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ALBANY – A new public service announcement produced by New York State is trying to drive home the dangers of COVID-19 living room spread.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is now stressing that the virus isn’t spreading from mass gatherings or events, but rather, small living room get-togethers.
In his daily briefing on Wednesday, Cuomo predicted the number of cases will continue to rise as we head into the holiday season.
“Holiday season is 37 days,” Cuomo said. “We talked about Thanksgiving. It’s not about Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving is a commencement of the holiday season. That is a period of increased social activity, and increased social activity will increase the rate of infection. My personal opinion is that you’re are going to see an increase all throughout the holidays.”
Cuomo says the latest contact tracing data shows 70 percent of new cases come from homes and small gatherings, and that living room spread will be one of the biggest challenges in the fight against the virus moving forward into the winter.
“‘This is my best friend Jessie, he would never get me sick.’ It’s not intentional, it’s not that he knows. He was asymptomatic,” Cuomo explained.
While the governor’s office says the state has one of the lowest infection rates in the United States, avoiding small gatherings, wearing a mask, washing your hands and social distancing will help keep it low.
Cuomo also says that the state could receive its first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by December 15.
He says New York plans to prioritize nursing home residents and staff members when it begins distributing the first doses.
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