New York to issue thousands of coronavirus antibody tests...
ALBANY – New York will begin testing thousands of New Yorkers for coronavirus antibodies this week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Sunday, as the state hopes to use recovery data as it develops a plan to reopen the economy.
The antibody tests will identify who has contracted the virus and recovered from it, making them immune to the disease that has killed more than 13,000 in the state since early March. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the state's antibody test, allowing New York officials to rapidly scale up testing and conduct the "largest survey of any state population," Cuomo said.
"This will be the true snapshot of what we're really dealing with," the governor said during a daily coronavirus news conference.
He delivered the briefing from the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research branch of Northwell Health on Long Island. The center is one of several local labs developing coronavirus tests.
The state is confident that it is past its apex, Cuomo said, as hospitalizations and intubations have decreased consistently for several days. Just more than 16,000 people were hospitalized with the virus on Saturday, with 1,300 of those being new admissions – still a high number, but lower than what it had been, Cuomo said.
Deaths also dropped again to 507 on Saturday, with 474 occurring in hospitals and 33 in nursing homes. The number is still "terrible," Cuomo said, but it is the lowest one-day death toll since April 2. A total of 13,869 people have died of the virus in New York.
"Whether that descent continues depends on what we do," the governor said, adding that reopening the economy must be a coordinated effort not only within New York's borders but with its neighbors.
Going forward, the state must balance public health interests with economic considerations and "learn lessons to build back better," Cuomo said.
"This is only halftime in this entire situation," he said. "We showed that we can control the beast, and when you close down, you can actually slow that infection rate. But it's only halftime – we still have to make sure that we keep that beast under control."
One of his PowerPoint slides put it in fewer words: "The war is not won."