'Good Day' Yields Drop In NYC Coronavirus Hospitalizations: Mayor

NEW YORK, NY — The three key indicators that New York City uses to track the spread of the new coronavirus showed significant improvement in the city's most recent data, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during his Friday press briefing.

Between April 21 and 22 suspected coronavirus hospitalizations decreased from 227 to 176, the number of patients receiving intensive care decreased from 796 to 786 and the rate of positive tests decreased from 32% to 30% citywide, de Blasio said. Despite the "good day," the city will need to show sustained progress to begin thinking about relaxing social distancing measures, the mayor said.

"Congratulations because you did that — everyone out there social distancing, sheltering in place — you made this happen," de Blasio said Friday. "Now we've got to keep doing it. The plan that we stated from the beginning — all indicators down — we need to do that from 10 days to two weeks and that's when we can begin to actually start to talk about how to begin loosening up some of these restrictions."

To keep up to date with coronavirus developments in NYC, sign up for Patch's news alerts and newsletter.

When the city sees consistence progress in its three key metrics, social distancing will give way to a "massive test and trace" program, de Blasio said Friday. De Blasio outlined his vision for test and trace earlier this week, saying that tens thousands of New Yorkers could be quarantined if they test positive for the coronavirus.

The mayor said Friday that whatever the process of relaxing social distancing measures ends up looking like, it will need to be a "careful, steady approach." New Yorkers will not all return to work at once, and only workplaces that can provide a safe work environment will be allowed to reopen, de Blasio said Friday.

The city also faces the hurdle of ramping up testing capacity. New York City will begin manufacturing its own tests next month and receive a steady supply from Aria Diagnostics for a total of 400,000 test kits per month, which de Blasio said was nowhere near enough to test 8.5 million residents.

Aria has sent half of the 50,000 tests it promised to supply by the end of the month, de Blasio said. In addition, President Donald Trump assured Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday he would partner with New York State to double the daily testing capacity to 40,000.

The mayor's plan also relies greatly on increased lab capacity and up to 10,000 thousand workers to tend patients, process tests and trace transmission, all of whom would need protective gear, de Blasio said.

Coronavirus In NYC: Latest Happenings And Guidance

Email PatchNYC@patch.com to reach a Patch reporter or fill out this anonymous form to share your coronavirus stories. All messages are confidential.