New York on Tuesday reported a new daily record of 13,422 cases of COVID-19, while the state continues to implement its coronavirus vaccination plan.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) shared the update on Twitter, saying 8.7 percent of the 154,949 COVID-19 tests that had been performed had returned positive. At a news conference Wednesday, he described the number of tests performed as “a little low,” claiming that New York had conducted more than 250,000 tests at an earlier time.
Today’s update on numbers:
The total number of hospitalizations for COVID is 7,892.
Of the 154,949 tests reported yesterday, 13,422 were positive (8.66% of the total).
Unfortunately, there were 144 fatalities. pic.twitter.com/EStJsWqt7b
– Andrew Cuomo
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Cuomo said at the press conference that the state must reopen the economy before most of its population has been vaccinated. Cuomo noted that initial figures estimate that between 70 and 90 percent of the population must be vaccinated for the state to reach the “critical mass.”
“It’s a very large percentage of the population. If you listen to the time period they talk about, it starts at about six months. We would be at a critical mass in June and beyond [the estimate] it was around September and now there are people talking about the end of the year, ”he said.
According to Cuomo, the state can’t wait that long, saying, “We can’t afford the economic cost. We can’t afford the psychological cost. We can’t afford the emotional cost. We have to be prepared for that.”
More than 203,000 people have so far received a dose of a coronavirus vaccine in New York, Cuomo said.
In a tentative step toward reopening, Cuomo also announced Wednesday that 6,700 fans would be allowed to attend Buffalo Bills ’first playoff game in January. Cuomo described this move as “pilot” for future events in New York. All attendees will be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test prior to the game and contact tracking will be conducted thereafter.
The state has also conducted 4,300 sequencing tests, Cuomo said, while trying to detect the new most infectious COVID-19 strain found in the UK. The strain has so far not been found in New York, the governor said.