Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New Yorkers Spilling Into Bars, Shops Threatening The Very Hard-Won Victories They're Celebrating
New York, once the U.S. epicenter of coronavirus infections, now has the country鈥檚 lowest rate of virus spread as the state鈥檚 death toll and number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 continue to decline, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday. 鈥淲e once again have demonstrated that we鈥檝e gone from the worst infection rate in the country to the best infection rate in the county,鈥 Cuomo said at his daily briefing. Fewer than 1% of some 60,000 New York residents tested on Tuesday were positive for the virus, he said. (6/17)
New York City is on track to open more businesses and could enter the second phase of reopening Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. Cuomo, a Democrat, said the state Department of Health reported 17 coronavirus-related deaths in hospitals and nursing homes Tuesday. He also pointed to the gradual decline in rates of individuals testing positive: fewer than 1% of results for roughly 60,000 individuals tested Tuesday for COVID-19 were positive. (Villeneuve, 6/17)
Three sisters from three different boroughs shared the same bench on the Coney Island boardwalk and toasted with cups of beer 鈥 together again at last. Teenagers with baseball gloves and a bat sneaked through a hole in a fence at a closed-off diamond. A manager at a Brooklyn clothing store insisted to a reporter that no, they鈥檙e not open, since that鈥檚 not allowed, even as customers browsed inside. Officially, New York City is still in Phase 1 of the long reopening process, a land of curbside pickups and closed playgrounds and takeout cocktails that aren鈥檛 supposed to be consumed in public. (Wilson, 6/18)
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the federal government's early coronavirus tracking a "terrible blunder" in an interview with "Good Morning America," said he would not accept a cabinet position in a Joe Biden administration and insisted that his gradual but disciplined approach to shutting down New York state was the best course -- then and now. "We went from the worst infection rate [in the nation] to the best infection rate," Cuomo told ABC News' Amy Robach in an illuminating interview on Tuesday in Albany, New York, about the first 100 days of New York's response to COVID-19 鈥 which began with New York's first confirmed case on March 1 and ended on a small note of triumph June 8, with the partial re-opening of New York City. (Francescani, Leuci and Thompson, 6/17)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he'll end the popular daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic that began more than three months ago, as New York state faced a "tsunami" of coronavirus cases that threatened to overwhelm hospitals. The last regular briefing will be held Friday. The change reflects the steep decline in infections and hospitalization rates in New York. (Mann, 6/17)
