New York has ‘the beast on the run,’ governor says, as coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline

The peak of the coronavirus outbreak is now squarely in the rear-view mirror for New Yorkers.

COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to decline, dropping yesterday to 8,196 statewide.

As of yesterday, Peconic Bay Medical Center had just 15 COVID-positive patients in the hospital. It has treated 330 patients with the disease over the past two months, PBMC deputy executive director Amy Loeb said. She said the hospital is not seeing the same numbers of COVID patients coming through the doors of the emergency department.

“We’ve come a long way,” Loeb said.

The hospital had discharged 255 COVID patients as of yesterday.

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Northwell Health, its parent health system, which operates 23 hospitals, said yesterday it had 1,203 COVID-19 hospitalized patients — down 65% from the peak of 3,425 on April 7.

Northwell has treated nearly 13,000 hospitalized patients and a total of 41,000 COVID patients across the health system since the start of the pandemic, including those seen in emergency departments, in 52 Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care centers and physician offices.

Yesterday, the Northwell system surpassed 10,000 COVID patient discharges from its hospitals, Northwell Health said in a press release.

Stony Brook Medicine, which operates Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook/Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport and Stony Brook/Southampton Hospital in Southampton, said yesterday it had treated “more than 5,000 potential coronavirus patients to date.”

Stony Brook announced yesterday that, given the decline in patients seeking care at its emergency room, it is closing the ER Field Satellite at the university’s South P Lot. All equipment will remain inside the tents in case the field ER is needed again in the future, Stony Brook Medicine said. The health care workers that staffed the ER Field Satellite will be redeployed back to Stony Brook University Hospital.

The state drive-through testing site also located in Stony Brook University’s South P Lot off Stony Brook Road will remain open, the hospital said. To date, 27,515 patients have tested for the coronavirus at that site. Anyone seeking to be tested must make advance appointments by calling 888-364-3065. The site is open seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Statewide, the number of new COVID hospitalizations per day is “just about flat,” Gov Andrew Cuomo said yesterday. “It has been flat for a few days,” he said.

“The good news overall is we’re finally ahead of this virus,” Cuomo said. “For so long we were playing catch up…We were behind it. Now, I feel for the first time, we’re actually ahead of it,” he said. “We have showed that we can control the beast… we have the beast on the run, there’s no doubt about that. We haven’t killed the beast, but we’re ahead of it,” he said.

“We have to stay there,” the governor said. That requires continuing to take the actions that brought “the curve” down in the first place, he said — social distancing, closedowns, face coverings.

“We are in control of the spread of the virus. We just have to stay there,” Cuomo said. “If we reopen irresponsibly, you will see that infection number go straight up.”

RELATED: The N.Y. State Department of Health is investigating cases of a severe inflammatory illness in children related to COVID-29. See separate story.

COVID-19 deaths in New York also continue to decline, but the state is still counting over 200 fatalities daily. There were 216 fatalities reported on May 7, with 45 of those in long-term care facilities. Total COVID deaths in New York reached 21,045.

Total COVID deaths in the United States now exceed 77,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard. The country has 1,284,708 confirmed cases of the disease as of this morning.

Suffolk County yesterday reported 21 new deaths on May 7, bringing the total fatalities to 1,616 people in Suffolk (1,568 of those were Suffolk residents.) Forty-two percent of Suffolk’s fatalities — 685 people — were residents in long-term care facilities.