Governor Cuomo Announces 33rd Straight Day with COVID-19 Infection Rate Below 1 Percent

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the 33rd straight day that New York State's COVID-19 infection rate has been below 1 percent. Yesterday, 0.91 percent of tests reported to the state were positive. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

"New York State's infection rate has been under 1 percent for 33 straight days, which is great news and a credit to New Yorkers and what they're doing," Governor Cuomo said. "And that is with more testing than any other state. If you want to see something interesting, look at how many tests different states are taking. If you don't do many tests, you won't find many cases and the number of cases will drop. But that is false comfort. When we say this is how many cases we have, that's accurate because we're testing more than anyone else."

The governor also announced the New York State Department of Financial Services has taken action to extend emergency regulations requiring New York health insurers to waive cost-sharing associated with emergency room visits, in-network telehealth visits, in-network outpatient provider office visits, in-network urgent care center visits, and in-network laboratory tests when the purpose of the visit or test is to diagnose COVID-19, and waiving cost-sharing for in-network telehealth services for any healthcare service covered under a policy, including mental health and substance use disorder treatment until November 9, 2020. The extension of these emergency regulations ensures that cost-sharing is not a barrier to COVID-19 testing and in-network telehealth services for New Yorkers. Governor Cuomo first announced the State's directive requiring New York insurers to waive cost-sharing for COVID-19 testing and telehealth services in March.

Yesterday, the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force visited 969 establishments in New York City and Long Island and observed 5 establishments that were not in compliance with state requirements. A county breakdown of yesterday's observed violations is below:

• Bronx - 1
• Nassau - 4

Today's data is summarized briefly below:

• Patient Hospitalization - 463 (+18)
• Patients Newly Admitted - 53
• Hospital Counties - 34
• Number ICU - 121 (+7)
• Number ICU with Intubation - 59 (+7)
• Total Discharges - 75,539 (+36)
• Deaths - 3
• Total Deaths - 25,370

Of the 63,230 test results reported to New York State yesterday, 576, or 0.91 percent, were positive. Each region's percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows:

The Governor also confirmed 576 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 441,154 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 441,154 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

Yesterday, there were 3 deaths due to COVID-19 in New York State, bringing the total to 25,370. A geographic breakdown is as follows, by county of residence: