NY Coronavirus: Cuomo Strikes Deal With Trump On Testing

NEW YORK, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday said he and President Donald Trump have struck a deal on large-scale testing for the new coronavirus.

Cuomo had repeatedly said diagnostic and antibody testing for the virus that would allow states to lift severe stay-at-home orders was impossible for individual states. He insisted only the federal government could take on such a problem, which involved massive numbers of tests, international supply chain issues, and staffing.

Trump and Cuomo met Tuesday and agreed state governments should be responsible for managing tests in their own labs. It will also be up to states to determine where those tests should be administered, provide staff for those tests and determine how often to take samples. Contact tracing based on those tests will also be the state's responsibility.

However, handling supply side issues dealing with chemical reagents, vials, swabs and other matters involving national manufacturers will be left to the federal government, he said.

"That is where the federal government could help," he said.

He added: "That is an intelligent division of labor, in my opinion."

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New York currently takes about 20,000 tests a day. Cuomo's goal is to double that number for a combined 40,000 tests a day for antibody and diagnostic testing. He noted it will likely take "several weeks" to ramp up and called it the "biggest single task we have to do."

"I feel very good about that," he said. "If we could double our tests that would be a home run."

Tests will be given across the board, he said, with preference given to special populations such as nursing homes, prisons and congregate facilities.

The massive testing operation will be pricey, Cuomo said.

"It will be expensive. We don’t have a price tag," he said.

Cuomo expressed displeasure at legislation passed Tuesday in the U.S. Senate that he said would not fund state governments, which are tasked with restarting the economy and paying teachers, health care workers, police and more.

"The governors are going to do the reopening and they have no funds to do it," Cuomo said.

Trump told Cuomo he will try to get funding for states in the next piece of legislation and that a local match requirement that would have New York pay a portion of it's emergency federal funding would be waived. New York was disproportionately affected by the virus and would be a disproportionate amount back, Cuomo said.

"The incongruity - the state that has the most pain and death should get the bill because they had the pain and death — it makes no sense," Cuomo said.