New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed a “shocking” finding Wednesday that the majority of new COVID-19 patients being admitted to New York hospitals had been isolating at home.
According to preliminary data gathered from 100 New York hospitals, 66% of new coronavirus admissions were from people who had largely been sheltering at home, Mr. Cuomo said at his daily briefing, CNBC reported.
“If you notice, 18% of the people came from nursing homes, less than 1% came from jail or prison, 2% came from the homeless population, 2% from other congregate facilities, but 66% of the people were at home, which is shocking to us,” the governor said.
“This is a surprise: Overwhelmingly, the people were at home,” he added. “We thought maybe they were taking public transportation, and we’ve taken special precautions on public transportation, but actually no, because these people were literally at home.”
Mr. Cuomo said nearly 84% of the hospitalized cases were people who were not commuting to work and that the majority of new patients were either retired, unemployed, or “nonessential” employees.
Mr. Cuomo said state health officials had initially predicted a high percentage of new infections would be attributed to frontline workers and “essential” employees.
“Much of this comes down to what you do to protect yourself. Everything is closed down, government has done everything it could, society has done everything it could. Now it’s up to you,” he said.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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