EMTs transport a woman with COVID-19 symptoms to a hospital in Yonkers, New York, on December 17, 2020.
Photographer: John Moore / Getty Images
Photographer: John Moore / Getty Images
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New York State surpassed one million cases of Covid-19, after a grim year in which more than 30,000 of its residents died from the virus.
More than a third of all state cases were reported in December, as the cold weather pushed people inside, holidays increased social gatherings and residents were tired of restrictions. On the first day of 2021, the United States surpassed 20 million Covid-19 cases, twice as many as the second nation, India.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported 15,074 new infections, less than the New York pandemic record of 16,802 cases reached two days ago. Another 128 people in the state died of Covid-19-related causes, Cuomo said Saturday. The statewide positive test rate decreased slightly to 7.45%.
The first New York case was reported on March 1 in New York City, attended by three major airports that handle more than 100 million passengers a year. The Big Apple quickly became the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, accumulating more than 80,000 cases in the first month, about 40 percent of the U.S. total at the time. Gov. Andrew Cuomo later blamed President Donald Trump’s administration for allowing 3 million European travelers to enter the United States between December and March before suspending most arrivals.
To curb the spread, Cuomo closed schools and businesses, restricted meetings, ordered residents to stay home, and enacted rules of social distances and masks. By May, the state had recovered to the point that Cuomo began reopening in phases and regions. New York City, which had more than half of the state’s cases, began the process in June. Daily cases and total hospitalizations dropped from 500, while daily deaths dropped from five.
Meanwhile, the virus spread across the nation and several states overtook New York in daily cases, deaths and hospitalizations, in the absence of a national strategy to control the rise. California had more than 2.2 million cases and 21,000 admitted by Covid-19 as of Jan. 1.
Texas and Florida have also surpassed one million and Illinois is on track to reach that milestone over the next week. Now New York State accounts for only 5% of the nation’s cases.
As of December 31, Cuomo had a record 16,802 positive results and 136 deaths. The state had 7,935 hospitalized, twice as many as a month earlier.
Cuomo, a second-term Democrat who wrote a book about his leadership through the pandemic, said Dec. 31 that it may take a year for the state of more than 19 million people to administer vaccines to a critical mass. of its population. As of December 22, New York had administered some 203,000 of the 630,000 vaccine doses received. His administration is piloting ways to reopen companies that would rely heavily on testing and monitoring.
(Updates with Saturday numbers in the third paragraph.)