NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday said 391 New Yorkers died in the past day of coronavirus — and presented a model that predicts 16,000 will die in the state before the pandemic is done.
He gave the grim update, including cases soaring to 83,000, while warning that officials have yet to see a sign of the elusive “flattening of the curve” in cases or deaths.
“We’re still looking for the curve to straighten, we’re still looking at where we see a plateau,” Cuomo said. “The line is still going up.”
Cuomo also said authorities are ordering New York City playgrounds closed even as parks will stay open for now.
“That’s social distancing,” he said.
He warned that the model predicting 16,000 New Yorkers will perish out of 100,000 Americans amounts to a wake-up call to the rest of the nation.
New York has about half the national death total up to now, but will be just one in six by the end of the pandemic.
“It’s a New York problem today,” he said. “It’s a Kansas problem, it’s a New Mexico problem tomorrow.”
In New York City, 43 people died overnight, raising the toll to 1,139 from Tuesday evening. The city has tended to report far more deaths in the afternoon update, possibly due to issues with hospital reporting.
The five boroughs have had 44,915 positive cases, including 3,144 new ones overnight. Queens still has the most positive cases with 14,966, followed by Brooklyn with about 12,000. The Bronx has had 8,398, Manhattan has 6,960 and Staten Island has 2,480.
“Facts are facts. They’re just the best information we have,” he said.
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