Reopen NY: Cuomo fears increase in coronavirus cases amid outbreaks in other states

Saturday, July 11, 2020

New York COVID hospitalizations drop to lowest since March

New York State hospitalizations dropped below 800 for the first time since March 18 and the three-day average death toll is 7 -- the lowest since March 16.

NEW YORK -- The number of New Yorkers hospitalized with the coronavirus fell to the lowest point in nearly four months, state officials said Saturday.

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo is predicting a new increase in cases amid outbreaks in other states.

"The only question is how far up our rate goes," Cuomo said in an interview with WAMC radio on Friday. "You can't have it all across the country and not come back."

The governor acknowledged the limitations in enforcing quarantine rules for travelers returning from states with rising rates of transmission.

"How do you catch somebody driving in, right? I mean, it's very very difficult, it's trying to catch water in a screen," Cuomo said. "And there's a certain inevitability to it. It was in China, got on a plane, went to Europe, people in Europe got on a plane, came here. Then it went down south, down west and it's going to come back."

The state on Saturday reported 799 COVID-19 hospitalizations - the lowest number since March 18.

Six people in the state died of the coronavirus on Friday.

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It overwhelmed the health care industry, it put millions out of work, it drowned social services in an ocean of need and threatened the food supply Americans had long since taken for granted. At the apex of the crisis and for the weeks that followed, no part of life, or even what followed life, was spared.