New York state may have transited a plateau at the apex of the COVID-19 outbreak and be starting down the other side, according to data presented at an Albany news conference today by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
While the snapshot of statistics may not provide a truly complete picture of where the state is in the pandemic, the number of deaths dropped by almost 15% from yesterday’s report. The number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations per day also went down as did the number of admissions to intensive care units and number of people on ventilators or other breathing machines.
About 48 more people came off ventilators than went on, 42 more left intensive care units than went in, and there were 349 fewer people in hospitals yesterday than the day before. Cuomo noted that the number of new COVID patients being admitted to hospitals has remained close to 2,000 while discharges are rising and total hospitalizations have dropped below 17,000.
Cuomo provided statistics showing that 540 people died yesterday, 504 in hospitals and 36 in nursing homes. That was a dramatic difference from the 778 deaths reported on Monday and 90 fewer than the 630 reported on Thursday.
Cuomo steered clear of opening another round in yesterday’s verbal sparring with President Trump.
“The emotion in this county is as high as I can recall,” Cuomo said. “People are frustrated, we’re anxious, we’re scared, we’re angry. We’ve never been through this before and on every level this is a terrible experience.” He said people are not only affected emotionally, they’re affected economically and can become victims of the virus itself.
“In the midst of this, there is no time for politics. How does this situation get worse and get worse quickly? If you politicize all that emotion. We cannot go there,” Cuomo said. “If you have partisan division splitting this nation now, it’s going to make it worse.” He quoted Abraham Lincoln as saying in 1858, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He noted that Lincoln had paraphrased that from the Bible and characterized the pandemic as being the greatest challenge the country has seen since World War II.
“This is no time and no place for division,” Cuomo said. “We have our hands full as it is. Let’s just stay together and work it through. And that’s why we’re called ‘The United States.’”
When asked, Cuomo did not comment on Trump’s Twitter campaign yesterday against the governors of three states. After agreeing that the governors are in control of the reopening process in their states, Trump sent out Twitter messages urging armed protesters in Michigan who were carrying Nazi as well as Trump signs to “liberate” the state from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Trump also Tweeted for protesters in Minnesota and Virginia to oppose the COVID-19 policies of their governors.
Cuomo renewed his calls for the federal government to assume its responsibilities to work with the states on the testing that will be necessary to determine when it is safe to take the incremental steps needed for reopening the economy.
He said that only the federal government can ensure that adequate equipment, supplies and personnel are available for conducting testing and doing the tracing of people who may have been in contact with carriers of the virus and have the potential for creating another widespread outbreak.
Cuomo said that there are about 30 national manufacturers of testing equipment and kits and the approximately 300 labs in New York state get testing equipment from those manufacturers. He explained that the laboratories have to rely on specific supplies produced by the manufacturers specifically for their proprietary machines. He said manufacturers may require different chemical reagents, swabs and containers for their equipment to work.
He said the state talked with 50 of the laboratories to find out what would be required for them to be able to double their testing capacity. The lack of available reagents topped the list. Northwell Health said that the reagent supply was unreliable and they are limited by reagent availability.
Lenco Laboratories reported, “We need a steady supply of COVID-19 reagents.” Empire City Laboratories said they are not being allowed to purchase enough reagents. “They have limited us to 400 tests per day when we are capable of doing 2,800 tests per day,” Empire said.
Cuomo was expected to sign an executive order today allowing people to obtain marriage licenses remotely from municipal clerk’s offices. The executive order also would allow clerks to perform marriage ceremonies remotely by video.
Cuomo’s Secretary Melissa DeRosa reported that a determination had been made to allow prisoners over 55 years of age who had 90 days or less remaining on their sentences and who had not been found guilty of a violent felony or sexual assault to be released early from prison. She said there were about 200 prisoners who would qualify.
Cuomo said there is not enough COVID-19 testing being performed on the prison population just as there is not enough testing being performed on other populations in the state, especially residents of nursing homes.
“Any congregate setting is a concern. The greatest concern is the nursing homes,” Cuomo said. “Nursing homes are the number one long-term really devastating consequence of this disease.”
When asked about complaints being heard that some nursing homes are not properly communicating with family members when residents become sick or even die from COVID-19, Cuomo said that while the state has basic regulations for nursing homes, it doesn’t get into the fine detail of what a nursing home does in its policy of communication with family members.
“If there is a complaint that a nursing home is nonresponsive, then we will talk to that nursing home and follow up,” Cuomo said. “I think more than anything they’re overwhelmed. There are staff shortages. People on staff are getting sick.”
