NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that the number of new coronavirus cases in New York City was "striking" in how low it was, even as the five boroughs continue reopening.
The state reported just 198 new cases in the city over the past 24 hours, de Blasio said at his daily briefing.
"Now that's very striking compared to where we were for a long time," the mayor said. "And obviously we've been at 1 percent to 2 percent in citywide testing now for many weeks, so clearly the big picture here is positive, because the vast majority of New Yorkers are doing the right thing."
According to city data, there were 199 new cases reported on Tuesday; 295 on Monday; and 225 on Sunday.
The city saw well over 300 new cases on many days this month and last month, with new cases going above 500 a day in June at times.
The 198 new cases in the city were among 534 new cases reported statewide over the past 24 hours. There were 336 new cases outside of the five boroughs.
De Blasio said the three key metrics tracking the coronavirus in the city were still positive for Monday, the latest day there's data available for.
The mayor said there were 84 hospital admissions for suspected COVID-19, below the city's threshold of 200.
There were 290 people in intensive care with suspected COVID-19, also below the threshold of 375.
The percentage of city residents tested who were positive for COVID-19 was 2 percent, well below the 15 percent threshold.
"That's been our number generally for many, many weeks," de Blasio said of the percentage testing positive. "That's a very good number."
There have been 220,907 cases and 18,878 deaths in the five boroughs since the pandemic began in March. That doesn't include 4,629 probable deaths that weren't confirmed by a test.
