Hospitals and group homes
can resume visits as New York
reaches new COVID-19 lows
New Yorkers will once more be allowed to visit loves ones in hospitals and group homes. Pexels
COURIER LIFE, JUNE 19-25, 2020 31
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
Hospitals and group homes
across the state can now accept
visitors as the number
of COVID-19 cases continue
to fall, Gov. Andrew Cuomo
announced on Tuesday.
Healthcare facilities and
group homes must require
visitors to wear personal
protective gear during visits,
and may subject them to
symptom and temperature
checks, Cuomo said. Group
homes will be required to tell
the state if they are accepting
visitors once again.
The move comes as the
number of coronavirus-related
hospitalizations continue
to decline throughout
the state, falling to 1,538
statewide on June 15 — the
lowest number since March
20.
“That is something to celebrate,”
Cuomo said at the
daily press briefi ng. “We
went up the mountain, we
came down the mountain.
And we did it with a smart
reopening.”
About 3 million people
statewide have been tested
for the virus so far, and 12,000
have been surveyed for antibodies
in the last six weeks.
The results found that as of
June 13, 13.4% of those who
were infected with COVID-19
had antibodies for the infection,
and 21.6% of those with
the antibodies lived in New
York City.
Cuomo credited the state’s
shutdown and gradual reopening
with the low numbers,
and claimed that states
that reopened sooner have
felt the fared worse.
“As we sit here today, 21
states are seeing an increase.
Why? They reopened quickly
– they did not have the same
phases, they did not have the
same controls, they’re seeing
the number of cases go
up,” he said. “The cases are
increasing, that destabilizes
the market. And then the
market responds in the negative,
and that actually hurts
the economy.”
These spikes in COVID-19
cases have caused the number
of projected deaths nationwide
to increase exponentially,
reaching more
than 149,000 deaths by August
according to the Institute
for Health Metrics and
Evaluation, Cuomo said.
“Those are not Democratic
numbers, those are not Republican
numbers, those are
just numbers,” said Cuomo.
“New York has the lowest
rate of infection, these are
not theories anymore. These
are just undeniable facts.”
Wellness