Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on CNN's the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to discuss the novel coronavirus and New York State's declared state of emergency to contain the spread of the virus.

AUDIO is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:

Wolf Blitzer: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is joining us. Governor, I know you have a lot going on, thank you so much for spending a few moments with us. Can you give us an update, Governor, right now on the latest numbers in New York State? How many coronavirus cases are you currently tracking?

Governor Cuomo: Thanks, Wolf, good to be with you. We have about 142 cases. We had a significant jump. So it would put us right up at the top in the country. We have one big cluster in Westchester County which is outside of New York City, then we have some in New York City and throughout of the state.

Wolf Blitzer: Are health officials in New York able to test anyone who comes in and says he or she needs a test?

Governor Cuomo: Yeah, that's a great question, Wolf. And the testing capacity is still an issue. You look at the countries that have dealt with this well, you look at what China wound up doing. They did multiples of the tests that we're doing. They were very aggressive on the testing and then they tracked down every test. We're not yet where we should be in terms of testing - that's one of my issues with the federal government and working with them to get the private labs in, get the private labs using what's called automated testing so you get the volume up. Because China was doing thousands and thousands of tests per day. We're nowhere near that level yet.

Wolf Blitzer: As you know, the CDC, Centers for Disease Control, they've been working to try to ramp up testing capacity. Has capacity improved in the State of New York in recent days? And when are you being told you'll have full capacity?

Governor Cuomo: It has been getting better, but in my opinion, not at a fast enough rate. And we shouldn't have started in this position anyway. I mean, we saw China happening, it was no secret, we knew someone was going to get on an airplane in China and come to the United States. That we're saying that China actually had faster testing capacity than we have is not acceptable to me. You have state laboratories, we have a big state lab in New York, but then we need the private sector labs that have approved testing from the CDC.

Quest has come in, some other private sector companies that do business on a nationwide basis. But we're going to need multiples of what we have now. Every report says, Wolf, and yours just said it earlier, what's going to happen, it depends on what we do. Government matters here. What government says, the message we send, and how well we actually administer. And if we don't get this testing capacity up quickly, we're going to be behind the eight ball. And then when people see the testing numbers they're going to be shocked, because the numbers are going to be very high. Just because we're not testing doesn't mean the virus isn't spreading. And then we'll see those big numbers that will add to the fear that people feel. And then we'll have to actually communicate the facts of this situation because we already have, I believe, anxiety well in excess of what the facts would merit.

Wolf Blitzer: You know, in Japan, all elementary, middle schools, high schools, for millions of kids, they've been shut down for the entire month. In Italy, by the way, just moments ago, the prime minister announced that 60 million - all the people of Italy - are now on lock down for the time being. You've ordered schools in New York to close for 24 hours if someone at the school tests positive for coronavirus. Is that enough time? How worried are you that what's happening, for example, in Japan or Italy or South Korea could happen here in the United States?

Governor Cuomo: Well, what we do, Wolf, is we calibrate our response to the facts at the time. So where we have a cluster and we see rapid growth, we're much more aggressive in closing schools, gatherings, et cetera. We have a general rule that any school that has a child that tests positive must close for 24 hours so we can come in and assess the situation and make a determination as to long term closure, et cetera. Again, the trajectory of this disease will depend upon what we do. If we get that testing capacity up quickly and we actually track down those cases, we can reduce the spread. Just reduce the spread. If we don't, you'll see it spread more and then you have to take more dramatic actions, closing down schools, et cetera. We don't want to get there. Nobody wants to get there, because that will really have a negative impact on the economy, on top of everything else. But you could get there if you don't stop the spread and that requires additional testing capacity and investigation. Every time you find a positive, you then have to run down that case. It's a whole detective investigation and then contact all those people. So it's a massive logistical operation.