100 Days of Cuomo: Governor ends daily COVID-19 briefings
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrapped up a string of more than 100 daily briefings that became appointment viewing around the nation, alternatively informative, grave, jocular and combative, by declaring Friday that New York has “done the impossible” in taming the coronavirus.
Cuomo appeared alone behind his desk during a brief address, a departure from his routine of presenting slides with bar graphs of COVID-19 hospitalizations and then taking questions from reporters. But his message was the same as in recent days: New Yorkers at the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak worked together to fight the virus and now must be on guard for a second wave.
“If we could accomplish together what we did here, this impossible task of beating back this deadly virus, then there is nothing we can’t do," Cuomo said. "And we will be better. And we will be stronger for what we have gone through.”
As case numbers climbed, the briefings, usually from the state Capitol, were covered live daily by networks, notably CNN, the employer of the governor’s younger brother and on-air sparring partner, Chris Cuomo. The elder brother promised “just the facts” and shared the screen daily with slides loaded with statistics. But a politician famous for being calculating and controlling frequently provided glimpses of his humanity though 110 briefings with reporters.
On any given day, he would fret over the safety of his 88-year-old mother, expound on the grittiness of New Yorkers, get misty-eyed over the gift of a single mask, defend charges he locked down the state too late, chide young people for not wearing masks, or grieve over daily death tolls that climbed as high as 800.
On Friday, Cuomo said an average of 25 people per day were dying this week. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 was 1,284, compared with...
