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For Now, We Can
Help Downstate,
Bliss Is Advised
If Otsego County Endangered,
Chairman Says He’ll Be Told
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – While “deeply troubled” by Governor Cuomo’s announcement that Upstate ventilators will be seized for downstate patients, county board Chairman David Bliss today said he’s been assured local health-care believe they can participate without jeopardizing local care.
“We have been assured that if those circumstances begin to change, health-care leaders will inform the board and we will collectively take the necessary actions to insure the levels of service required for the residents of our region,” Bliss said in a statement released this afternoon.
Cuomo made the announcement Friday, and appeared to backtrack Saturday when he said the state would only seek 20 percent of Upstate’s ventilators.
Over the weekend, local Republican Assemblyman John Salka and Chris Tague, and state Senate candidate Peter Oberacker, issued a statment decrying the governor’s plan. Sunday, Congressman Antonio Delgado, D-19, signed a bipartisan statement similarly decrying the concept.