New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joked that Santa Claus would be good to him this year because of the hard work he has put into 2020.
“Santa’s going to be very good to me this year, I can tell,” Cuomo said during his Monday briefing, according to New York Times reporter Jesse McKinley. “I worked hard this year.”
CORRECTION: Listening to tape, there’s no “very” in second half of quote. Rest is CQ.
Verbatim: “Santa’s going to be very good to me, I can tell. I worked hard this year.” https://t.co/AoCKKSCBPL
— Jesse McKinley (@jessemckinley) December 21, 2020
Cuomo made the remark after saying that he had granted a “quarantine waiver” for Santa, but he noted that he is required to wear a mask while delivering gifts this year.
.@NYGovCuomo – barely containing laughter at the gag – unveils a “quarantine waiver” for Santa, albeit with a mask. pic.twitter.com/rgaB7B4cFF
— Jesse McKinley (@jessemckinley) December 21, 2020
While Cuomo may have been working hard this year, some critics have claimed his work turned out to be disastrous.
Writing for the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Kevin Pham argued that although “policymakers deserve a tremendous amount of grace for making mistakes in the early pandemic response,” Cuomo’s decision to force nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients was “inexcusable,” given the knowledge that the virus was “particularly deadly” for the elderly.
“Gov. Cuomo, who presided over the worst pandemic response in the country and whose policy actively and directly made it worse, has no business writing a book to congratulate himself on a job well done,” Pham continued.
Cuomo also discussed the new COVID-19 vaccines during the briefing, saying that he is “willing to take it” but believes it should go to “essential workers” first.
The governor also went over the state’s current COVID-19 statistics, noting that hospitalizations are up 143 to a total of 6,331. He added that some of that is due to understaffed hospitals not discharging patients on the weekend.
Meanwhile, the state recorded 109 new COVID-19 deaths, and the positivity rate climbed to almost 6% after recently falling to 5.75%.
