After worst week in pandemic deaths, NY sees signs of hope as coronavirus cases appear to flatten
Despite another 758 coronavirus deaths, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the curve in New York appears to be flattening.
“It has been flattening,” Cuomo said. “But it has been flattening at a terribly high level.”
At the end of the day Saturday, there were 18,707 people hospitalized with the virus in the state, an increase of just 73 since the previous day. However, Cuomo pointed out the promising news tha the three-day average of admissions into intensive care has dropped, along with intubations.
"All the numbers are on the downward slope. Still people getting infected, still people going to the hospital but again a lower rate of increase," Cuomo said.
In all, 5,226 people were killed by the virus in the week that ended Saturday. That’s raised the total number of deaths in the state to 9,385.
At a press conference on Sunday, Cuomo preached caution when discussing the subject of reopening the state, saying that doing so would take coordinated action with Connecticut and New Jersey to be safe and effective.
“We need a public health strategy that is safe, that is consistent with an economic strategy,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo also announced that he had signed a pair of executive orders, the first directing employers to provide essential workers cloth or surgical face masks for employees to wear when interacting with the public and the second expanding who can conduct antibody tests to help ensure as many New Yorkers as possible have access to testing.
When questioned about reopening schools, Cuomo said that all of the schools in New York are closed and will remain closed until it is safe from a public health point of view. Cuomo said that reopening schools would have to go in tandem with reopening businesses and again said that any such decision would have to be made in coordination with other states in the region.
With the Associated Press.