New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday all evidence shows his state is on a decline in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, noting testing capabilities have increased and frontline workers can be tested.
He said hospitalizations are down with 1,100 new cases in the past day — but he warned he wants to see the numbers around 400 to 500 new cases a day.
In the past 24-hours, though, 437 people died of the coronavirus in his state.
“We are back to where we were 21 days ago. Twenty-one days of hell but we are back where we were,” the governor said.
He said his state is doing more testing per capita than any other country in the world.
As testing is increasing, New York needs more collection sites, so the governor is authorizing independent pharmacists to be collection sites for COVID-19 testing.
“People could go to their local drug store. There are about 5,000 in New York. Those would be collection sites that would quickly ramp up our collection capacity,” he said.
Mr. Cuomo also added that since testing capacity has increased, he is opening up tests for first responders, healthcare workers, and essential employees.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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