On Sunday, during New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily COVID-19 press briefing, the governor highlighted some good news pertaining to hospitalizations, as well as some bad news on the number of daily deaths from the virus.
Cuomo also spoke about the reopening of the New York economy, and how such a monumental task should be accomplished.
The single-day hospitalization rate once again dropped on Saturday to 53, its lowest number since March 16. The three-day average is also down to the lowest number seen since before March 19.
Cuomo displayed a slide showing the “total hospitalizations” beginning to flatten, stating that it doesn’t appear as though it will be a sharp peak, but a plateau:
That’s the so-called flattening of the curve. The apex isn’t just an apex; it’s a plateau. You see that line flattening, and that’s what the experts were talking about, that it might have been a straight up and rapid down, or it might be up to an apex and the apex becomes a plateau. That’s what these numbers suggest.
Single-day ICU admissions spiked to 189 on Saturday from 101 the day before. The three-day average is also up, but has reached a low not seen since March 21 (aside from Friday’s sharp dip below average). However, Cuomo put his own caveat on this particular metric.
“The ICU admissions is a little questionable now because almost all the beds in a hospital have turned into an ICU bed, so how hospitals classify ICU admissions is a little dubious to me,” Cuomo stated. “But that’s my personal two cents.”
Single-day intubations rose to 110 on Saturday, up from the day before, but in line with the numbers from the rest of the last week. While the governor said that an increase in intubations is “troubling,” and noted that the three-day average rose slightly, he added that the number “is down relative to where we were.”
As for single-day deaths, New York is still experiencing an approximate high plateau. On Saturday, there were 758 deaths. This number is in line with those of the previous week.
- April 6: 731
- April 7: 779
- April 8: 799
- April 9: 777
- April 10: 783
- April 11: 758
As for questions about reopening the economy, Governor Cuomo stressed the need for intelligent action:
So, we want to reopen as soon as possible. The caveat is we need to be smart in the way we reopen. What does smart mean? It means a coordinated approach, a regional approach, and a safe approach. Nobody wants to pick between a public health strategy and an economic strategy, and as governor of this state, I’m not going to pick one over the other.
“We need a public health strategy that is safe, that is consistent with an economic strategy. How do you reopen, but how do you do it in a way that is smart from a public health point of view?” Cuomo said. “The last thing we want to see is an uptick in that infection rate, and an uptick in those numbers that we worked so hard to bring down. So we need a strategy that coordinates business and schools and transportation and workforce.”
In addition, the governor said that he will sign an executive order “which directs employers to provide essential workers with a cloth or surgical face mask to their employees when they are interacting with the public, and they should provide those masks cost-free.”
Cuomo also said he wants to expand access to antibody testing in order to better understand who might be able to return to work.
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