Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York announced on Saturday that the state is extending diagnostic coronavirus testing to include first responders, health care personnel and essential workers, with the goal of delivering tests to 40,000 people every day.
The governor would also sign an executive order authorizing independent pharmacists to do diagnostic screening. That will open a network of more than 5,000 pharmacies as testing sites, he said.
At about 20,000 antibody and diagnostic tests per day, New York performs more tests per capita than anywhere else in the world. The state reports about 6,000 new cases of virus per day.
As Cuomo has said, extensive accessibility to monitoring is one of the key obstacles to reopening the country. "Testing is what we are now obsessively centered on," Cuomo said from Albany on Saturday, noting that the state carried out about 20,000 tests a day. Cuomo called the global pandemic as "the worst thing in human history that we have witnessed."
The robust analysis campaign comes as reports show that New York's coronavirus cases could be on the downside from its outbreak. The number of patients entering hospitals fell to about 1,100 on Friday, the lowest it was in 21 days, Cuomo disclosed.
The city's new Covid-19 cases are down to around 1,100, Cuomo said. "Only in this crazy reality would 1,100 new cases will be fairly good news, right?" he said. On Friday, however, deaths from the virus was slightly up at 437, climbing from 422 a day before.
The figure is the fewest since March 31, when the city reported 391 fatalities. Over 16,000 people have perished in the state from the pandemic. "Again, it is at an unimaginable level, and it is falling, somewhat," Cuomo said, "but it is still a devastating news," he added.
Although the overall trends provide some hope, Cuomo emphasized that any progress could be wasted if social distancing measures are relaxed too quickly.
Cuomo stated that he is looking into widening the tests to 40,000 people each day with the assistance of the federal government and extend the criteria for individuals to get a diagnostic assessment.
New York is initiating antibody evaluations for frontline healthcare personnel at four hospitals in the city: Elmhurst Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, Montefiore and SUNY Downstate Health Sciences. Transit employees and state as well as city police will also be subjected to testing next week.
Meanwhile, drawing comparisons to the 1918 flu pandemic and World War II, Cuomo urged the people of New York to continue practicing social distancing, noting its difficulties. Statewide, total case is now at 282,143, the New York Health Department disclosed.
