NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – New York state on Friday reported a record-high number of COVID-19 tests, as well as the lowest number of hospitalizations and ICU patients since mid-March.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 98,880 tests were done in the state on Thursday, surpassing the previous high of 88,668 tests.
"Part of the reason we were able to tame the beast in New York is because of our aggressive testing strategy," Cuomo said in a statement. "When the federal administration fell down, New York stepped up—and yesterday we raised the bar even higher with nearly 100,000 tests reported in a single day."
Of the 98,880 tests taken Thursday, 709 came back positive, an infection rate of 0.72 percent.
Thursday was the 14th straight day that the state's infection rate has been below 1 percent.
"We've been reopening for 14 weeks and our infection rate has actually done down," the governor said.
The 709 new cases bring the state's total to 428,512 confirmed cases.
Hospitalizations also continued their decline to 490 on Thursday, dropping below 500 for the first time since March 16, when the pandemic was just beginning.
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The number of ICU patients also reached a new low since March 15 at 119 patients. Of those patients, 58 were on ventilators.
Three more people died from the virus Thursday, bringing the statewide death toll to 25,278.
Cuomo also said the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force visited 1,618 establishments in New York City and Long Island on Thursday and found 11 establishments were not in compliance with state COVID requirements.
There were seven establishments in Queens, two in the Bronx, one in Manhattan and one in Suffolk.
