New York, Jan 25 (EFE) .- The rebound in cases and hospitalizations for covid-19 in New York has begun to subside and the authorities raised this Monday the possibility of starting to lift some restrictions to give a boost to the economy.
The percentage of positive tests in the state as a whole stood at 5.47% on the last day, clearly below the figure of a few weeks ago, when it exceeded 8%, and for the first time since the beginning of the Second wave the transmission rate has dropped from 1, which means that the virus has stopped spreading so quickly.
This was explained this Monday by the state governor, Andrew Cuomo, who recalled that experts had predicted an explosion of covid-19 cases after the Christmas holidays and a reduction in the rate of infections afterwards.
“The current fulfillment of that prediction is good news,” said Cuomo, who also stressed that last week was the first in which hospitalizations fell since early September.
Given this situation, the authorities are considering the possibility of lifting some restrictions, at least in some areas of the state.
Cuomo announced on Monday a first measure, with the authorization to resume non-urgent surgeries in Erie County, and said he would announce new actions in the coming days, without giving more details.
It did rule out, for the moment, the reopening of the service inside bars and restaurants in New York City, where establishments can only serve on the terraces from mid-December, after a brief period in which they were able to attend to your customers within with many limitations.
This Sunday, 167 deaths were recorded in New York from coronavirus, bringing the official total to 34,242, although the independent count from Johns Hopkins University places it above 42,500.
The state has been the hardest hit by the pandemic in the United States and was its great epicenter during the first wave, last spring. EFE
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