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At his daily press briefing, Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered an update on the spread of the virus throughout New York, which has the second most confirmed cases of any state, behind only Washington, which has reported 279 cases.
Cuomo noted that there have been 24 deaths in Washington as opposed to zero in New York. He added that of the 212 positive coronavirus cases, only 32 are currently hospitalized (15 percent).
As of Wednesday, March 11, cases were reported in:
- Westchester: 121 (13 new);
- New York City: 48 (12 new);
- Nassau: 29 (nine new);
- Rockland: Six
- Suffolk: Six (five new);
- Saratoga: Two;
- Ulster: One.
Among the latest confirmed cases in Westchester was a lawyer who practiced at the County courthouse, leading to the closure of six courtrooms for sanitizing. Cuomo said that employees and others that may have had contact with the attorney have entered a precautionary quarantine.
“This number will continue to grow every day,” he said. “The more tests we conduct the more positive tests we will get. This is not a random sample of people. Testing happens when we find a person who is positive and ask them who they came in contact with. We then test that chain.
"That’s where these tests come from and we’re looking for the positives. It says we’re successfully tracking the chain. These numbers will continue to go up dramatically.”
The governor noted that he had discussions with 28 private labs that will soon begin conducting tests for COVID-19, allowing the state to test hundreds daily.
He said that China conducted approximately 200,000 tests daily, while South Korea conducted 15,000 tests daily, but the United States has only tested 5,000 during the entire health crisis.
“New York State is taking matters into its own hands. We’re going to start contracting with private labs to increase our testing capacity,” he said. “We informed those labs that they should get up and running and start moving forward with testing. There are still some complexities that the FDA needs to sign off on, and that’s complicating the situation.
“We’re not in a position to rely on the CDC or FDA to manage this testing protocol.”
In closing his conference, Cuomo said that no decisions have been made about officially banning large gatherings of people, similar to what has happened in San Francisco and Washington.
“We don’t want to shut down society, because that’s massively disrupting to all parties,” he said. “But at the same time, you have to be concerned about this public health crisis. It’s a delicate balancing act.”
The COVID-19 outbreak continues to be a developing story.
Check back to Daily Voice for updates.
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