Cuomo says he will speak with Trump about testing capacity when they meet

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday he will talk to President Trump about states’ testing capacities during their meeting at the White House later in the day. Cuomo said that while he agrees with Mr. Trump’s assertion that states should be in charge of testing, the coronavirus‘ unprecedented scale necessitates federal assistance.

According to the governor, New York’s 211 labs have been unable to meet demand because they cannot get the raw materials needed for the test. Those materials, such as chemical reagents, are produced overseas, requiring international diplomacy in order to ramp-up production, he said.

“You shouldn’t expect all these governors to put together an international supply chain,” Cuomo said of the president.

Cuomo also said Tuesady that the state will resume elective outpatient treatments in select areas that do not have a “significant risk” of a coronavirus resurgence in the “near future.”

No hospitals or counties with current COVID-19 outbreaks are affected. The move excludes New York City, as well as Erie, Albany, Dutchess, Westchester, Rockland, Suffolk, and Nassau County. 

The change is in line with the governor’s plan to eventually re-open the state on a “regional basis.” 

Cuomo said Tuesday that his office will work with local governments, and is “open to making a region by region determination” based off hospitalization and infection rates, as well as hospital capacity.

“Manhattan is not Buffalo,” he said.