New York Extends Shutdown Amid Hopeful Stats

Cuomo reports 606 deaths, a sharp drop from previous day
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 16, 2020 12:07 PM CDT
New York Extends Shutdown Amid Hopeful Stats
A man walks through Brooklyn Bridge Park Tuesday night, April 14.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

New Yorkers just received another two weeks in lockdown mode. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday extended the state shutdown to May 15 as he revealed that coronavirus stats were still going in the right direction. Cuomo announced another 606 deaths from Wednesday to Thursday, a sharp drop from 752 the previous day, reports Forbes. It's also the lowest number in 10 days, notes the New York Times. Also, the number of ICU patients fell by 134, while the number of intubated patients also fell, as did the three-day hospitalization rate. As usual, Cuomo sought to temper the improving stats with caution.

“You still have 2,000 people walking into a hospital and being diagnosed with (COVID-19),” he said, per the Daily News. “That’s still a lot of people.” The state's death toll is now at 12,192, and Cuomo has cautioned that New Yorkers abandoning social-distancing rules en masse could quickly cause the stats to worsen. Hence, the extension of the shutdown to May 15. “What happens after then? I don’t know,” he said. “We will see depending on what the data shows.” Later Thursday, President Trump is expected to unveil guidelines to governors on how and when to reopen their states. (More coronavirus stories.)

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