COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)

COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)
A testing center in Staten Island in March 2020.
Disease	COVID-19
Virus strain	SARS-CoV-2
Location	New York state, U.S.
First outbreak	Wuhan, Hubei, China
Index case	Manhattan, New York City
Arrival date	mid-February 2020[1] (1st positive March 1)[2]
Confirmed cases	6,390,225[3]
Hospitalized cases	100,000+ (total)[4] 9,000 (current)
Recovered	1,000,000+[5]
Deaths	52,906 (NYSDOH)[3] 39,834 (JHU)[6]
Government website
coronavirus.health.ny.gov

The first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. state of New York during the pandemic was confirmed on March 1, 2020,^[2] and the state quickly became an epicenter of the pandemic, with a record 12,274 new cases reported on April 4 and approximately 29,000 more deaths reported for the month of April than the same month in 2019.^[7] By April 10, New York had more confirmed cases than any country outside the US.^[8] As of August 11, 2023^[update], the state has reported 131.3 million tests,^[3] with 6,722,301 cumulative cases, and 79,960 deaths.^[9]

New York had the highest number of confirmed cases of any state from the start of U.S. outbreak until July 22, 2020, when it was first surpassed by California and later by Florida and Texas.^[10][11] Approximately half of the state's reported cases have been in New York City,^[3] where around 40 percent of the state's population lives.

Despite the high number of reported cases in March and April, by May 7, New York had reduced the rate of increase of new cases to less than 1 percent per day, and since June 6 to less than 0.25 percent per day. Unlike many other states, New York did not see a spike or "second wave" in the daily new case rate during the summer months.^[12][13] On June 17, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York had the lowest infection rate in the United States.^[14] In late September, New York began to see an uptick in cases, with over 1,000 new cases reported in a single day for the first time since early June on September 26.^[15]

As of February 17, 2021^[update], the state of New York had the fourth highest number of confirmed cases in the United States, and the 34th highest number of confirmed cases per capita. As of November 26, 2021^[update], it has the fourth-highest count of deaths related to the virus, surpassed by California, Florida, and Texas;^[16] and seventh-highest count per capita, behind New Jersey and several Southern and Western states, such as Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana and Oklahoma.^[17] In February 2021, the New York COVID-19 nursing home scandal surfaced, which drew huge criticism on Governor Cuomo's decision on withholding reports of nusing home deaths.^[18]

Government response to the pandemic in New York began with a full lockdown from March 2020 to April 2020, followed by a four-phase reopening plan by region from April 2020 to July 2020. Additional modifications to the plan were imposed in July as the state learned more about the pandemic and due to political pressure. In October 2020, a micro-cluster strategy was announced which shuts down areas of the state to varying degrees by ZIP code when cases increase.

As of September 8, 2022^[update], New York has administered 41,044,869 COVID-19 vaccine doses, and has fully vaccinated 15,265,493 people, equivalent to 78 percent of the population.^[19]