Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his Friday briefing that coronavirus deaths in New York jumped by 777 in one day on Thursday. That is slightly down from the day before. So far, the number of deaths from the virus statewide is 7,844.
Meanwhile, the number of people hospitalized is growing far less than last week, a possible sign the outbreak in New York is peaking.
Cuomo said original models from various analysts had much higher numbers. He said the better numbers so far are likely due to state residents following guidelines about social distancing.
“The statisticians had to come up with a premise on how many would comply and we’ve actually exceeded that. But, we have to keep doing it.” Cuomo said that “what we’re doing is working, stay with it, even though it is a grind and even though it is difficult, we have to stay with it. We have to stay with it operationally, on our hospital system, where we’re coordinating statewide in what we call the surge and flex system.
New York state is getting help from Google to overhaul a decades-old unemployment benefits system that has left laid-off workers frustrated and awaiting help.
Google helped New York design a revamped website that launched Thursday evening. The state also added 300 workers to its 700-person staff to process unemployment benefit applications.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
