New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo blamed a pair of media outlets for the surge of coronavirus cases in states such as Arizona and Florida.
“Florida listened to the New York Post,” Cuomo said in a call with reporters on Sunday. “Texas listened to the Wall Street Journal. Arizona listened to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. That was wrong. That was wrong.”
There have been spikes in COVID-19 cases in states across the country this past month. More than 4 million U.S. residents have been infected, and 150,000 deaths have been attributed to the virus. The uptick in infections have prompted local and state officials to halt reopenings and even rescind some measures in order to keep public health at bay.
Over the weekend, Florida surpassed New York to become the state with the second-highest coronavirus case count behind California. Florida now has over 420,000 cases of COVID-19.
Cuomo, a Democrat who faced controversy over his now-reversed directive forcing nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients, touted his state as being one that has succeeded in containing the outbreak.
New York did not begin reopening its economy until early summer, and Cuomo said this was because he ignored the opinion sections of some media outlets pushing for faster reopenings.
“The Wall Street Journal, New York Post — they continue to beat a horse that is dead: ‘We should reopen the economy faster in New York,’ ‘The infection rate is low; reopen faster,’” Cuomo said. “The infection rate is low because we have done an intelligent, phased reopening. What they are advocating has been demonstrated to be wrong and to be a failure.”
New York has had more than 400,000 coronavirus infections and 32,000 related deaths.
