Coronavirus: New York City reports no new Covid-19 deaths for first day since mid-March

Governor announced outdoor dining to re-open in certain regions on Wednesday

New York City may have seen no confirmed coronavirus deaths in the city for the first day in months since deaths started rising in mid-march.

According to preliminary data from the city’s health department, there were zero confirmed additional deaths from Covid-19 on Wednesday 3 of June.

“This is great news,” a spokesperson for Mayor de Blasio told The New York Daily News.

The department stipulated that the data is only preliminary and may be incomplete due to delays in reporting.

Notably, the department recorded three probable deaths from Wednesday that may be linked to coronavirus, which could be reclassified as information develops.

At the height of the pandemic in New York City, which became known as the epicentre of the virus in the US, more than 500 people a day were dying from the respiratory disease in April.

“This number has been stubborn on it’s way down”, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said of the death toll in May.

“You see how quick that spike went up and how slow it is to come down, so we want to make sure we don’t go back there ever, ever again.”

The state has seemingly reached a number of landmarks in its fight against the virus over the last month.

“In the face of extraordinary challenges, New Yorkers have gone above and beyond to keep each other safe throughout the crisis,” City Hall spokeswoman Avery Cohen told The New York Post.

“With hope on the horizon, we will continue to do everything we can to reopen safely without losing sight of the progress we’ve made,” Mr Cohen said.

On 22 May Mr Cuomo announced that the number of new cases per day in New York state has reached its lowest level since the outbreak began.

At the height of the outbreak, the state recorded 12,312 cases of the virus in one day on 4 April, according to The New York Times daily case tracker.

Seven regions of the state have already begun phase two re-opening amidst the ongoing pandemic, and Gov Cuomo announced on Wednesday that outdoor dining will be permitted to re-open in those areas.

The state’s re-opening has continued as a backdrop to national unrest erupting across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died on 25 May after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground by his neck for a prolonged period of time.

Hundreds and thousands of New York residents have taken to the streets to protest the death of Floyd over the last week, demonstrating against police brutality and systemic racism.

As a result of the large gatherings for demonstrations, the governor announced on Thursday that the state will expand its Covid-19 testing criteria to include any individual who attended any of the protests.

“Our numbers have been going down every day, but now we have tens of thousands of people who have been protesting statewide that could lead to the new spread of the virus,” the governor said at his daily coronavirus briefing.

We’re going to open the testing facilities for all people who were at a protest statewide and encourage any individual who attended any protest to be responsible and get tested.“

New York state has recorded more than 375,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, 205,000 of which are in New York City alone. More than 24,000 people have died of the disease in the state.