Cuomo Announces First Drop in Daily Deaths but Warns It Is ‘Too Early’ to Tell If It Is Significant

A potential bright spot has emerged in the fight against the coronavirus.

As the country’s top health officials delivered somber warnings about the week ahead, there may be a positive sign that mitigation efforts are working in New York.

During his press conference on Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) shared statistics on the number of daily deaths and hospitalizations due to the virus.

“Number of deaths is up, that’s the bad news. It’s 4,159, and we pray for each and every one of them and their families,” Cuomo said, adding, “But, the number of deaths over the past few days has been dropping for the first time.”

According to Cuomo, there were 594 deaths on Saturday, which was down from 630 deaths on Friday.

He continued, “What is the significance of that? It’s too early to tell.”

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Additionally, he noted there 574 new hospitalizations on Saturday compared to 1,095 on Friday. The daily ICU admissions also dropped to 250 on Saturday from 395 on Friday.

Meanwhile, the number of patients discharged increased to 1,709 on Saturday from 1,502 on Friday, which Cuomo hailed as “great news.”

However, Cuomo added that officials have to look at several days worth of data to see if the tide is turning or if the decrease in deaths and hospitalizations was just a “blip.”

While public health officials have said there are signs that mitigations efforts are working, they have cautioned Americans that if the restrictions are lifted too early, it could lead to a resurgence of cases.

As of Sunday morning, there were 122,031 confirmed cases in the state and 4,159 deaths.