Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has announced over the last several days key initiatives including an investigation into the impacts of Covid-19 on children and an extension of the statute of limitations for victims of child sex abuse to file claims.
The governor has also set up regional “control rooms” — groups of counties organized by geographical region — to plan and monitor the reopening of the economy. The five-member Long Island delegation includes Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. Governor Cuomo on Monday said only three regions, the Southern Tier, the Mohawk Valley, and Finger Lakes area, have met all seven criteria for reopening the economy when the state’s PAUSE order expires on Friday.
The news comes as new hospitalization and intubation figures slowly continue to decline in New York. Statewide, as of Monday morning, there were 337,055 positive cases — representing just under 28 percent of the 1.2 million people who have been tested in New York — and 21,640 people have died of Covid-19.
“Our numbers are coming down in New York, but most states in this country, you still see their numbers going up,” Governor Cuomo said in a press briefing on Friday. “We have it on the decline. We have the beast on the run.”
On Saturday, Governor Cuomo announced an executive order requiring all nursing homes and adult care facilities to test all employees for the virus twice per week and to report any positive test results to the state by the next day. “The executive order also mandates that hospitals cannot discharge a patient to a nursing home unless that patient tests negative for Covid-19,” a press release on the governor’s website says. “All nursing home and adult care facility administrators will be required to submit a plan on how they will accomplish this testing” by May 15, or face fines of $2,000 per violation per day or the loss of their operating licenses.
The new study on children’s health was spurred by at least three deaths of children in New York that are suspected of being related to Covid-19. There are 93 children, mostly of school age, who are showing symptoms that mirror toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, which affects blood vessels, as of Monday morning, according to the governor.
“We were laboring under the impression that young people were not affected by Covid-19. . . . We’re not so sure that is the fact anymore,” he said on Friday.
The day before, he issued a mandate allowing an additional five months for cases to be filed under the Child Victims Act. When it went into effect last August, that law extended the statute of limitations for victims of child sex abuse to file cases in New York for one year. The new statute of limitations is through Jan. 14, 2021.
“Because of the reduction in court services, we want to extend that window,” Governor Cuomo said. He quoted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying, “Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
The state is now joining with Northwell Health to set up temporary testing centers in 24 churches, predominantly in places with large populations of minorities. A map of the new testing sites indicates that the bulk of them are in New York City, with a few in Nassau County. It is unclear whether there will be such a facility in Suffolk County, as the county was excluded from the test-site map.
Governor Cuomo also extended the moratorium on residential or commercial evictions for another 60 days, through Aug. 20. “The state is banning late payments or fees for missed rent payments during the eviction moratorium, and allowing renters facing financial hardship due to Covid-19 to use their security deposit as payment and repay their security deposit over time,” a press release on the governor’s website says.
The governor said last week that the State Department of Health has provided the new treatment known as remdesivir to certain health centers to help people more quickly recover from Covid-19.