ALBANY, N.Y. — Despite New York having the third lowest COVID-19 infection rate in the country, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday there is still concern over "micro-clusters" around the state, primarily in the New York City area.
However, Cuomo said the state is also seeing an increase in positive cases along the New York/Pennsylvania border. He said health officials are looking for specific events that may have sparked the increase, but have not found anything so far. Cuomo said the spike is more likely due to community spread.
Cuomo said he expects more micro-clusters may pop up as fall turns into winter and people start spending more time indoors. He continues to stress increased compliance and enforcement as the only ways to keep a cluster from popping up.
The governor acknowledged a quarantine between New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut would be devastating to the economy and impossible to enforce because there are too many interconnections between the four states. He said state officials are researching if there might be a better way than a quarantine to manage the situation.
Addressing so-called "COVID-19" fatigue, Cuomo said New Yorkers don't have the luxury of fatigue, because the virus does not have fatigue. However, Cuomo did say he knows that stress and anxiety are serious problems and the longer the pandemic goes on, the worse it will get. He said the state is trying to make more services available to residents who need help and encourages New Yorkers to reach out to friends and family who are struggling.