New York’s COVID-19 infection rate has been below 1 percent for one month straight
Photo by Anthony Quintano on Flickr
Once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, New York now has one of the lowest infection rates in the country. For four weeks straight, the percentage of positive virus tests has stayed below 1 percent, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday. At the peak of COVID-19 this spring, the state was reporting over 10,000 new cases and hundreds of deaths per day. On Monday, there were 520 new cases, with 0.88 percent of tests coming back positive, and two deaths statewide.
“Thanks to the hard work of New Yorkers, our state has now gone a full month with our COVID infection rate remaining below one percent,” Cuomo said. “Our numbers have continued to remain stable even as we reach new milestones in our phased, data-driven reopening.”
As of Monday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 440,021, with 236,212 of them reported in New York City. There have been over 30,000 deaths statewide since the start of the pandemic.
The infection rate and the number of deaths caused by the virus have remained flat since June, even as the state has gradually reopened, with all regions now in phase four of reopening, which allows gyms, malls, and schools to reopen.
The state’s recovery has not been totally spotless. At the State University of New York Oneonta in Central New York, more than 500 new cases of the virus were reported, linked to student parties. The outbreak caused university officials to cancel in-person classes for the semester less than two weeks after it began.
Cuomo sent a SWAT team to test residents of Otsego County and said on Sunday that 91 new cases were identified out of a total of 1,965 tests conducted. According to the governor, 85 of the 91 cases were individuals aged 18 to 24, showing the spread among college students.
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