ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported Tuesday that 778 people died from COVID-19 on Monday, up from the 671 deaths the day before and 758 two days prior.
The state has now lost 10,834 people to the deadly disease since the crisis started.
Despite the disappointing death data, New York’s other COVID-19 statistics, including net change in hospitalizations and intubations, continued to improve substantially as they have for more than a week.
“Statisticians will say number of lives lost is a lagging indicator,” Cuomo said at his daily COVID-19 briefing, explaining the discrepancy in the numbers.
The governor added, “We have shown that we control the virus …. The virus does not control us.”
Like he does everyday, Cuomo stressed the need for New Yorkers to continue with the social-distancing and personal-hygiene measures that have helped the state turn the corner in this battle with the dangerous bug.
“Whatever we do today will determine the infection rate tomorrow,” said Cuomo, noting that reopening the economy too fast will send the infection rate rising again. “In this reopening, we could lose all the progress we made in one week if we do it wrong,” he said
But he acknowledged that the state can’t stay shut for business too much longer.
“We cannot sustain this for a prolonged period of time. Everyone knows that,” the governor said.
New York reported it first COVID-19 death on March 14. The state crossed 100 deaths on March 23, 500 on March 27, 1,000 deaths on March 30, 2,000 on April 2, 5,000 deaths on April 7, and 10,000 deaths on April 13.
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