New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the Christopher Columbus statue in New York City should not be taken down, as it is a symbol of Italian American appreciation.

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Cuomo was asked about the statue, which is located at Columbus Circle, during a press conference, Thursday. A reporter asked Cuomo is if was "time for" the statue "to go."

"I understand the dialogue that has been going on for a number of years. The Christopher Columbus statue, in some ways, represents the Italian American legacy in this country. I understand the feelings about Christopher Columbus and some of his acts, which nobody would support," said Cuomo. "But the statue has come to represent and signify appreciation for the Italian American contribution to New York. For that reason, I support it."

Cuomo is of Italian descent.

Statues of historical figures with racist ideology across the globe have been taken down or vandalized by protesters in recent weeks. In Richmond, V.A., protesters threw a Columbus statue into the lake in the city’s Byrd Park. In Boston, a similar statue was decapitated. 

Similarly, the upcoming Columbus Day holiday has been renamed Indigenous People’s Day in several states, in response to the brutality of Columbus' actions.

New York City will begin the first phase of its reopening process Monday, June 8. Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed the date proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier this week.

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“[These businesses] were chosen because you can create physical separation,” said Mayor de Blasio. “That’s a lot of employees coming back to work … we want to emphasize safety throughout. We say ‘restart’ — we do not mean rushing back to something we used to think of as normal. We do not mean flicking a switch and suddenly everything is where it was again. We have to make sure this virus is in check. We’ve come a long way, not going to blow it now.”

Gov. Cuomo said he planned to have the city open on June 8th, last week, contradicting de Blasio, who said a date had not been determined at that time.

“It is reopening to a new normal. It’s a safer normal. Reopening doesn’t mean going back to the past,” Cuomo explained. “People will be wearing masks. It’s just a new way of interacting, which we have to do.”

De Blasio says that New York City will be giving out 2 million free masks to employees returning to work during phase 1.

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is allowing sports teams in the state to resume training camps, taking the first step towards sports resuming as a whole.

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"Starting today, all the New York professional sports leagues will be able to begin training camps,'' the governor said in a news conference, Sunday.

Sports facilities have been on pause for over two months, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Three children died of a “COVID-19 related illness” this week, as announced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

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“Three young New Yorkers have died of what may be a COVID-related illness in children,”  Cuomo said during a press conference Saturday.”We thought initially that young people were not affected by COVID-19. We’re not so sure that that is the fact anymore.”

So far, Hospitals have found 73 cases of the newly-identified condition among toddlers and elementary-school-age children in New York state. It is being called pediatric multisymptom inflammatory syndrome.

The New York State Department of Health is investigating the rise in new cases. They are also working on national guidelines for hospitals across the rest of the country that may find similar cases. 

“This is an extremely rare and previously unknown presentation of COVID-19 in children,” the Mount Sinai Health System said in a statement Friday. The statement was made in response to the death of a 5-year-old boy. His passing marks the first known death from the condition in the United States.

NY Health officials list possible symptoms as follows:

– Prolonged fever
– Difficulty feeding (infants) or is too sick to drink fluids
– Severe abdominal pain, diarrhea or vomiting
– Change in skin color – becoming pale, patchy and/or blue
– Trouble breathing or is breathing very quickly
– Racing heart or chest pain
– Decreased amount of frequency in urine
– Lethargy, irritability or confusion

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New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is extending the state’s stay-at-home order until May 15, as announced in a press conference, earlier this week.

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“What happens after then? I don’t know,” Cuomo said of the new end date. “We will see depending on what the data shows.”

In addition, Cuomo is requiring anyone outdoors and not social distancing to wear face masks. If you enter public transportation, they are required.

New York City is preparing to use 11,000 empty hotel rooms for COVID-19 quarantines. “Our projections told us we might have to use a vast number of hotels, dozens and dozens, to be able to accommodate all the medical needs,” Mayor Bill De Blasio said. “So far, thank God, that has not been the case.”

“If there is a threat that someone might get infected in the home and it might spread amongst the members of that family, we have to guard against that,” he said.

New York City is expected to see a $7.4 billion loss in tax revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic over the next 15 months.

Thursday, the day of the press conference, New York recorded 606 deaths, the fewest in 10 days. The total is over 12,000.

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It was all about girl talk on Red Table Talk. On Wednesday (April 15), Jada Pinkett-Smith reunited with her Girls Trip co-stars Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, and Queen Latifah. The four ladies had a quarantine chat where the ladies discussed whether or not Girls Trip 2 was on the horizon. “The answer is ‘yes’ and I can’t wait to do it,” Queen Latifah said. “I can’t wait to work with y’all again and I hope we get to go somewhere fun.”

