Cuomo says New York’s new net hospitalizations hit low since coronavirus pandemic

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Thursday said the state saw its lowest number of net new hospitalizations in a 24-hour period since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, at 200.

“Luckily, the current trend, if it continues and if we continue the flattening of the curve, we’re looking at about 18,000 people hospitalized right now,” Cuomo said at his daily press briefing. “We’ve increased the capacity of the system dramatically and moved pieces around the state like never before. Our health care system has done a phenomenal job in doing an insurmountable task.”

Cuomo added that the change in intensive care unit admissions was also at the lowest in the state since mid-March. Total intubations and three-day averages of intubations were also down, Cuomo said.

“All of this data suggests we are flattening the curve so far,” he told the press. “So far our efforts are working, they’re working better than anyone projected they would work, [and] that’s because people are complying with them.”

Overall, the governor said, the state has increased its health care system’s capacity to approximately 90,000 beds, but he cautioned that even that level “doesn’t compare with the most problematic scenarios” in certain models. Cuomo added that plans were in place to increase capacity to 110,000, which some of the less optimistic models project a need for, “but it would be a massive undertaking and a massive scramble.”

Cuomo credited New Yorkers for complying with social distancing requirements imposed by the state. “Every day that we are New York tough, we are saving lives,” he said.

Cuomo warned against complacency, saying any progress was the result of social distancing measures and undoing them too early could undo that progress.

“We’re flattening the curve by what we’re doing, and we’re flattening the curve so far,” he said. “If we stop acting the way we’re acting, you will see those numbers go up.”