New Yorkers may have flattened the curve of coronavirus by observing a lockdown and complying with social distancing orders — but they shouldn’t expect a return to their normal life any time soon.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference Friday that he won’t re-open New York until it has the ability to test millions of people for the virus, which has killed 7,067 people in the state so far.
“It’s not gonna be a light switch, where you flip the economy on and everyone goes back to work next Thursday,” said Cuomo. “It’s going to be a gradually phased process that’s reliant on testing … testing on a scale that we have not done before.”
He’s also calling on Trump to authorize the Defense Production Act, and acquire testing kits which could then be distributed to New York. Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases, said on CNN’s “New Day” on Friday morning that “within a period of a week or so, we’re going to have a rather large number of tests that are available,” referring specifically to antibody tests. New York, the epicentre of coronavirus in United States On Friday, for the first time since coronavirus crashed into New York, the number of people in ICUs was lower (17 fewer people) compared to the previous day. The number of hospitalizations has also slowed down, continuing a three day trend. The number of deaths remains very high; 777 people have died from coronavirus in the last 24 hours in New York.