Cuomo aide to help Joe’s bug efforts

ALBANY — Melissa DeRosa, secretary to Gov. Cuomo, is working with the Biden transition team and assisting with the upcoming administration’s COVID response, the Daily News has learned.

DeRosa (photo), second to the governor in overseeing almost every aspect of New York’s pandemic strategy, is serving as senior adviser to incoming White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, a source familiar with the situation told The News Friday.

“Having insight and experience from those on the ground directly responding to COVID-19 has been helpful as we continue to develop and prepare to implement an aggressive response,” a

Biden transition official said.

Ricchetti, who has been a Biden confidant since serving as his chief of staff during the Obama administration and working as chairman of the president-elect’s campaign, will reportedly be a key liaison for congressional and corporate leaders after Jan. 20.

DeRosa, meanwhile, started working with Cuomo in 2013 as communications director and strategic adviser. Two years later she was promoted to chief of staff before becoming the first woman to serve as secretary to the governor, the highest appointed position in state government, in 2017.

A regular presence at the governor’s COVID-19 briefings over the past 10 months, DeRosa has spearheaded New York’s diverse response to the crisis.

“Instead of working 24 hours a day, she’s been working 27 hours a day lately,” a source familiar with the situation told The News. “This underscores the closeness between the governor and the incoming Biden administration and bodes well for the next four years after the last four years of Trump hell.”

“We expect them to right the wrongs that were done to the state of New York,” Cuomo said of the new administration during a press briefing Friday.

The governor has also repeatedly stressed the state’s need for federal aid amid a growing budget deficit.

He expressed optimism in his State of the State addresses this week about New York’s future under a Biden presidency and a newly Democratic-controlled Congress.