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During his daily COVID-19 briefing on Thursday, June 4 in Albany, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that through widespread testing, the number of positive cases coming back for the virus has dropped from as high as 26 percent in New York City to 2 percent, nearly across the board.
Cuomo said that the state is averaging approximately 50,000 COVID-19 tests per day, which has helped officials get a better idea of how the virus has been spreading.
On Long Island, six weeks ago, 20 percent of tests were coming back positive for the virus. Four weeks ago, that number was down to 11 percent, which dipped to 4 percent two weeks ago.
In New York City, the number went from 26 percent six weeks ago, 11 percent four weeks ago, to 5 percent two weeks ago.
Now, just 2 percent of COVID-19 tests on both Long Island and New York City are being returned positive (see chart above).
“It’s remarkable in many ways, especially compared to what you see from (other states),” Cuomo said. “Just look at how far we come. It shows what a difference the social distancing and masks show.
“Without that PPE, you tell me how those numbers drop like that,” he added. “Everything we’ve done is smart and working. That’s not just my opinion, that’s just taking a look at the numbers.”
Cuomo continued: “Six weeks ago is like yesterday. We’ve been making great progress, but as fast as these numbers went up and came down, they can go right back up again. We’ve seen too many examples where they didn’t do it right and the numbers just boomeranged right back.”
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