Many coronavirus patients who were recently hospitalized in New York state had been staying home, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said Wednesday, a statistic he called “shocking.”
At his daily briefing, Cuomo said that of 1,000 patients at hospitals across the state, 66 percent of new admissions came from people sheltering in place. The data is preliminary and does not include all admissions.
“This is a surprise. Overwhelmingly, the people were at home,” he said. “We thought maybe they were taking public transportation, and we’ve taken special precautions on public transportation, but actually no, because these people were literally at home.”
The next highest source of admissions came from nursing homes, at 18 percent. A much smaller fraction had been in other residential facilities, in jail or prison, or homeless before being taken to the hospital.
Of all 1,000 people hospitalized, most shared several other notable characteristics. A majority of the pool was made up of racial minorities, people in and around New York City, people who were not essential employees and those who were not working or traveling.
The findings came as a surprise to state health officials, who had predicted essential workers or others in high-risk situations, like health-care workers or city staff, would make up most of the hospitalizations.
That offers a clue for the population at large, Cuomo said.
“Much of this comes down to what you do to protect yourself,” he added at the briefing. “Everything is closed down, government has done everything it could, society has done everything it could. Now it’s up to you.”