Andrew Cuomo: We think we are at the apex of coronavirus crisis

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday reported that the number of hospitalizations in the state ticked down a bit from a day earlier and there were other recent positive signs like a declining number of intubations amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“We think we are at the apex on the plateau,” Mr. Cuomo said. “The number of hospitalizations went up, flattened — continuing to flatten, which is a good sign.”

He reported 778 new deaths in the state, bringing the total to 10,834 coronavirus-related deaths in a state with a population of close to 20 million.

The 778 number was about in line with most of the daily totals over the past week.

Mr. Cuomo said they were “basically flat at a devastating level of pain and grief.”

There are more than 18,000 hospitalizations in the state. Mr. Cuomo pointed out that there were still 1,600 new COVID-19 cases for hospitals and that volume was still high.

The governor had estimated that the state could need around 110,000 hospital beds at the apex of the crisis, but he has said that residents’ adhering to social distancing measures has helped bend the curve from earlier projections.

Mr. Cuomo also said they’re keeping a close eye on deaths in nursing homes, which he said “have been an increasing issue.”

“That is the vulnerable population in the vulnerable place,” he said.

He said that nursing homes aren’t allowing visitors and staff members get checked every time they come in but that you can’t “hermetically seal” a nursing home from the outside world.

“By the way, taking somebody’s temperature - that’s not a foolproof mechanism,” he said. “That population is so vulnerable — it just takes one staff member who didn’t have a temperature but did have the virus to walk in and now you’re going to have a serious problem.”

There are more than 202,000 positive coronavirus cases in New York, the most out of any state in the country. More than 499,000 people have been tested.