Hospitalizations for Virus Are Nearly Flat in N.Y., but 799 More Die

In the past two weeks, the number of virus patients hospitalized has grown more and more slowly, from more than 20% a day at one point to single-digit percent increases this week.

From Wednesday to Thursday, the number increased by 200, to 18,279, or just 1%.

If the trend were to continue, the number of people in hospitals would soon start to decline — a sign that the virus had passed its apex.

But the number of people dying of the virus continues to grow. The state recorded 799 deaths from Wednesday to Thursday, another one-day high.

For the second straight day, Cuomo compared the toll of the virus to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, calling the virus a “silent explosion that ripples through society with the same randomness, the same evil that we saw on 9/11.”

As he has done repeatedly in recent days, Cuomo stressed that social distancing and other restrictions would continue to be enforced, because they were necessary to maintain the progress the state has made.

He also cautioned that New York might only be in the first wave of the pandemic. The state would probably have enough hospital beds and ventilators to treat virus patients if current trends hold, he said, but its resources would be insufficient if the most drastic projections about the outbreak were realized.

“Everybody is assuming, well, once we get through this, we’re done,” Cuomo said. “I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that. This virus has been ahead of us from day one.

The governor again emphasized that New York’s black and Hispanic communities were being hit the hardest by the virus, and he said that additional testing sites would be opened in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods.

Here are the latest statistics from the governor’s morning briefing:

— Deaths in New York State: 799 since yesterday, for a new total of 7,067.

— Confirmed cases: 159,937 statewide, up 10,621 from 149,316, a 7% increase. In New York City: 87,028, up from 81,803.

— People hospitalized: 18,279 statewide, up by 200 from 18,079 Wednesday, an increase of 1%.

— In intensive care: 4,925, up 84 from 4,841 on Wednesday, a 2% increase.

Number of ventilated patients in New Jersey falls as deaths rise.

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey cited progress in the fight against the virus Thursday even as he reported that another 198 people in the state had died.

The number of virus patients on ventilators dropped almost 2%, to 1,551 from 1,576, from Wednesday to Thursday, an indicator that the curve of infection was flattening.

The death toll was New Jersey’s smallest in three days, although it was still the fourth highest since the outbreak began. More people have died in New Jersey, 1,700, than in any other state besides New York.

Murphy also said the rate at which the number of confirmed virus cases was doubling in each of the state’s counties was beginning to slow.

“This is progress,” he said, showing a county-by-county map of new cases. “Our social distancing is in fact beginning to show effect here.

The governor announced 3,748 new cases, pushing the total number in the state to 51,027. He said that as the number of new cases continued to rise, people had to keep following the order to stay at home and to wear masks when going to the grocery store.

“We have got to get to a plateau,” he said. “This is not a time for selfishness.”

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Nearly 480 people were discharged from hospitals from Wednesday to Thursday, he said, including James Pruden, an emergency room doctor who contracted the virus in late March.

Murphy also announced new grace periods for people who had lost their jobs and could not pay their insurance premiums: 60 days for people unable to pay health and dental premiums and 90 days for those unable to pay home, auto, renter’s and life insurance premiums.

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Returning to normal will require more testing, the mayor says.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that even as New Yorkers could probably expect to remain under heavy restrictions through May, he and other officials have started to envision a return to normalcy.

His remarks contrasted sharply with those of the governor, who questioned whether officials could accurately predict the spread of a virus that experts did not fully understand.

“I’m not going to guess when the data will say we should change our practices,” Cuomo said.

“Who can look forward and say ‘This is where we’re going to be in three or four or five weeks’,” he said.

The mayor said he thought that as soon as mid-May, the city could move to the next stage in the epidemic, where the virus was spreading at a low level that allowed cases to be traced more easily.

“We can say that it’s time to start planning for the next phase very overtly,” de Blasio said at a news conference.

He emphasized, though, that any such a transition would require the availability of widespread testing to a degree that was not yet available.

“We need a whole lot of testing,” de Blasio said. “We need the federal government to step up, we need them to do it quickly.”

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Still, de Blasio’s remarks reflected the cautious optimism that other officials have expressed in recent days as hospitalizations seemed to slow.

The mayor, echoing Cuomo, said that any move toward loosening social-distancing guidelines would require New Yorkers to continue adhering to the existing rules for now.

The mayor was unwilling to discuss in detail what such a loosening might look like.

“In any scenario, we want to see the maximum number of people work at home for a long time,” he said.

The mayor also said the city would look for decreases in three key figures before relaxing social-distancing rules: the percentage of positive coronavirus tests, the numbers of people admitted to hospitals who were suspected to have the virus and the number admitted to intensive-care units who were suspected of being infected.

All three figures would need to trend downward for 10 days to two weeks before restrictions could be eased, de Blasio said.

The mayor also said that officials were two to three days away from deciding whether public schools would reopen before the end of the school year in June.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .