On Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the state is beginning to flatten the coronavirus curve, because of the actions taken by New York residents.

“We took dramatic actions in this state. New York pause program that closed down schools, businesses, social distancing, and it’s working,” Cuomo said during Wednesday’s press briefing. “It is flattening the curve and we see that again today so far. Meaning that curve is flattening because we are flattening the curve by what we are doing. If we stop what we are doing, you will see that curve change. That curve is purely a function of what we do day in and day out.”

Flattening the curve in New York does not mean an immediate decrease in coronavirus cases, but instead a slow decline in the number of daily cases. The decline in daily cases helps to alleviate the stress on the state’s health care system, ensuring that hospitals won’t become overwhelmed by the number of patients, which Cuomo touched upon during his press briefing.

“The number of patients hospitalized is down, and again we don’t just look at day-to-day data, you look at the three-day trend, but that number is down. The three-day average trend is also down,” Cuomo said. “So, we see the quote on quote flattening of the curve. We have more capacity in the hospital system than ever before, so we’ve had more capacity in that system to absorb more people.”

Cuomo also noted that if New York residents don’t continue to social distance and follow other measures that are helping to slow the spread of the virus, the flattening of the curve could stop.

“There’s a big caution sign. That’s if we continue doing what we’re doing,” Cuomo added. “We are flattening the curve because we are rigorous about social distancing, etc. So, if we continue doing what we’re doing then we believe the curve will continue to flatten. But, it’s not a time to get complacent, it’s not a time to do anything different than what we have been doing.”

“We have to remain diligent; we have to remain disciplined going forward,” the New York governor said.

Despite Cuomo pointing to success for the state thus far, the governor announced in the press conference that New York state saw its highest single-day death toll yet. On April 6, New York reported 779 deaths, which Cuomo called, “terrible.”

During his press briefing, a graphic was displayed showing how the number of deaths in the state has continued to increase on a daily basis, but the governor noted that the increasing number of deaths stem from those who have been hospitalized for a long period of time.

“The number of deaths will continue to rise, as those hospitalized for a longer period of time pass away,” Cuomo said. “The hospitalizations can start to drop but the deaths actually increase because the people who have been in the hospital for 11 days, 14 days, 17 days, pass away. That’s what we’re seeing.”

New York continues to have the highest number of cases across the U.S. According to a tracker provided by Johns Hopkins University, there are over 140,000 cases in New York and at least 13,007 deaths.

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