New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday revealed during a press conference that 66% of coronavirus patients who required hospitalization had been following stay-at-home orders.
Cuomo said 600 new coronavirus cases were identified in New York on Tuesday, and expressed frustration with the figure, despite it being a significant decrease from the week before.
"Week before that, we still saw 1,000 new cases every day," he said. "Where are those new cases still coming from, because we've done everything we have to close down. How are you still generating 600 new cases every day?"
The governor added most new cases are located in downstate New York, and patients requiring hospitalization remain "disproportionately African-American and Latino."
He then noted the "shocking" fact two-thirds of hospitalized patients had been staying at home and social distancing.
"These people were literally at home . . . 84% were at home, literally! Were they working? No. They were retired or they were unemployed. Only 17% working," Cuomo said.
"So that says they're not working, they're not traveling, they're predominantly downstate, predominantly minorities, predominantly older, predominantly non-essential employees — and that's important. We were thinking maybe we were going to find a higher percentage of essential employees who were getting sick because they were going to work. That these may be nurses, doctors, transit workers. That's not the case, and they were predominantly at home."
He said the government has instituted all the safety precautions it can and now it "comes down to personal behavior."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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