Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and members of NY's COVID-19 task force departed today for Savannah, Georgia to help the city in the fight against COVID-19 as it experiences a surge in positive cases and hospitalizations. In Savannah, the Governor will host a roundtable meeting with the New York State delegation, Savannah Mayor Van R. Johnson and the Savannah health care team to discuss best practices to fight the pandemic, including how to set up testing and contact tracing operations. Governor Cuomo will return to Albany this evening.
Members of the New York Delegation include:
- Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor
- Robert Mujica, State Budget Director
- Jim Malatras, SUNY Empire State College President
- Gareth Rhodes, Deputy Superintendent & Special Counsel at NYS Department of Financial Services, Member of COVID-19 Task Force
- Larry Schwartz, Former Secretary to the Governor, Member of COVID-19 Task Force
- Lisa Pino, Executive Deputy Commissioner at NYS Department of Health
- Edgar Santana, Director of Downstate Regional Affairs
"When we were at our worst point with this virus in New York we have volunteers from all across the country come to help fight this dreaded disease, and now that we are past our apex we are ready to help any city or state with whatever they need," Governor Cuomo said. "Our federal government is still in denial about this virus and five months later this country is still totally unprepared to deal with this - I've been talking to other states and mayors and governors and they still don't have testing, tracing programs or PPE. We're going to meet with Mayor Van Johnson and his team today in Savannah, Georgia, we'll tell them about what we did, we will help them with testing and tracing programs, we're going to bring thousands of pieces of PPE and whatever they need from us they're going to get."