Even as Suffolk County reached a grim milestone, surpassing 2,000 deaths from Covid-19 last weekend, the spread of the virus seems to be holding steady at approximately a 1-percent daily infection rate, according to data released by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Measured as the number of new, confirmed Covid-19 cases as a percentage of total tests administered each day, the daily infection rate was .9 percent on Tuesday, 1.1 percent on Monday, and .6 percent on Sunday. Statewide there were three deaths on Tuesday, bringing the Covid-19 fatality count to 25,305. In Suffolk, which has seen six deaths in the last month, the total now stands at 2,001.
Governor Cuomo on Wednesday denounced the new recommendation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that people who come into contact with a Covid-positive person do not have to get tested themselves.
"I've spoken to health experts from around the globe. None of them will say that this makes any sense from a health point of view," he said in a teleconference. "The only plausible rationale is they want fewer people taking tests because, as the president has said, if we don't take tests you won't know that people are Covid-positive and the number of Covid-positive people will come down. . . . It totally violates public health standards and rationale and just fosters his failed policy of denial. . . ."
On Tuesday, five states — Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, and Montana — were removed from the governor's travel advisory, which mandates 14-day quarantines and contact tracing forms for travelers from states where Covid-19 is still running rampant.
In Suffolk County, there were 44 new cases reported on Tuesday — the third-highest of any county or city in New York State, after New York City (260 cases) and Nassau County (55 new cases). The 44 new cases bring the total number in Suffolk to 44,605.
Statewide, the daily infection rate has been under 1 percent for 19 straight days.
"The infection rate doesn't stay down for any reason other than as a consequence of our actions, so we're continuing to practice enforcement," Governor Cuomo said Wednesday. "Again, I call on local governments to enforce state guidance. They don't decide what opens and what closes, but they do the compliance and they have to do a better job."