The daily number of new coronavirus hospitalizations across New York continues to decline, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday, in a further sign that the state is slowly pulling free of the disease’s grip.
A total of 1,649 new patients were admitted in the 24-hour period ending at midnight Tuesday, marking a decline of more than 300 from the day before, and the lowest single-day total since March 24.
“We have shown that we control the virus, the virus doesn’t control us,” said Cuomo in his daily Albany press briefing.
The overall number of hospitalizations, meanwhile, continued to hold effectively flat at 18,697 — actually a slight dip from the 18,825 reported one day prior.
The continued decline offered a light at the end of a tunnel darkened by 10,834 fatalities — 778 of them in the past 24 hours — and 202,208 diagnoses statewide.
Still, Cuomo urged the same caution he did when he declared that “the worst is over” on Monday.
“We are, in some ways, artificially controlling that curve,” he said Tuesday. “Whatever we do today will determine the infection rate tomorrow. It is total cause-and-effect.”
Cuomo — who Monday joined the governors of several other Northeastern states in announcing a task force for a cautious but gradual economic revival — reiterated the need to balance the two forces.
“Everybody’s anxious to reopen, I get it,” he said. “People need to get back to work, the state needs an economy, we cannot sustain this for a prolonged period of time.
“[But] the worst scenario would be if we did all of this … and we see that number go up again.”
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