NY sees statewide drop in hospitalizations

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Thursday announced a “fairly significant” decline in coronavirus hospitalizations, as well as data suggesting that health care workers have been infected at a lower rate than the general population in downstate areas.

“Eighty-six hundred total hospitalizations, that number is down. That is good news and that is a fairly significant drop,” Cuomo said at his daily briefing Thursday, adding that the net change in hospitalizations and the three-day rolling averages for hospitalizations and intubations were also down.

However, Cuomo continued to emphasize that the infection curve’s downward slope would not be nearly as steep as its upward slope, indicating the need for gradual reopening measures for both New York and other states.

Cuomo also hailed the state’s front line workers for remaining on the job despite the danger from the coronavirus, and said the state has conducted aggressive testing among them.

Testing has revealed that 6.8 percent of health care workers in Westchester, 12.2 percent of workers in New York City and 11.1 percent of workers on Long Island tested positive for antibodies for the virus, Cuomo said, lower than the positive rate for the general population for all three areas.

“That is amazingly good news,” he said. “It makes two points to me: number one is that our health care workers must be protected, they must have the [personal protective equipment], we’ve been saying that all along.”

“It also shows everybody how important the masks, the gloves and the sanitizer are, and that they work,” he added. “It’s not that the front line workers get anything especially more sophisticated than the masks that people wear, the N-95 masks. They wear a gown, they wear a mask, they wear gloves, but they follow protocol.”

The effectiveness of these protective measures for health care workers, he added, indicates they are equally effective for the general public.