New York’s Death Tally Up Slightly Even as Pandemic Subsides
New York Daily Virus Deaths Rise to 437, Slightly Up From Friday
(Bloomberg) --
Daily coronavirus fatalities in New York rose slightly to 437, but Saturday marked the sixth straight day of deaths under 500 and hospitalizations dropped to the lowest point since the beginning of April, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
“Twenty-one days of hell but we are back to where we were,” Cuomo said of overall hospitalizations.
Almost all indicators showed that the Covid-19 outbreak in New York, still the worst the U.S., was on the “decline,” the governor said. Deaths compared to the peak of fatalities of 799 on April 9.
New cases rose on Saturday by 10,553 compared to 8,130 on Friday, for a statewide total of 282,143, about 10% of all reported coronavirus cases worldwide.
The governor had been concerned about a relatively flat but still high number of new hospitalizations, but that figure dropped Saturday to 1,184 from 1,962 a week ago.
“Only in this crazy reality would 1,100 new cases be relatively good news,” he told reporters in Albany.
The number of deaths reported Friday was 422, the third straight day of decline. Cuomo called the latest death toll “flat” but still “terrible, horrible news.”
Cuomo’s press conference -- a daily punctuation of drama during the pandemic -- was relatively subdued on Saturday, with no pleas for help or criticism of the federal government’s response. He said, in fact, that he planned to go hiking with his family after the briefing -- with a mask.
Although testing is still in short supply, Cuomo said he would expand testing of health care workers, first responders and essential workers. Cuomo added that he was signing an executive order that would expand testing locations by allowing the state’s 5,000 independent pharmacies to conduct Covid-19 tests.
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