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Coronavirus Updates: NY's Positivity Rate Goes Down, But Hospitalizations Rise

Christopher Robbins

Published Oct 12, 2020

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A sign in Borough Park on Sunday tells people to take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Scott Heins / Gothamist

Christopher Robbins

Published Oct 12, 2020

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This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Sunday, October 12th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.

New York City is in Phase 4 of reopening now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and gyms. Certain parts of Brooklyn and Queens are under a zoned shutdown. A look at preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.

Here's the latest:

4:36 p.m.: New York State's overall positivity rate dropped slightly from 1.4% to 1.1% on Sunday, but hospitalizations increased to 878, a jump of 58 people. In a conference call with reporters, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the increase was coming from the red zones, where the current positivity rate is 3.7%, down from 5.74% on Saturday.

"But this is a holiday weekend, take these with a grain of salt," Cuomo said, pointing out that usually, fewer testing is conducted on weekends.

The governor also sought to favorably compare New York to other states with much higher positivity rates, and sent out a chart to reporters beforehand to illustrate the difference.

"Nationwide those numbers are better than many states. Only relative to New York do we consider it a 'microcluster.' Only when you're at 1% does 3% seem like an issue Most of these other states would celebrate if they had 3%," Cuomo said, somewhat downplaying the severity of the zones in Brooklyn, Queens, and Orange and Rockland Counties that are currently under tighter restrictions because of their high positivity rate.

Governor's Office

The governor also chastised states like Florida and Texas, who have seen large drops in testing. Cuomo attributed those drops in test to "the politics of denial."

"The theory was if you test less you will find fewer cases. And if you find fewer cases you have less of a problem. That's almost a laughable concept," Cuomo said. "That's the Trump politics of denial."

Asked by one reporter if he will release more data from the state's nursing homes—specifically, how many New Yorkers became infected with the coronavirus in a nursing home and later died after being transferred to a hospital—the governor replied, "there's a lot of politics being played, right?"

"The Republicans have attacked almost all the Democratic states on nursing home deaths," Cuomo continued, before admitting, "we had a lot of deaths, period." New York's death toll is in fact the highest in the country.

Dr. Zucker, who promised at a state hearing in August that the data would be released, told reporters, "We are making sure that all the data is accurate before we release it."

Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Cuomo Insists His Pandemic Book Is Just Lessons For "Halftime"

10:21 a.m.: Governor Andrew Cuomo insisted that his new book containing "leadership lessons" on the COVID-19 pandemic isn't a victory lap or an easy way to capitalize on his rising political capital, but earnest lessons accrued over "the first half of the game."

Cuomo made the comments during a segment on CBS Morning News, which featured the governor alongside his three daughters, Michaela, Mariah and Cara Kennedy-Cuomo, at the governor's mansion in Albany. And as CBS journalist Tracy Smith noted, the book is coming out as cases in New York have begun to creep up.

"Do you see how some people say this is you taking a victory lap in the middle of a pandemic?" Smith asked.

"Oh, there's no victory here. The game isn't over. This is halftime in the game. Let's learn the lesson from the first half of the game, and play a better second half. But we have to play a whole second half of this game.

While she didn't mention the governor's initial reluctance to shut down businesses in March, or the governor's widely-criticized and later reversed decision to force nursing homes to take patients with the coronavirus, Smith pointed out that the governor of the state with "the largest number of deaths of any state" is now giving advice about the pandemic.

"Well, New York has the largest number of deaths because New York had the largest number of cases; we had a much worse infection rate than any other state, and we had it before anyone knew anything about COVID," Cuomo responded. "What happened in New York was unique. We were ambushed. Nobody knew the virus was here. That's not true five months later. Everybody knows it's here. There is no reason that we still have this infection rate going up across the country. There is just no reason."

Along with the obligatory, awkward, Sunday spaghetti and red-sauce dinner scene (yes, meatball quality was discussed) Cuomo's daughters revealed that their father didn't sleep much in the spring.

"Sometimes he would come home, and you could see it on him. And you would hear sort of this big, deep breath that he takes," Cara Kennedy-Cuomo said. "And then you would know that he is stressed."

"Is he touchy-feely? No," Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo added, before turning to her father. "But I think he is an amazingly vulnerable man. Do you like that?"

Over the weekend there was some speculation that former Vice President Joe Biden had put Governor Cuomo on his short list for Attorney General appointees.

On CBS, Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo seemed to allude to something bigger.

"I like Dad being in New York. He really likes it here. But, as someone who wishes that I had someone I could vote for who would be more inspiring and someone who seems more competent, and so if that were Dad, I'd be a really grateful and proud American. And, I guess, a busier daughter."

Tagged

COVID-19

pandemic

covid-19 updates

coronavirus

Christopher Robbins

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Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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