With New York City’s lockdown executive order set to expire on May 15, Gov. Andrew Cuomo celebrated a steep decline in hospitalizations and deaths due to the coronavirus during Sunday’s daily briefing with reporters — even as he sought to address the state’s sky-high nursing home death count, which came after a state directive mandating that nursing homes take on positive COVID-19 patients.
Cuomo said new hospitalizations were roughly where they were on March 20, when the “New York State on Pause” executive order locked down the state. And, the number of deaths in the state — just 203 on Saturday — was similar to where it was in late March, as well.
The numbers “take us right back to where we started this hellish journey,” Cuomo said. “March 20 is when we did the close down order, and where we are today with the number of new cases is basically right where we were when we started.”
