Mayor Bill de Blasio at today’s daily briefing (Mayor’s Office)
April 9, 2020 By Allie Griffin
More than 4,000 New York City residents have died of the novel coronavirus and nearly a third of the deaths have been Queens residents, according to city data released this morning.
In total, 4,426 New Yorkers have been killed by the virus in the Big Apple — 1,377 of whom called Queens home.
The borough remains “the epicenter of the epicenter” with the highest number of confirmed cases. As of this morning, 27,063 residents have been infected by the deadly virus — a large chunk of the 84,373 cases citywide.
Statewide, 799 New Yorkers died yesterday — the highest number of deaths in a single day for the third day in a row. The death toll was 779 on Tuesday and 731 on Monday.
Despite the colossal loss of life, daily hospitalizations across the city have begun to drop and stabilize — a positive sign that New York City has begun to flatten its coronavirus curve.
The city may begin to lift some restrictions by mid-May or June if improvements continue, Mayor Bill de Blasio said today. He did not say what restrictions would be lifted first.
He did note that the city plans to keep most people working from home for the foreseeable future.
De Blasio said that the progress the city has made in stopping the spread is likely to mean that the months ahead might not be as bad as expected.
“May might be easier than I originally feared it would be,” he said.
De Blasio said that the restrictions will drop once a number of goals have been achieved.
He said that the number of hospital admissions must fall and stabilize for a sustained period of time. Additionally, ICU admissions and the percentage of people testing positive must also fall over a long period.
“If we really work hard we have a chance of seeing change in May or June,” he said, as he urged New Yorkers to do their part.
He said residents must strictly follow social distancing orders and stay home as much as possible, so that the numbers will continue to level out.
Expanded testing from the federal government is also necessary to return back to normal life, the mayor said.
“We need a whole lot of testing,” de Blasio said. “We need the federal government to step up, we need them to do it quickly.”
DOH: April 9, 2020 at 9:30 a.m.
