Governor Andrew Cuomo has stopped his daily in-person coronavirus briefings. But he did reach out to reporters in a phone call Saturday to announce that both the New York Yankees and Mets will hold their respective training sessions in New York rather than Florida if and when Major League Baseball decides to start its long-delayed season.
Management and the players union remain at odds over how many games to play and how much players will be paid. But if and when they resolve their differences, Cuomo said players will train here.
"One of the reasons they're coming to New York is because the infection rate in New York is down low compared to other states, compared to Florida certainly, and that's a credit to all New Yorkers," Cuomo said.
Cuomo said the state will monitor protocols to make sure both teams are conducting their training safely and appropriately.
Cuomo said nearly 68,000 coronavirus tests were conducted statewide Saturday, about the same number as Friday with less than one percent coming back positive. That translates to 664 new cases of COVID 19 statewide -- 24 of them in Erie County. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Erie County has now topped 7,000.
Fifteen people in New York died of COVID 19 Saturday.