Gov Andrew Cuomo (D), who has been delivering grim news daily from the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic to the nation via his televised coronavirus briefings, clearly was pleased to present something hopeful for a change.

After days and weeks of jammed hospitals, not knowing where the next ventilators and personal protective equipment might be coming from–and worst of all–a soaring body count, the worst may well be over in New York, Cuomo said.

There have been more than 1.9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide. The virus has killed more than 119,000.

In the United States, there have been 591,064 reported cases including 24,600 deaths, according to the most recent figures.

New York, particularly the areas in and around New York City, have been the epicenter of the outbreak, where news of more than 700 New Yorkers perishing per day had become commonplace.

Cuomo has held his constituents strictly to lockdown and social distancing measures to try to control the spread. He both credited those measures for the success the state is now seeing but he also admonished New Yorkers not to become complacent, saying that the social distancing has to continue for now.

“What will happen is there will be points of resolution over time. What does that mean? There will be points of resolution. There will be points where we can say we accomplished something, we should feel better, we should feel more calm, we should feel more relax, and it will be incremental,” Cuomo said. “We are controlling the spread. We are controlling the spread. You look at those numbers and you know what it says? We are controlling the spread.

“I was afraid that I was going to infect my family no matter what I did. We are past that. If you isolate, if you take the precautions, your family won’t get infected. We can control the spread. Feel good about that,” he added. “Because by the way, we could have gotten to a point where we said, ‘We can’t control this damn thing, we can’t control it, it’s in the air, it gets into your house, it doesn’t matter, you close the door, it comes under the door.’ You could have gotten there. We’re not there. Those numbers say we can control the spread. Feel good about that. The worst is over.

“Yeah, if we continue to be smart going forward, because remember, we have the hand on that valve and you turn that valve too fast, you will see that number jump right back.

“But, yes, I think you can say the worst is over. Because the worst here are people dying. That’s the worst. The worst does not get any bad than this worst. And this worst is people dying, that’s the worst. Winston Churchill, I mentioned the other day, the end of a beginning. Yes, we can control the spread. And we can reduce the number of people who die and our healthcare system can do phenomenal work and rise to the occasion and deal with this beast,” Cuomo said. “It does not overwhelm the health care system. We have control of the spread. And there is confidence to be taken in that. That’s an accomplishment. It was a heck of an accomplishment. Those healthcare workers, for the rest of my life, I will say nothing but thank you to them.

“And I was not sure that we could keep the tide from overwhelming our hospital capacity. And they did. Feel good about that. I believe the worst is over if we continue to be smart,” he added. “And I believe we can now start on the path to normalcy.”

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