New York virus death toll passes 10,000; the worst is over, says Governor

New York, April 13

The death toll from the new coronavirus in New York state— the epicenter of America’s deadly pandemic—has passed 10,000, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

Cuomo also said that he believed “the worst is over” as hospitalisations appeared to be reaching a plateau and the daily increase in deaths came to 671, the lowest total in about a week.

Cuomo, who has been working closely with the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut in response to the novel coronavirus, also said that he would announce a coordinated plan on reopening businesses and schools.

NYC could run out of virus test swabs, say health officials               

New York City is in danger of running out of swabs for COVID-19 tests and should only test hospitalised patients, the city health department said in a memo to health care providers over the weekend.

“As the swab supply continues to decline, there is a real possibility hospitals will completely run out,” the April 11 health alert said.

“At this time, providers are reminded to only test hospitalised patients in order to preserve resources that are needed to diagnose and appropriately manage patients with more severe illness.” 

The warning came amid repeated pleas from New York City and state officials for the federal government to provide widespread testing in order to move to a containment phase in the coronavirus outbreak.

“We can’t make that transition back to normal without testing on a much larger scale,” he said Monday on MSNBC. Agencies