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During his daily COVID-19 news briefing on Monday, April 6, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced there have been 8,658 new confirmed cases of the virus, bringing the statewide total to 130,689, tops in the nation, and 4,758 deaths, also No. 1 in the United States.
Of the 130,689 positive cases, there are currently 16,837 people hospitalized for the virus, including 4,504 ICU patients. Since the outbreak began earlier this year, 13,366 people have been treated and discharged from New York hospitals.
Cuomo said that while the number of positive cases continues to increase, they may be beginning to plateau, marking the beginning of the apex in the number of cases as hospitals continue to be overburdened.
“It can still go any way, so we can still see an increase, but it is hopeful,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter if we hit the plateau or not. If we are plating, we are still doing so at an extremely high level and there’s tremendous stress on the healthcare system, which is at its maximum capacity.”
In response to the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, Cuomo announced that all schools and non-essential businesses will remain closed through at least Wednesday, April 29.
“I understand this is a negative for many reasons, and I know what it does to the economy,” he said. “But as I said from the start, I won’t choose between public health and the economy. Public health demands that we stay on pause with businesses closed and schools closed whether we’ve hit the apex or haven’t hit the apex.”
New York City and the nine counties reporting the most COVID-19 cases, forming the state's Top 10, are:
- New York City: 72,181 (4,630 new cases);
- Nassau: 15,616 (1,218);
- Westchester: 14,294 (571);
- Suffolk: 13,487 (1,082);
- Rockland: 5,703 (377);
- Orange: 3,397 (295);
- Dutchess: 1,189 (112);
- Erie: 1,023 (105);
- Monroe 574 (26);
- Ulster: 372 (40).
There have been confirmed cases of COVID-19 in every county statewide.
New York remains the hardest-hit state in the nation by COVID-19, with its 130,689 cases ahead of New Jersey (37,505), Michigan (15,076), California (15,076), and Louisiana (13,010).
The governor, citing cases in Hong Kong and South Korea, said that it’s important to continue social distancing measures, which have proven relatively effective.
“We can’t let our foot off the gas too quickly, we’ve seen where that goes,” Cuomo said. “We’ve been behind since day one and this virus has kicked our rear end. We underestimate this virus at our own peril. Now is not the time to slack off from what we’re doing.
“There’s a real danger in getting over-confident too quickly. This is an enemy we’ve underestimated since day one and we’ve paid the price dearly.”
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