Cuomo says early signs show coronavirus distancing may be working
New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, has said officials are seeing very early signs that physical distancing may be starting to slow the spread of coronavirus in his state, but cautioned that the number of cases is still rising significantly and hospitals would soon be overwhelmed.
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The New York City metro area accounts for 60% of new Covid-19 cases in the US. Despite that, Cuomo said it was encouraging that hospitalizations were projected New York News to double every 4.7 days on Tuesday, compared with Monday, when the number was doubling every 3.4 days, and Sunday, when the figure was every two days.
“The arrows are headed in the right direction, and that is always better than the arrows headed in the wrong direction,” Cuomo said at a press conference Wednesday.
But the virus still continues to spread quickly, and Cuomo said the “single greatest challenge” New York faces right now is a severe lack of ventilators, essential equipment for patients with potentially fatal Covid-19 infections. He said New York needs 30,000 ventilators but only has 4,000 in the current system.
Cuomo said the state has purchased 7,000, and the federal government has now provided 4,000 as high-tier officials start to recognize New York’s crisis. Cuomo has said doctors would start trialling the use of one ventilator for two patients.
New York City on Wednesday took further steps to decrease the density of people, announcing that some roads would be shut to cars to allow pedestrians to use them, and encouraging social and physical distancing to be observed in playgrounds. Sports that involve “close contact” such as basketball should also be avoided.
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Cuomo warned that if these measures to reduce the density did not work on a voluntary basis, then the city would make the guidelines mandatory.
The moves came after Dr Deborah Birx, part of the White Press Release Distribution Services In New York House coronavirus taskforce, said on Tuesday that about 56% of all the cases in the US, and 60% of new cases, are in the New York metro area. Mike Pence called on people who have recently left New York for other parts of the country to self-quarantine for 14 days.
The vice-president said: “We have to deal with the New York City metropolitan area as a high-risk area.”
Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he had a good conversation with Cuomo, who later thanked Trump and his team for their cooperation. The tone was a considerable change from Tuesday, when Cuomo had fiercely criticized the federal government’s response to the pandemic and balked at Trump’s suggestion that restarting the economy superseded public health concerns.
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