New York Saw Negative Net Change in ICU Admissions for First Time Since Coronavirus Outbreak

© AFP/File Bryan R. Smith
AFP

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Friday said his state saw a negative net change in intensive care unit (ICU) admissions for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are cautiously optimistic that we are slowing the infection rate, that’s what the data suggests to us,” Cuomo said in his daily press briefing on his state’s efforts to combat the spread of the illness. “Change in total hospitalizations is down, not relative to yesterday, but when it’s averaged on the three-day average. You see a dramatic decline in those numbers and that’s obviously very good news.”

“Change in ICU admissions is actually a negative number for the first time since we started this intense journey,” Cuomo continued. “That means there are fewer people in the intensive care units statewide than there were, and again, that’s the first time we’ve seen a negative number, so that’s good.”

The change in daily admissions dropped by 17, meaning there were fewer patients in ICU units yesterday than there were on the previous day.

On Thursday, 777 people died in New York due to the coronavirus, bringing the total to 7,844 fatalities, Cuomo confirmed.

The governor, taking a more optimistic tone, then said New York is “flattening the curve,” and outperforming several models that predicted the state’s hospitals would be overwhelmed by the influx in patients.

“There is no natural trajectory,” he added. “The trajectory is the trajectory we create by our actions.”

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