Cuomo Admits Shutting Down New York Economy Was a Mistake

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has indicated taking draconian measures to shut down his state’s economy in response to the coronavirus crisis was likely a mistake.

Cuomo expressed regrets about issuing oppressive quarantine orders for New York businesses and residents during a press conference in Albany, the New York Post reports.

“What we did was, we closed everything down,” Cuomo said. “That was our public health strategy, just close everything – all businesses, all workers, young people, old people… every school, close everything.”

“If you re-thought that, or had time to analyze that public health strategy, I don’t know that you would say, ‘quarantine everyone.’ I don’t even know that was the best public health policy.”

Cuomo also speculated his stay-at-home decree may have effectively poured gasoline on the fire.

“Young people, then quarantined with older people, was probably not the best public health strategy, because the younger people could have been exposing the older people to an infection.”

Cuomo signaled he is considering more targeted quarantine protocols, which could mirror the federal approach being promoted by President Trump.

“How do you modify the public health strategy to make it smarter from the public health point of view, but also starts to get you back to work?” Cuomo asked rhetorically. “Younger people can go back to work.”

“People who… show that they had the virus [via an antibody test] and they resolved can go back to work.”

New York state has 44,635 confirmed coronavirus cases at the time of this writing.

This article originally appeared on NewsWars.