Gov. Cuomo urges COVID-19 'reality check' as New York infection numbers soar

NEW YORK — Days ahead of the holiday season, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned New Yorkers about the ongoing dangers of COVID-19 on Monday as the state continues to battle rising coronavirus test rates and hospitalizations.

Warning against a return to the dark days of the pandemic, Cuomo proclaimed fast-rising rates in upper Manhattan and especially Staten Island, which has seen hospitalizations tripled in just three weeks.

Cuomo said a new field hospital would open on Staten Island’s South Shore as hospitals grapple with overcrowding.

The state recorded 5,906 new positive tests for coronavirus, a 3.08% rate. Hospitalizations are at 2,724, a number that has jumped a disturbing 120% in just three weeks.

Cuomo repeatedly warned that New York will have more than 6,000 people in the hospital with coronavirus in three weeks if we don’t curb the spread of the pandemic.

At least 33 New Yorkers died of COVID-19 on Sunday, he said.

The governor pleaded with New Yorkers to take warnings seriously and not to fall into the trap of thinking we can hold a normal Thanksgiving with large family gatherings.

“This cannot be a normal Thanksgiving,” Cuomo said. “The cases are already on the increase and we are coming into the high social season (with) Thanksgiving and Christmas. … This is a toxic cocktail.”

Along with his warnings, the governor suggested that New Yorker should turn Thanksgiving into the “most profound” statement about how society made it through the pandemic — by skipping family gatherings.

He decried ad campaigns portraying people enjoying normal Thanksgiving with families eating and drinking as if everything were normal.

“This Thanksgiving is better than that,” Cuomo said. “It’s more spiritual than that. It’s more profound. It’s about life and death.”

Cuomo warned New Yorkers to remember what the metro area underwent in the siren-filled deadly days of the pandemic.

“How quickly can we forget what we went through?” he asked. “If we’re not careful, we’re going back there.”

In an emotional speech, Cuomo reminded New Yorkers to honor the sacrifices made by essential workers who risked their lives and name-checked transit workers, nurses and grocery store clerks who kept the city and state running.

He recalled walking through the field hospital at the Javits Convention Center in midtown Manhattan filled with 4,000 medical cots awaiting a surge of COVID-19 patients, and the grim death roll that peaked at 799 deaths a day in early April.

“Why don’t we think of them?” Cuomo asked.

The governor spoke of the decision of his daughter, Mariah, to skip Thanksgiving and stay in Chicago over the holiday.

He recalled her frustration and pain at skipping the traditional family gathering. He recounted their painful conversation, which he said reflected tough choices made by millions of New Yorkers ahead of Turkey Day and the holiday season to come.

“Thank you, Mariah, for putting me ahead of yourself,” Cuomo said. “Mariah loves me so much she is not coming to be with me for Thanksgiving.”

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