Despite what appears to be slow progress in New York City, the mayor and health commissioner gave a sobering look at how many New Yorkers most likely have been and will continue to be affected by the pandemic.
Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot said that she would not be surprised if “close to a million New Yorkers” had been exposed to COVID-19. In the city of about 8.3 million, there have been at least 138,000 confirmed cases, Barbot said Thursday during Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daily press briefing.
De Blasio also offered a stark statistic: he expects that an additional one million residents could become food insecure under the pandemic, putting the total number of food insecure New Yorkers at around two million.
He said that by the end of April, the city is expected to have served out about 10 million meals. For May, de Blasio said that number could rise to 15 million.
De Blasio offered hope to New Yorkers, saying he believes the city will persevere, but also warned that “we’re still very much in this fight.”
The number of people admitted to New York City hospitals with suspected COVID-19 cases was down again, from 252 to 227, according to the mayor. The number of people in ICUs was also down, but de Blasio noted that 796 people admitted to ICUs was still “way too many people.”
He said the city is on track to conduct 20,000 to 30,000 tests per day in May. De Blasio continued to say that testing is the key to reopening the city and keeping New Yorkers safe.
