New York state is experiencing a decline in hospitalizations from the coronavirus, but deaths have continued to rise, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.

The state has confirmed 799 deaths from the coronavirus since Wednesday, its highest single-day total, Cuomo said at a briefing. The coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected 159,937 people in New York state as of Thursday and killed 7,067.

Although the number of deaths is increasing, the state has reported 200 hospitalizations since Wednesday, its lowest number to date, Cuomo said. Fewer patients have been intubated and admitted to intensive care units, suggesting the virus’ curve of infection is beginning to level out, he said.

“The flattening of the curve last night happened because of what we did yesterday and the day before and the day before that,” Cuomo said. “This is all a direct consequence to our actions.”

Residents must continue to obey social distancing measures to ensure the number of hospitalizations and deaths do not increase, Cuomo said.

New York state is continuing to follow several models created at the start of the outbreak that predict an increase in hospitalizations, Cuomo said. A model from Columbia University published at the end of March predicted 136,000 people in New York City alone could be hospitalized. The statewide bed capacity is only 53,000, he said.

“Any of these scenarios would be devastating for New York,” Cuomo said. “We can’t handle the worst case scenarios. We can’t even handle the moderate case scenarios.”

The state is asking those who have recovered from the virus to donate their blood to treatment research, Cuomo said. Convalescent plasma from the people who were infected could possibly be used to treat current patients, he said.

A program called New York Loves will coordinate charities, nonprofits and individual donors looking to help efforts organize resources to combat the virus, the governor said. New York Secretary of State Rossana Rosado and Director of Nonprofits Fran Barrett will lead the program.

Cuomo said the state is also planning to construct more testing centers, particularly in Black and Latino communities, which are experiencing higher fatality rates from the virus. The state is looking into why the fatality rate is higher in these communities, and will pursue policies to relieve this issue, he said.

“We have increased the capacity of the system dramatically,” Cuomo said. “Our healthcare system has done a phenomenal job at doing an insurmountable task.”

Rapid testing is still the key to seeing economic recovery and a return to normalcy, Cuomo said. This virus will have more severe economic consequences for the state than 9/11, he said.

The state is doing whatever it can to help individuals facing unemployment, Cuomo said. The governor said he increased the pay for state workers in order to freeze their pay raises, rather than lay them off and further overwhelm the unemployment offices.

“What do we do? We move forward, and we do the work that we need to do,” Cuomo said.

Published on April 9, 2020 at 7:46 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan