By executive order Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a statewide density reduction, mandating all businesses to not operate with more than 50 percent of staff as the state and country combat the coronavirus spread.

The governor reiterated that he wants businesses to work from home. The reduction excludes essential services like food, pharmacies, health care, shipping, and supplies.

Cuomo announced that President Donald Trump is sending the USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship, to the New York City harbor.

The governor said federal partnership is “key,” and has had an open dialogue with the president.

“We’re fighting the same war and we are in the same trench,” Cuomo said he told the president.

As of Wednesday, New York has 2,382 cases, 1,008 of which are new positive cases. The most cases in the state are still in New York City, with 1,339 cases.

There are now 20 deaths attributed to COVID-19, Cuomo said. There are 549 patients hospitalized, a 23 percent rate.

Cuomo added, though, that 108 coronavirus cases have been discharged from the hospital.

“The panic and the fear is disconnected from the reality of the situation,” he said.

Despite cities like San Francisco issuing sweeping shelter-in-place mandates, Cuomo said he wasn't in favor of the same decrees in New York.

Cuomo didn’t rule out reduced spending in the budget for schools to manage the budget at the end of the month. But he is not embracing calls for increasing taxes.

“You have businesses closing,” he said. “I don’t think now is the time to tell people we’re going to be raising taxes.”