New York's low coronavirus infection rate is threatened by college students who do not follow safety guidelines like mask wearing and social distancing and the coming school year poses questions as well, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
"I want to see the state's jobs come back and the economy come back," Cuomo said in an interivew on Long Island News Radio, "but then we have a couple of questions out there. What's going to happen when you bring kids back to school?"
The state's daily infection rate has been below 1% out of tens of thousands of test results returned every 24 hours for more than a month now.
But Cuomo said he's resisting calls to reopen concert venues and encourage mass gatherings, saying those entities pose the highest risk during the pandemic.
"How essential is a comedy club when you're talking about an infection rate?" Cuomo said. "Not to offend people in a comedy club, because lord knows we need to laugh."
Cuomo's office on Tuesday released a video starring actor Paul Rudd encouraging younger people to wear masks.