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There were 731 new COVID-19-related deaths, though the number of cases may be plateauing, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during his daily news briefing on Tuesday, April 7 in Albany.
The evidence that the number of cases may be stabilizing is based on a decline in hospitalization rates. (See second through third fourth images above.)
“We tend not to look at any one day, but if you look at the three-day average, it’s moving down,” Cuomo said. “We’re projecting that we are reaching a plateau as we look at the number of hospitalizations. We see it flattening, and it’s not an act of God that we’re looking at, it’s an act of what societally we’ve been doing.”
New York remains the state most impacted by COVID-19, with 138,836 confirmed cases, ahead of New Jersey (41,090), Michigan (17,130), California (16,284), and Louisiana (14,867). Nationally, there have been 374,371 COVID-19 cases, which have resulted in 11,690 deaths.
“There’s a discrepancy ... because you see the number of deaths going up, and the number of hospitalizations dropping,” the governor said. “The fact is, the longer you’re on a ventilator, the less likely you are to ever come off that ventilator, which is why you’re seeing the number of deaths increasing.”
Cuomo said that he knows “it’s been a frustrating 37 days,” but that social distancing has proven to be effective, and New Yorkers need to maintain those practices to help continue the slowing down of the spreading of the virus.
Cuomo cited the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic, which came in three waves and killed more than 30,000 New Yorkers over a six-month stretch.
“I know it’s like a ‘Groundhog Day’ situation we’re living in this bizarre reality,” he said. “I get it, but it’s only been 37 days. What we do affects the number of cases, our behavior affects the number of cases, we’re the ones generating the cases, they aren’t descending from heaven.
“We’ve been seeing it, social distancing is working. That’s why you see those numbers coming down. If we were having the same amount of interaction, that number would be going up. So let’s not get complacent, let’s stay disciplined. We need to stay smart, stay safe, and we’re doing that by staying home and we will do that by staying together.”
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