N.Y. Virus Success Makes U.S. Look Deceivingly Good, Cuomo Says

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. coronavirus outbreak is clearly seen to be worsening if New York is excluded from the data, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

New York, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, makes up about one-fourth of cases and one-third of deaths nationwide. As New York data show a decline in the spread of the disease, the situation in other states is still worsening even as they encourage commerce to restart, Cuomo said.

“I think that's a mistake,” Cuomo said Wednesday at a press briefing.

U.S. fatalities from Covid-19 have climbed 61% in two weeks, to 65,307 as of May 5. Excluding New York, deaths have jumped 78%.

“You take New York out of the national numbers, the numbers for the rest of the nation are going up,” Cuomo said. “To me that vindicates what we're doing here in New York, which says follow the science, follow the data, put the politics aside and the emotion aside. What we're doing here shows results. The hospitalization rate is down, the number of deaths is down, and the number of new cases is down.”

The daily death toll in New York is down from a high of 799 on April 8, but still stubbornly between 200 and 300 for a sixth day. Hospitalizations due to Covid-19 also are down, but the state is still seeing about 600 new patients a day.

Cuomo's administration asked hospitals to provide data on these new cases. Initial reports show that most patients, about 66%, were at home, Cuomo said.

Over the past three days, about 100 hospitals polled about 1,000 new virus patientsand found that those contracting the virus are predominantly either retired or unemployed, from downstate, older than 51 years, nonessential employees and mostly minorities, Cuomo said.

New York is enlisting the help of former Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt to help the state reopen better than it was before the virus, Cuomo said. Schmidt will chair a 15-member commission focusing on using technology to create the “economy of tomorrow,” Cuomo said.

The commission will examine telehealth, remote learning and broadband strategies, Schmidt said during the briefing via video. He said public-private partnerships could help.

“The solutions that we have to come up have to help the people most in need, people who are in different situations throughout the state,” Schmidt said. “The intent is to be very inclusive and make this thing better.”