NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) – New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday opposed what he called premature demands to lift containment measures in the state, explaining that it was necessary to know even better the new coronavirus.
As governors in nearly half of the United States set to partially reopen their economies this weekend, Andrew Cuomo said he needs a lot more information on the effects of the pandemic in his state. , hardest hit by the disease, before easing restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.
“Even when you are in uncharted waters, it doesn’t mean you are acting blind,” he said. “Use information to determine action – not emotions, not politics, not what people think or feel, but what we know in terms of the facts.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy supported Andrew Cuomo’s cautious approach, although he noted “positive trends” including a decrease in the number of hospital patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
“The family, friends and neighbors that we have lost are the reason we cannot rush our restart,” he told a press conference. “We need to continue to see these lines move in these directions before we can get New Jersey back on track and responsibly jump-start our economy.”
Phil Murphy nevertheless authorized the state’s parks and golf courses to reopen for the first time in a month on Saturday, warning they would be closed again if social distancing rules were not followed.
Elsewhere, Georgia and Texas are the first to allow the partial reopening of businesses that had been closed due to government measures intended to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
Leaders in these and several other states where the coronavirus has had less impact are under pressure in the face of exploding unemployment, with the latest data showing 30 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since March 21 .
For his part, Andrew Cuomo explained that the 900 or so new cases of coronavirus that New York hospitals continue to report on a daily basis, and the fact that officials do not know where these infections are coming from, are reason enough to continue to shut down. the state.
The governor also released the preliminary results of a statewide antibody survey of around 15,000 people, showing 12.3% of them had already been infected with the virus.
He also confirmed the results of another test carried out on a smaller sample, released about 10 days ago, which shows that one in five New Yorkers has been infected with the virus, with the Bronx District posting the higher number of people positive for antibodies (27.6%).
The coronavirus epidemic has killed at least 64,283 people in the United States according to the results communicated on Saturday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or 1,877 additional deaths in the space of 24 hours.
The total number of coronavirus contamination has meanwhile increased to 1,092,815, or 30,369 additional cases.
(Peter Szekely in New York and Brad Brooks in Austin, with Lisa Shumaker in Chicago and Will Dunham in Washington, Blandine Hénault for the French version)
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