Coronavirus surges, but NY offers glimmer of hope

[NFA] New York state reported the fewest hospitalizations from the coronavirus in four months on Monday just as New York City entered a new phase of reopening, but the progress was eclipsed by the rapid spread of COVID-19 elsewhere in the United States.

Gavino Garay has more.

Nearly every metric that tracks the coronavirus in the u.s. was worse on Monday, including a rising number of cases, deaths, hospitalizations and rates of positive test results.

Chicago reimposed some restrictions Monday and Florida reported more than 10,000 new cases for the sixth day in a row, as the pandemic continues to rage across the country.

And Los Angeles is on the brink of issuing a new stay-at-home order.

This all comes amid at least 14 states reporting record hospitalizations for July, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas - as well as alarmingly high positivity rates.

But there was a glimmer of hope in New York - once the u.s. epicenter of the virus - which on Monday reported the fewest hospitalizations from COVID-19 in four months.

Governor Andrew Cuomo was cautiously optimistic on the news.

But he issued a strong warning to young people seen partying in groups of hundreds over the weekend, some without masks, to stop doing so or he'll be forced to dial back the state's reopening, now in phase 4.

"I understand people like to socialize, I get that it's the summer... It's stupid what you're doing.

It is stupid.

Well that's not a governmentally-appropriate word.

It's a true word.

Don't be stupid.

That is good advice in life." Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is pushing for schools to reopen in a few weeks and resisting a federal mandate that people wear masks in public.

As the surge continues to grow across swaths of the U.S., Trump said he'll bring back the coronavirus task force briefings as early as Tuesday.

"I think it's a great way to get information out to the public as to where we are vaccines and therapeutics and generally speaking where we are." It remains to be seen if he'll bring back top U.S. infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who Trump over the weekend called "alarmist." The virus has killed over 140,000 Americans and infected more than 3.7 million nationwide, according to a Reuters tally.