Social distancing appears to be slowing the spread of the coronavirus in New York, the epicenter of America’s pandemic, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday.
In his daily update on efforts to contain the deadly pandemic, Cuomo said projection rates suggested that hospitalizations were increasing at a slower rate than before.
“The arrows are headed in the right direction,” he told reporters.
Photo: Reuters
New York was still “on the way up the mountain” and would not meet the peak of declared cases for another three weeks, Cuomo said.
However, he added that projections showed that hospitalizations were doubling every 4.7 days as opposed to every two days, as was the case on Sunday.
The state’s almost 20 million residents have been confined to their homes since Cuomo ordered all nonessential businesses closed on Sunday.
The number of confirmed infections in Westchester County, the origin of New York’s outbreak, had “dramatically slowed” following a two-week containment, he said.
New York has 30,811 declared cases, up by 5,146, Cuomo said on Wednesday.
Almost 18,000 of those are in New York City, which reported almost 3,000 new cases, he added.
At least 280 people had died in the city as of yesterday, a running tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University showed.
After New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the Big Apple would run out of medical supplies by the end of the week, Cuomo assured residents that there is enough to last more than 14 days.
“Today, no hospital, no nurse, no doctor can say, legitimately: ‘I don’t have protective equipment,’” he said. “Right now, and for the foreseeable future, we have a supply. We have not yet secured supply for three weeks from now, four weeks from, now five weeks from now. But we are still shopping.”
New York’s cases are projected to reach their peak in 21 days and the state needs 30,000 ventilators by then, Cuomo said, calling on US President Donald Trump to introduce a “rolling deployment” whereby New York, as the worst hit, would receive most of the country’s equipment, before passing it on to other states.
“Send us the equipment that we need. Send us the personnel. As soon as we get past our critical moment, we will redeploy that equipment and personnel to the next hotspot. I will personally guarantee it,” Cuomo said.
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