New York Death Toll Tops 10,000, Says Governor

The death toll in New York State reached 10,056, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.

This was followed by an increase of 671 in a day, a decline in previous peaks and a sign that containment efforts were effective.

“I think you can say the worst is over,” said Cuomo, referring to the death toll. “We have control over the spread.”

Cuomo said the curve appears to have flattened out, along with the declining mortality rate. The infection numbers are now on a plateau in the state most affected by the pandemic.

In the U.S., more than 22,000 people died from complications related to the new coronavirus, according to a Johns Hopkins University count.

The governor stressed that control over dissemination depends on continuous social distancing, but the state can now begin to chart a path back to normal.

He, however, warned that this would take time and would only arrive in stages.

Cuomo said he was working with the governors of neighboring states to coordinate a plan to reopen businesses and schools in order to better ensure containment.

He described the reopening as a “delicate balance”, which will require intensive testing and monitoring to ensure that there is no resurgent outbreak.

But a senior American health official said the United States “could have saved lives” if it had introduced measures to stop Covid-19 earlier.

“If we had turned everything off from the start, it might have been a little different,” Anthony Fauci told CNN, but added that making that decision was complicated.

The United States has recorded more than 555,000 cases of viruses and 22,000 deaths so far.

Later, President Donald Trump signaled his disapproval of the interview, sharing a tweet about Fauci’s resignation.

Fauci became the public face of the U.S. fight against the outbreak, appearing alongside Trump in the daily updates of the White House.

But the two differed openly on a number of issues, with Fauci pointing out in a recent CBS interview that he takes a scientific approach, while Trump comes from a “hope, a layman’s point of view”.

Trump retweeted a post on Sunday by former Republican Congressional candidate Deanna Lorraine.

“Fauci was telling people on February 29 that there was nothing to worry about and posed no threat to the US public in general,” he said. “Time for # FireFauci …”

The Trump administration issued social detachment guidelines that last until April 30, but there are doubts about when the restrictions should be lifted.