New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the results of a preliminary Wuhan coronavirus antibody study Thursday afternoon. The results, which surveyed 3000 people, showed an infection rate as high as 13.9 percent statewide. Given the number of deaths from the disease in the state, the death rate from the study comes in at .5 percent.
"What does that mean? It means these are people who were infected and who developed antibodies to fight the infection. So they were infected three weeks ago, four weeks ago, five weeks ago, six weeks ago, but they had the virus, they developed the antibodies and now they are recovered," Cuomo said. "Regionally Long Island at 16.7%, New York City at 21.2%, Westchester/Rockland 11.7% and the rest of state 3.6%."
"If the infection rate is 13.9 percent then it changes the theories of what the death rate is if you get infected. Thirteen percent of the population is about 2.7 million people who have been infected. If you look at what we now have as a death total which is 15,500 that would be about .5 percent death rate," he continued. "But two big caveats. First it's preliminary data, it's only 3000, well 3000 is a significant data set but it's still preliminary and when we say there are 15,500 deaths, that number is going to go up. Those deaths are only hospitalization or nursing home deaths. That does not have what are called 'at home deaths.' It doesn't include people who died in their home who were not in a hospital or nursing home. We still have to compile that data."
Cuomo also pointed out new discoveries of January Wuhan coronavirus deaths in California further complicate the numbers.
As far as the status of individuals who were tested for the survey, Cuomo said they were people who were not working but also not confined completely to their homes.
"These are people who were out and about, shopping, they were not people who were in their home, they are not people who were isolated and not people who were quarantined who you could argue, probably had a lower rate of infection because they wouldn’t come out of the house. These are people who were outside. These are people who were not at work, so they’re probably not essential workers,” he said.
Listen to Cuomo's announcement below:
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