The deadly coronavirus pandemic could persist into 2021, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.
“It is going to be four months, six months, nine months,” said Cuomo during an Albany press conference, as the number of confirmed state cases surged past 15,000. “We’re in that range.”
Though Cuomo offered the dire prediction, he noted that the situation remains very fluid, and that even the experts can’t say for sure when the contagion will run its course.
“Nobody has a crystal ball,” he said. “No one can tell you … but it is in that range.”
To push back against the disease — which has infected 15,168 and killed 114 statewide, including 9,654 and 63 in the five boroughs — Cuomo on Sunday called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up four emergency hospitals inside Manhattan’s Javits Center.
But in the meantime, he issued a message of calm to New Yorkers.
“All essential services will be maintained,” he said. “There’s not going to be chaos, there’s not going to be anarchy.
“Life is going to go on. Different, but life is going to go on.”