Cuomo: New COVID-19 cases drop as more than 7 million take tests in NY
Medical personnel preparing to test for COVID- 19 at Huntington High School in Huntington Friday April 10, 2020. Suffolk County has opened another testing site as part of a program targeting minority communities that are seeing a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
For nine days in a row, the number of new COVID-19 cases in New York State has been less than 1% of those tested, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Sunday, as the number of tests administered hit the 7 million mark.
"For more than a week, we've seen our positivity rate stay below 1%, and to date New York has done 7 million tests — these are remarkable accomplishments that New Yorkers should be proud of," Cuomo said in a statement.
Of the 77,692 people tested on Saturday, 607 were confirmed positive or just .78%, he said. Officials also recorded six COVID-19 deaths in the state that day.
The latest numbers are in stark contrast to the height of the pandemic, where on one April day, 10,553 New Yorkers came back positive for COVID-19 out of 46,912 tested.
On Saturday, Cuomo announced hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients had dropped to 523, the lowest number since March 17.
"Our numbers reflect the hard work of New Yorkers, and as other states across the nation see surging cases, our numbers remain steadily low," he said.
Cuomo reiterated his concern that the numbers could increase once again if New Yorkers do not stay vigilant by wearing masks, socially distancing and washing their hands regularly.
Meanwhile, California has recorded more than 67,000 new cases over the last seven days, Texas more than 47,000 and Florida more than 42,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York has seen 4,552 new cases during that same time period.
Experts say reopening of schools and the fall flu season will present new challenges to keeping the virus from spreading widely again across the state.
The low infection rate is paving the way for additional long-shuttered places to reopen, such as gyms, museums and bowling alleys. But while movie theaters are set to open with restrictions in other parts of the country, there is no such plan currently in New York State.
State guidelines for the reopening of gyms are scheduled to be released Monday.
States/regions in red are included on New York's travel advisory list as of Oct. 27, 2020. Guam and Puerto Rico, not pictured, are also on the list.
Bowling alleys can reopen Monday at 50% occupancy as long as customers are wearing face coverings, every other lane is closed and cleaning and disinfecting plans are in place, Cuomo said last week.
Since the start of the pandemic, 425,508 New Yorkers have tested positive for COVID-19 and 25,250 have died. State officials said of the 607 new cases reported Saturday, 38 were in Nassau and 50 were in Suffolk.
"Nassau’s 11 hospitals currently have just 35 COVID-19-related patients — the lowest number we’ve seen since coming down from our peak mid-April when our hospitals were treating upward of 2,500 COVID patients several days in a row," Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said in a statement. "And of the 5,833 people tested for the virus in Nassau yesterday, only 38 came back positive — just .6%. It’s fair to say we’ve crushed the virus in Nassau County, all while safely reopening and getting people back to work."
In Suffolk, 0.8% of people tested in the last reported 24-hour period were positive for COVID-19, with 38 individuals hospitalized, a decrease of 3 in the last 24 hours, according to the Suffolk County Health Department website.
A state police and liquor authority task force inspected 1,170 establishments in New York City and Long Island Saturday and found 33 "were not in compliance with state requirements" for COVID-19 protections, Cuomo said.
Eight of the establishments were in Nassau County, although the governor did not identify them.
With Rachelle Blidner
Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
