New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that deaths from COVID-19 in his state are stabilizing, but at a “horrific rate.”
Speaking at his daily briefing on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, Cuomo said that while there were encouraging signs that the dynamics of the outbreak were slowing, the death toll is stark.
“That is not an all-time high, and you can see that the number is somewhat stabilizing, but it is stabilizing at a horrific rate,” Cuomo said, noting that 783 people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, with the number of deaths ranging between 777 and 799 for each of the previous three days.
“These are just incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and pain,” he said, adding, “we mourn all those who we lost to this vicious virus.”
The pandemic has hit New York City especially hard, with 94,409 confirmed infections and 5,429 deaths, according to an NYC Health tally from April 10.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to the press at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York on March 27, 2020. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)Still, there are signs the outbreak is slowing. Cuomo said at the briefing that both hospitalizations and intensive care admissions have dropped, adding that continued social distancing measures were needed.
“Where do we go from here? First, keep doing what we’re doing. Stay home because that works,” Cuomo said at a briefing Friday, which echoed Saturday’s comments. “We are flattening the curve, we must continue to flatten the curve.”
“The bad news is we continue to lose a tremendous number of lives,” Cuomo said, adding, “What we do will affect literally life and death for hundreds of people.”
“I know we all want things to go back to normal,” he said in a tweet Saturday.
“But the worst thing that can happen is that we make a misstep and we let our emotions get ahead of logic and facts, and we go through this all over again,” he added.
Doctors test hospital staff for COVID-19 in triage tents outside the main emergency department area at St. Barnabas hospital in the Bronx, in New York City on March 24, 2020. (Misha Friedman/Getty Images)Going forward, Cuomo called for more and faster testing, better preparation, and federal stimulus to help cope with the economic fallout.
The number of COVID-19 fatalities in the United States has surpassed Italy’s death toll, with Johns Hopkins figures on Saturday noting over 19,700 deaths due to the respiratory disease in America.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, has spread aggressively across the United States, with the Johns Hopkins tally noting over half a million confirmed infections.
Political leaders and health experts urged Americans celebrating Good Friday and the Easter weekend under threat of the CCP virus to avoid gatherings and observe the holidays at home.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, and other health officials pointed to declining rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care units as signs that social distancing measures are paying off.
“Now is no time to back off,” Fauci told CNN on Friday. “The virus will decide” when the country can begin to reopen from stay-at-home orders imposed in recent weeks across 42 states, he added.
