task force departed from JFK Airport earlier Monday to head to Savannah to offer aid to the city in its fight against coronavirus as cases continue to spike in the Peach State.

“We had to learn the hard way and we did and the purpose of being here today is first to share what we’ve done on the testing and the tracing…and see what we can help Savannah set that up,” Cuomo said.

Additionally, New York is working to set up two church coronavirus testing sites in Savannah hot spots “that will be models of how to do it,” Cuomo said.

New York, which has had more than 400,000 people test positive to date, also gave an influx of personal protective equipment, including, 124,000 surgical masks, 7,500 test kits, 7,500 gowns, 7,500 gloves, 7,500 N95 masks, 7,500 face shields, and 1,250 gallons of hand sanitizer, according to Cuomo.

“COVID poses an extraordinary test to government – the toughest test that I have seen in my lifetime,” said Cuomo, who added, “Government performance really matters…And unfortunately we have more experience in that area than I would have liked to have had during COVID.”

During the press briefing, Johnson touted Cuomo’s coronavirus pandemic response and New York for giving it the much-needed PPE.

“New York State literally went from worst to first and they have shown the entire country and the entire world the way to do this right,” said Johnson who told Cuomo, “Just your presence gives us hope.”

“We want to be able to talk about COVID-19 in our rear view mirror too,” said Johnson.

Johnson gifted Cuomo a key to the city of Savannah, as well as an art piece created by a local artist of Cuomo, while Cuomo gave Johnson a decorative wooden box with state seals adorned on it.

According to the latest statistics from Georgia’s Department of Health, the state has more than 143,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, a COVID-19 death-toll of 3,173 and more than 15,000 hospitalizations related to the bug.