Another 299 people across New York died from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours — an “obnoxiously” high number, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday.
Fatalities jumped 10 deaths from the day before, and include 276 who died in hospitals and 23 in nursing homes, for a statewide total of 18,909.
“That number has remained obnoxiously and terrifyingly high and is still not dropping at the rate we would like to see,” Cuomo said at a daily briefing from New York City Transit’s Corona Maintenance Facility in Flushing, where trains will be disinfected nightly.
An additional 831 New Yorkers were admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 cases, Cuomo said, a decrease from the several days prior, when admissions were plateaued at around 900.
More than 10,300 New Yorkers remain hospitalized with COVID-19, with 2,923 on ventilators in intensive care, according to state data.
Diagnoses grew by 4,663, state officials said Saturday, to a statewide total of 312,977.
Cuomo also announced preliminary results of the state’s 15,000 antibody tests it began conducting April 22.
On that date, when 2,933 had been tested for signs they had already fought the disease, the rate of positivity was 14 percent statewide. It has since dropped to 12 percent.
Only one age group has seen an increase in positive antibody tests: 18- to 24-year-olds. Their positive-test rate grew from 8 percent on April 22 to 11 percent Saturday, the governor said.
New Yorkers between the ages of 45 and 54 had the highest percentage, 14, of positive antibody tests.
In New York City, the percentage of those positive for antibodies stood at about 20 percent on Saturday, a two-percentage-point drop from April 22.
The results show the Bronx has been hit harder than any borough, with 28 percent positive for antibodies, compared to 19 percent in Brooklyn and Staten Island, 18 in Queens, and 17 in Manhattan.
“We’re going to do more research to understand what’s going on there. Why is the Bronx higher than the other boroughs?” Cuomo said.
In counties outside New York, about 1 to 3 percent tested positive for antibodies.
Cuomo said the state would begin Saturday testing all transit workers for antibodies, among several new initiatives.
And state workers will distribute 7 million face masks beginning Saturday to high-risk communities, including NYCHA complexes and nursing homes.
The state will also distribute $25 million to food banks across the state, with $11 million to New York City, he said.
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