Albany, N.Y. - During his Saturday morning press briefing on COVID-19, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced 35 more people died in New York State due to coronavirus on Friday, the lowest total since the pandemic began in March.
The total number of deaths in the state now stands at 24,210.
For the week, the death total was 35 on Friday. There were 42 on Thursday. There were 52 on Wednesday, 49 on Tuesday, and 58 on Monday as the curve continues to fall.
Governor Cuomo also made the sudden announcement that effective immediately, temples, mosques and churches can reopen, but only with a maximum 25% capacity, and wants to remind people to continue to take the CDC's precautionary measures of social distancing and wearing masks, "Social distance, watch on the exit and entrance way where people congregate, where they're going through the entrance or the exit. So we leave it to our faith based partners to come up with a smart strategy to do this, but this is a celebration for us because we're doing so well on the metrics. But people still have to stay smart."
He went on to say, "Don’t get cocky, don’t get arrogant, but all the arrows are pointing in the right direction."
Cuomo says he is also is looking forward to New York City beginning Phase 1 of reopening on Monday and says the state will be deploying over 1 million masks as well as 25,000 gallons and 500,000 two ounce bottles of sanitizer to the MTA for reopening.
Cuomo also says as office workers return to work, the state will allow commercial buildings to conduct temperature checks of anyone entering the building, and can prohibit them.
