Coronavirus: New York Sees Largest Number Of Single-Day Deaths

NEW YORK, NY — New York on Tuesday saw its largest single-day increase in coronavirus-related deaths with more than 700, while hospitalization and intensive care admission rates have slowed. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the death toll in the state climbed to 5,489, up from 4,758 a day earlier.

Despite the grim news, hospitalization and ICU admission rates continued to show signs of flattening — evidence that strict social distancing measures have been effective in reducing the spread of the virus, Cuomo said.

Three-day hospitalization rates in particular showed a marked decline, falling from 676 Sunday to 529 Monday. The three-day rates so far topped out at nearly 1,300 at the beginning of the month.

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Cuomo said hospitalizations appeared to taper off as well, adding to the evidence the state is reaching a possible plateau when it comes to patients admitted due to the COVID-19 disease, which is caused by the new coronavirus. While hospitalizations jumped to 17,493 from 16,837, the rate of increase appears to be slowing.

Furthermore, the rate of change when it comes to daily intubations has fallen. After topping out at 351 last week, those numbers fell to 132 Sunday and 69 Monday.

Cuomo acknowledged that while the numbers are encouraging, the need for social distancing continues.

"What we do will affect these numbers," he said, noting the discrepancy in deaths and hospitalizations reflects the number of people who are dying after being on ventilators for weeks.

He said social distancing is working.

“I know it’s hard, but we have to keep doing it," he said.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York climbed to more than 138,000 a day after Cuomo extended the statewide stay-at-home order to April 29.

The governor said New York has about 90,000 available hospital beds — "more than enough" — but stressed staffing remains an issue. Health care workers are not only getting sick, he said, but they're overworked at overwhelmed hospitals, stressed and fear they may bring the virus home.

The state has added about 7,000 new staff from a pool of retired health care workers, and the USNS Comfort, which was originally meant to handle non-COVID-19 patients, will accept up to 500 patients with the disease. While the ship has a capacity of about 1,000, coronavirus patients require more space for treatment, Cuomo said.

When it comes to personal protective equipment such as face shields, masks, gloves and gowns, Cuomo said "we are stretching and moving, but every hospital has what they need to date."

State officials will soon talk with governors in New Jersey and Connecticut on how to properly — and responsibly — restart the economy, Cuomo said. He noted that time is not now, and warned against restarting the economy too soon, pointing to the 1918 Spanish Flu, which peaked for six months. Despite that, the governor said the Tri-state area will have to figure out how to get people back to work before the virus has been completely eradicated. It will come down to testing for antibodies, he said, to see who has had the virus already and can no longer contract and spread it.

"You’re not going to end the infection and virus before restarting life," he said. "I don’t think we have that luxury."

State health officials have approved antibody testing and once the FDA approves the test New York can begin scaling it, Cuomo said. The tests analyze blood to determine if people have the antibodies. They look at who had the virus and overcame it.

“But you have to have that testing and have that testing on a scale,” Cuomo said, noting that even though some companies have created rapid 15-minute tests, no private company has the capacity to make them widely available.

Cuomo on Tuesday also called on federal lawmakers to help state governments, which have seen plummeting tax dollars. He once again called for a federal stimulus bill that's fair to New York, which has seen by far the most cases in the United States.

"Our revenues just collapsed," he said.

In response to questions about possible racial disparities in the number of coronavirus patients, Melissa DeRosa, a top aide to Cuomo, said hospitals are not reporting data on race to the state. State officials are calling morgues to obtain race data and plan to release that information later this week.