#Worst to best: Gov. Cuomo says New York now has slowest coronavirus spread in US

New York state has stanched the spread of the coronavirus better than any other state thanks to its slower reopening and more extensive testing regime, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.

Cuomo introduced new slides in his daily presentation that track how quickly the virus has spread across all 50 states — and show the virus is spreading most slowly in the Empire State and neighboring New Jersey, both of which implemented strict stay-at-home policies to contain the pandemic’s outbreak.

“States that have reopened too quickly or uncontrolled are now starting to close down,” Cuomo said. “We are the exact opposite. Since we’ve reopened, the number has continued to go down.

“Because we’ve been disciplined in our reopening and that’s what we have to continue to do,” he added.

Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are facing pressure from struggling businesses to loosen work, dining and shopping restrictions more quickly, criticism that both men have rejected as potentially dangerous to public health.

According to the slides, if four New Yorkers were to have the virus, they would only on average infect just three new people.

Epidemiologists say that the rate of a new infection — sometimes dubbed the “R” number — must remain low to ensure that hospitals are not again overwhelmed with coronavirus cases.

The slides show that New York has an “R” number of .77, while New Jersey has managed to beat the pandemic back to an “R” level of .79.

States like Texas and Arizona that have seen a surge in new cases reported have “R” numbers above 1, meaning the disease’s spread is once again accelerating there.

Cuomo’s presentation also provided other evidence that the pandemic, which has claimed more than 22,000 people in New York City alone, continues to recede.

The percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive continues to track below 2 percent across the entire state — and is at just 1.5 percent in New York City, the center of the outbreak.

Meanwhile, the number of people who died after testing positive for the disease ticked up by just 42 over the last day, which is a fraction of the nearly 900 people who passed away every day at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.