Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York’s one-day coronavirus death toll has fallen below 100 for the first time in weeks.
Eighty-four people died in New York from the coronavirus on Friday, down from 109 the previous day, CBS News reported.
“Eighty-four is still a tragedy, no doubt,” he said. “But the fact that it’s down as low as it is is really, overall, good news”:
We lost 84 New Yorkers to COVID-19 yesterday. By any normal standard this is a hideous number. But we are thankful this number has fallen below 100 for the first time since late March.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 23, 2020
At its peak, the single-day death toll for coronavirus in New York hit close to 800 in one day.
New York City, the center of the state’s outbreak, hit its peak number of fatalities on April 7, when 590 people died in one day.
Deaths and hospitalizations in the city have also fallen in line with recent trends, with the city reporting 15 deaths from the coronavirus on Thursday — the most recently available data from the city’s health department.
Cuomo said Saturday that New York’s Long Island and Mid-Hudson regions, which border New York City, could reopen as soon as next week if deaths continue to decline and residents continue to practice social distancing.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, 28,853 people have died of the coronavirus in New York state since the pandemic began and has had more deaths than every state in the country. However, more than 63,000 New Yorkers have survived and recovered after contracting the virus.
