A Democratic assemblyman from Queens is claiming his career was threatened by the governor last week if he failed to cover up for his assistant’s admission in a conference call that the state hid the actual number of nursing home deaths to keep the real figures from the Department of Justice. Assemblyman Ron Kim said the governor wanted him to issue a supportive statement, and when he wouldn’t he claims the governor said he would destroy him. The governor’s Senior Advisor Rich Azzopardi said in a statement that Assemblyman Kim is lying about the conversation he had with the governor, and that he and the governor “have had a long, hostile relationship.” Published reports say the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are also reportedly investigating governor Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus task force and his administration’s handling of nursing homes early in the pandemic.
The Haverstraw Community Center will be hosting a state pop-up vaccination site tomorrow. All appointments have already been filled, but the state says the site could host another pop-up in the future.
Meanwhile governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that FEMA will be setting up four additional community-based vaccination sites outside of New York City…
…but still none for Rockland County. The four new FEMA centers are in what the governor called “socially vulnerable communities.”
Indoor family entertainment centers and places of amusement have been given the state’s go-ahead to open at 25 percent capacity starting Friday, March 26th. Outdoor amusement parks can open at a 33 percent capacity starting Friday, April 9th. They must first submit reopening plans to their local health department. Additionally, day and overnight summer camps in New York State can begin to plan for reopening. The Department of Health will give specific reopening guidance in the coming weeks.
COVID-19 by the numbers now, here in Rockland, we lost two more to COVID, the total is 867. We’ve got 49 hospitalized confirmed with coronavirus, and 1,518 active cases. Our total case count is 37,088, that’s 134 more than Wednesday.