New York hospitalizations continue to decline as Cuomo calls for more testing

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said during a press briefing on Saturday that COVID-19 hospitalizations are “starting to descend” while also calling for more testing throughout the state.

The governor cited models depicting a decline in hospitalizations and ICU admissions related to the illness for the past three days, adding that medical facilities are no longer reporting that they are at “max capacity.”

Cuomo also highlighted that the rates of intubation — the process of placing COVID-19 patients on ventilators — are down too.

“The probability is about 80 percent that you won’t come off a ventilator after you [are] put one on,” Cuomo said, calling the descending rates “good news.”

He added that the state is still reporting 2,000 new COVID-19 hospitalizations daily, saying the situation is “sobering,” as 540 more New Yorkers lost their lives to the virus on Friday.

Remember: We still have about 2,000 new COVID hospitalizations daily.

And we lost 540 New Yorkers yesterday.

That is a soul-crushing loss.

When you feel tired of social distancing, think of those we lost. That’s what’s at stake here.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 18, 2020

“We’re not at the peak, but [these numbers reflect] where we were around late March,” he said Saturday morning.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, New York has reported more than 230,000 cases and more than 17,000 deaths.

Cuomo emphasized testing as “the way you monitor the rate of infection … and that is the whole tension for reopening,” calling for more testing before the state can consider reopening.

He cited data showing that the coronavirus infection rate in the state is now such that one person infects 0.9 people, compared to the rate of one person infecting 1.4 people previously. 

Cuomo said the current rate has a small margin of error, adding that if it returned to one person infecting more than one person, hospitalization rates could rise again.

The governor mentioned that the rate in Wuhan, China, at one point was such that one person infected 0.3 people, adding that hospitalization rates would drop significantly if New York could get to that point.