Coronavirus: New York cases at lowest level since outbreak began, Cuomo says

Death toll in the state has surpassed 16,000

The number of new coronavirus cases per day in New York state is at the lowest they have been since the outbreak began, New York governor Andrew Cuomo has said.

“The number of new cases per day is down. This is a level now that is lower than when we first began, so that’s good” Gov Cuomo said in his daily coronavirus briefing on Friday.

A daily case tracker by The New York Times recorded 2,078 new cases of the coronavirus in the state on Thursday.

According to the same tracker 18 May was recorded as the day with the lowest number of cases since the outbreak began, sitting at 1,241.

New York State became the epicentre of the virus in the US as the pandemic continued to escalate in March and April.

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 tracker.

The state currently has more than 196,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in total, with a death toll of over 16,000 as of Friday.

The governor acknowledged that the number of deaths were also down but noted that the number was "painfully high at any number"

"This number has been stubborn on it's way down", Gov Cuomo said. "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."

Overall deaths dropped by 30 people between 16 May and 21 May. The lowest death count in this period was the same on 18 May and 20 May, sitting at 105 deaths.

On Thursday 109 people died in the state from the novel coronavirus.

On 6 May, the state reported a significant increase in deaths due to the inclusion of new data on nursing home and adult care facility deaths dating back to 1 March, The New York Times said.

Mr Cuomo announced an “exciting new phase” in his reopening plans amidst the crisis earlier this month saying parts of the state can begin to open on Friday in accordance with CDC guidelines.

“Fifteenth May is the end of the statewide closure, and the question is now going to shift onward to localities,” he said. “We took the worst situation in the nation and changed the trajectory.”