New York Governor Cuomo: "We can't stop" coronavirus from killing vulnerable people
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reported the state's largest single-day increase in coronavirus deaths since the pandemic started: 731 on April 6. That brings the death toll in New York to 5,489, up from 4,758 a day earlier.
"This virus is very good at what it does. And it kills vulnerable people. That's what it does. And it does that very well. And we can't stop that," he said Tuesday.
Cuomo said he doesn't believe a single person died in the state because "we couldn't provide care." He said the question is: "Are you saving everyone you can save? And there, the answer is yes, and I take some solace in that fact."
"People we lost, we couldn't save despite our best efforts," he said.
He said that daily ICU admissions and daily intubations are down, and that officials are projecting that the state is reaching a plateau in hospitalizations, but added, "It still depends on what we do, and what we do will affect those numbers."
New York is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, with more than 138,000 cases. New Jersey has the second-most number of cases nationwide, with more than 41,000.
"Restarting life" will come down to testing, Cuomo says
Cuomo said that while "we're not there yet," there is a need to start planning for "restarting life."
"This is not a light switch that we can just flick one day and everything goes back to normal," he said.
Cuomo said restarting the economy is going to come down to testing in order to figure out who had the virus and who hasn't. New York's health department developed an antibody testing regimen and will be working with the FDA to bring it to scale in the state, he said. It tests if someone has the antibodies, which means they had the virus, are no longer contagious, and can't catch the virus.
He also said rapid tests that take 15 minutes to determine if someone has the virus need to be brought to scale. "We are interested in working with private companies that can actually bring this testing capacity to scale, and to scale quickly," Cuomo said.
