New York sees 367 deaths in a day – the lowest single-day toll since March 31

Gov Andrew Cuomo shared an outline on Sunday that details how businesses could possibly reopen in New York as the state sees 367 deaths in a day, the lowest single-day toll since March 31. 

‘The descent continues,’ Cuomo said during his press conference. ‘We are now back to where we were on March 31.’

Cuomo said that 1,087 more people had been hospitalized for the virus the previous day.

‘That would normally be terrible news,’ he said of the hospitalizations. ‘It’s only not terrible news compared to where we were.’

Cuomo then announced that the reopening process will consist of two phases for right now. Phase one will focus on ‘low-risk’ construction and manufacturing companies getting back to work. 

Phase two will focus on more essential businesses that are also considered low risk. These businesses will be required to give the governor’s office ideas about what precautions they are going to take in the workplace. 

‘They have to give us a plan before they can reopen,’ Cuomo said. ‘We need them to be creative and think outside the box.’

Officials will be monitoring the number of hospitalizations, antibody tests and positive diagnostic tests between both phases. 

Cuomo warned that there will need to be two weeks between the phases so ‘we can monitor what we just did’ otherwise ‘we could lose’ all of the work done ‘if we’re not careful’.   

‘There’s no return to yesterday in life. It’s about moving forward,’ Cuomo said. 

Cuomo said Saturday that New York has started to test health care workers for coronavirus antibodies and will do the same next week with transit and law enforcement workers as the state eases away from the worst days of the pandemic.

Doctors, nurses and other employees at four New York City hospitals that have handled high volumes of coronavirus patients will be the first tested under the new program, Cuomo said.

Antibody testing is a way of determining if a person has been infected by the coronavirus even if they hadn’t shown symptoms.

After weeks of reserving conventional coronavirus testing to people with symptoms to conserve supplies, the state is expanding eligibility to include first responders, health care workers and a long list of essential employees, such as bus drivers, dry cleaners, undertakers and grocery store workers.

‘Why? Because these people have been carrying the load and they have been subjected to the public all during this crisis, and because they’re public facing,’ Cuomo said. ‘These are the people you interact with.’

Cuomo said he is signing an executive order to allow pharmacies to serve as collection points for testing samples. 

A recent study in New York City revealed that more than 20 per cent of New York City residents tested positive for coronavirus antibodies 

If accurate, that means that as many as 1.7 million people have been infected in the city – and that the mortality rate is between 0.6 and 0.8 per cent, far greater than the 0.1 per cent mortality rate of the flu.

The study took samples from 3,000 randomly selected people across the state who were chosen at grocery stores and had their blood taken via a finger-prick test that the state’s health department made.

It remains unknown how accurate it is. While private companies have given exact percentages for how accurate their own tests are, when questioned about their test, the NY health department, said only that theirs was ‘very accurate’.

Statewide, the virus prevalence was 13.9 per cent but it was far higher in New York City, where 21.2 per cent tested positive.