Cuomo: Coronavirus deaths, hospitalizations drop in NY for the first time
The number of daily deaths and hospitalizations due to the coronavirus in New York fell for the first time since the crisis began, Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference on Sunday, even as the death toll rose by 594 to 4,159.
While Cuomo said the significance of the drop was too early to be discerned, he also pointed to drops in people being admitted to intensive care and daily intubations.
“You can’t do this day to day,” Cuomo said. “You have to look at three or four days to see a pattern.”
Cuomo said that there had been a recent increase in cases on Long Island, while cases in New York City had gone down slightly.
Cuomo also said that based on current statistical models, it is unknown if the apex of cases in New York will be a point followed by an immediate decline, or if it will represent a plateau where the number of cases will remain high for a time period before dropping.
“By the data, we could be either very near the apex or the apex could be a plateau and we could be on that plateau right now. We won’t know for the next few days,” Cuomo said. “The coronavirus is truly vicious and effective at what the virus does, it’s an effective killer. People who are very vulnerable must stay isolated and protected.”
Cuomo reiterated the need for a national deployment of resources to shift needed equipment around to parts of the U.S. that will face down the an apex of cases at different times.
He also noted that 74 percent of the people who have been hospitalized due to coronavirus have been discharged, a number that Cuomo said is on the rise.