New COVID-19 cases in New York are from people leaving home not from essential workers

On Saturday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo explained that the new coronavirus cases appearing are mostly being transmitted by people who leave their homes to go shop, exercise, or socialize.

“The infection rate among essential workers is lower than the general population and those new cases are coming predominantly from people who are not working and they are at home,” Cuomo said.

This comes after Cuomo speculated last week that the new coronavirus cases were being transmitted from essential workers.

“Those new cases are mostly coming from people who are at home, so we’re talking about home spread more than at work, more than first responders, more than essential personnel, and that’s the hardest place to control the spread … That’s where those cases are coming from.”

As of May 17, New York State has recorded 358,187 confirmed cases, an increase of 2,171 from the day earlier.

However, the severity of the outbreak varies across the state with five out of ten regions in New York reopening this week. “Seven criteria, which basically measure the infection rate, hospitalization rate, testing rate, etcetera, and that’s how the decision is made. Obviously we have different rates of infections across the state hence the variance in opening times.”

New York City has only met four out of the seven criteria required in order to reopen.

For the Memorial Day holiday, New York and nearby states New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware will partially reopen beaches between May 23 to 25, allowing no more than 50% capacity.

However, Cuomo also warned that with an increase in economic activity, New Yorkers should expect an increase in coronavirus cases.

“You’re going to see an increase in the numbers, but you don’t want to see a spike," said Cuomo.

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