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Elsewhere, the women talked about their celebrity crushes. Regina made things awkward—and brought in laughs—when she named Jada’s husband Will Smith as her crush. Tiffany, who is rumored to be dating rapper Common, had a couple of names. “Well if we’re talking about females, then I’m into Meryl Streep,” she said, adding, “I like Giancarlo Stanton, No. 27 for the New York Yankees. I think he’s very handsome.”

Jada shared that hers is “Governor [Andrew] Cuomo. I don’t miss a press conference. When Cuomo is on I go, ‘Have to see my celebrity crush right now, sorry.’” Queen Latifah, who’s rumored to be engaged to longtime partner Eboni Nichols, weighed in that she has a crush on Victoria’s Secret Angel Adriana Lima. “I like the girl. She’s a Brazilian model,” Queen Latifah said. Jada chimed in, “She’s a cutie. She got some fire, too.” Check out the ladies on Red Table Talk below.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he will sue Rhode Island if the state does not retract its new decision to search door-to-door to find New Yorkers, as well as pull over any vehicle with New York plates.

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“If they uphold that policy, I’m going to sue Rhode Island,” he told CNN Saturday. “That clearly is unconstitutional. I understand the goal, and I could set up my borders and say ‘I’m not letting anyone in until they take a test to see whether or not they have the virus,’ but there’s a point of absurdity. I think what Rhode Island did is at that point of absurdity, and again, it’s not even legal.”

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo has issued new measures that instruct law enforcement to stop anyone with a New York license plate and collect information about them. The National Guard is stationed at Amtrak and bus stations to do the same. The National Guard will also be going door-to-door to find anyone who has been to New York recently and will enforce a 14-day quarantine.

“I think what they did is wrong, it was reactionary. I think it was illegal but we’ll work it out amicably, I’m sure,” Cuomo said. “ No state should be using police to prohibit interstate travel in any way.”

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Donald Trump is considering a quarantine of New York, New Jersey, and parts of Connecticut in order to limit further spread of the Coronavirus.

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Trump explained the idea to reporters outside the White House, Saturday: “We’d like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hotspot — New York, New Jersey, maybe one or two other places, certain parts of Connecticut.

“We might not have to do it but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine — short-term, two weeks for New York, probably New Jersey and parts of Connecticut,” he added.

Saturday afternoon he tweeted, "I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing “hot spots”, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A decision will be made, one way or another, shortly."

President Donald Trump was told by New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, that the state needed 30,000 ventilators, but Trump (literally) isn’t buying it. The U.S. president spoke to Fox News’s Sean Hannity over the phone on Thursday, where he addressed the shortages of medical supplies in New York amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump was not shy about voicing his doubts on New York’s demand for equipment. “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” he told Hannity. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators.”

“You know you go into major hospitals sometimes they’ll have two ventilators,” he continued. “Now, all of a sudden, they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’” The statement comes after Governor Andrew Cuomo had requested exactly 30,000 ventilators for New York State—which has been hit hardest by the pandemic—and subsequently blasted the government for only sending a mere fraction of that number. “You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?” Cuomo said in a press conference, enraged. He added that tens of thousands of New Yorkers are “going to die” as a result of Trump’s neglect, unless he really steps up and provides the supplies that the state needs. Trump told Hannity, however, that purchasing a ventilator is like buying a car—a “very expensive” and “very intricate” process. “And you know they’d say, like Governor Cuomo and others, they’d say ‘We want 30,000 of them’” Trump recounted. “Thirty thousand? Think of this, you know you go to hospitals that have one in a hospital and now all of a sudden everyone’s asking for these vast numbers.”

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“Look, it’s a very bad situation,” Trump concluded. “We haven’t seen anything like it, but the end result is we gotta get back to work, and I think we can start by opening up some parts of the country.” Trump is already hoping that some Americans will be returning to work as early as Easter (April 12th), a decision that has been widely criticized as premature and irresponsible. Watch the full conversation with Trump on Fox News below:

Rihanna is really out here saving the world. As necessary medical supplies like masks, gloves that protect individuals from becoming infected with the virus experience more and more shortages, health professionals are urging for donations of proper equipment. Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, revealed on Thursday that the multi-hyphenate mogul did just that, when he thanked Rih for donating personal protective equipment to New York State amid the coronavirus pandemic. New York has been hit the most hard by the virus out of any American state, so the donation was surely needed. "I want to thank @rihanna and the Rihanna Foundation for donating Personal Protective Equipment to New York State," Cuomo tweeted. "We're so appreciative of your help and that of so many others who have stepped up."