Gov. Andrew Cuomo said if people think this pandemic is over "they're wrong."

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On Friday during his COVID-19 briefing, Cuomo announced 630 New Yorkers died in the past 24 hours, bringing the statewide total to 12,070.

Each day there are still about 2,000 COVID-related hospitalizations, according to Cuomo. He says it's been about 2,000 per day for the past few weeks.

"If people tell you the pandemic is 'over,' they're wrong," Cuomo said.

Cuomo said he's proud New York proved we can control the virus.

"I was afraid this thing was uncontrollable, but we proved we could control the beast," he said. "Peoples' actions flattened the curve. We responded to the crisis."

However, the governor announced New York is facing a serious financial crisis.

"We're spending money that we never dreamed of spending," Cuomo said. "You can't keep writing checks if you don't have a balance. Large-scale testing is a massive undertaking. We need the private sector to work with government to meet this enormous challenge. And we need the federal government to act."

Cuomo said the federal government must help with medical supplies, rather than having all states compete for supplies that primarily come from Cuomo.

"This is mayhem," Cuomo said. "Don't pass the buck without passing the bucks."

On Friday, Cuomo announced a new executive order, directing all public and private labs in New York State to work with the Department of Health to ensure prioritizing of diagnostic testing for public health and restarting the economy.

The executive order is for private labs to work together with New York State to increase coronavirus testing.

There is a very slim margin to reopen or we will be right back to where we started, Cuomo said. The big question for Cuomo, "How do we make a better tomorrow?"

He says to improve the public health system and emergency response capacity we must learn from this pandemic. He says he's thinking about how to make public transporation safer.

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