Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a press briefing at 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 12, 2020.
Here are the latest updates:
- The state now has 328 positive coronavirus tests. 95 New York City residents have now tested positive for the virus. 14 percent of the cases - 47 of 328 - are now hospitalized.
The upstate counties of Albany, Broome, Delaware, Duchess, Herkimer and Monroe have cases for the first time.
The governor stressed that the number of cases is not necessarily representative of the percentage of the population that has the virus, because he says they do not have the testing capacity to determine that. The idea behind the testing is to track positive cases so they can be isolated.
- The governor says he is working with hospitals to address potential health care shortages. He is working with hospitals to determine a "surge capacity," which is how to expand the capacity of an existing hospital system besides just filling vacant beds.
Elective surgeries - which are 25 to 35 percent of hospital beds - are not being canceled at this moment but may be canceled eventually, according to the governor.
The Department of Health is accelerating regulations to get more nurses and personnel trained and put into different positions.
Former doctors and nurses are being asked to reconnect with their own health care employer to be on an on-call basis.
New York is also eyeing potentially expanding to temporary hospital space. There will be coordination with upstate and downstate facilities.
- The governor announced that gatherings of 500 people or more will be banned in New York State as of 5 p.m. Friday.
The exception will be for Broadway shows in Manhattan, where this will go into effect as of 5 p.m. Thursday. The Broadway League confirmed Thursday that it will suspend its shows for one month, through at least April 12.
