'We’re finally ahead of the virus': Cuomo announces New York victory at curbing pandemic while still urging caution

Hospitalisation, intubation, and death rates continue to decline across the state

Governor Andrew Cuomo expressed for months how New York has consistently been behind in curbing the spread of Covid-19. In the month of March alone, infection rates skyrocketed, inundating the healthcare system with patients.

But as shutdown measures remain throughout the entirety of the state, officials are finally declaring for the first time they’re ahead of the spread.

“The good news, on the overall, is we’re finally ahead of this virus. For so long we were playing catch up,” Mr Cuomo said on Friday. “We were behind it.”

He added: “Now I feel for the first time we’re actually ahead of it. We have shown that we can control the beast.”

Mitigation efforts proved to be effective after hospitalisation, intubation, and death rates all started to decline weeks into stay-at-home orders. NY Pause, the state’s name for its stay-at-home measures, would continue until 15 May for the entirety of the state.

Even though New York officials declared the state was now ahead of the virus, the governor warned residents about easing restrictions out of fear another wave could hit.

“We haven’t killed the beast, but we are – we’re ahead of it,” he said.

New York became the epicentre for the virus after 3 million travellers from Europe came through the state's airports from March to December, Mr Cuomo said. This information comes after officials learned it was not China that brought the virus to the East Coast, but Europe because the novel virus had already travelled away from its initial country by the start of 2020.

The state's coronavirus cases stand at more than 337,000 confirmed infections and 21,044 deaths – this number does not include "probable" Covid-19 deaths. On Thursday, 216 people died from the novel virus, New York's lowest single-day death rate since March.

While other states are working on reopening plans, New York has remained firm on curbing the spread of the virus before opening areas too early. Mr Cuomo hinted this week that he expected areas of New York, most being in Upstate, could partially reopen come 15 May. The first industries expected to return would be construction and manufacturing.

New York City, which has the most cases in the state, was expected to remain under stay-at-home orders for longer.

The good news of hospitalisation, intubation, and death rates on the decline in New York starkly contrasts what is happening in the rest of the US.

Coronavirus cases are still on the incline across America while New York has shown a decline. But more than 40 states are still pushing ahead on the reopening processes in an effort to boost the economy.

When New York decides to follow the rest of the country remains unknown, but the governor and other state officials have focused on a cautionary approach to prevent any future wave of Covid-19 to hit as bad as the first wave.