Holiday Coronavirus Spike On Its Way Down, Cuomo Says

NEW YORK, NY — A spike in coronavirus rates brought on by the holidays seems to have reached its tipping point, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.

An expected increase in the average number of people testing positive for the coronavirus in New York that started around the end of December is now on its way down, the governor said.

"Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza — we shot up like a rocket until New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, but then it started to flatten," Cuomo said. "Now, we're starting to see it drop. That is good news."

The seven-day average coronavirus rate rose from just above 5 percent to nearly 8 percent during that time period, according to a graph shown at the press conference.

The state's daily rate as of Friday stood at 6.14 percent, down a full two points from a daily rate that alarmed officials in the wake of the Christmas holiday.

Cuomo said the numbers were an expected pattern given the socialization during the holidays that he first warned about before Thanksgiving.

The level of the increase is a sign that New Yorkers largely took his advice to "celebrate smart," though the ideal situation would have been if it didn't rise at all, he said.

"If we were more reckless during the holiday season, that number would have gone up even more," he said. "...If we were more careful, more cautious, more conservative during the holiday season, the spread would have been less."