NYC Hits Hopeful Milestone: Zero Confirmed Coronavirus Deaths For First Day Since March

For the first day in months, New York City witnessed zero confirmed deaths due to coronavirus, current records show.

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The first confirmed COVID-19 death in the Big Apple occurred on March 11 with the death toll reaching its horrible peak at 590 on April 7, according to records put out by the city.

Those same records show that there were zero confirmed coronavirus deaths Wednesday, with three deaths listed as having a “probable” connection to COVID-19. Those probable deaths could later be reclassified as confirmed as more information emerges.

Despite that caveat, the news offers a glimmer of hope to New Yorkers who’ve been awash in tragedy for months.

“This is great news,” said Freddi Goldstein, a spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio.

It comes as the city continues to be racked with confrontations between police and civil rights protesters and looting. That chaos has made many political observers worry about the city’s plans to re-open some businesses on Monday.

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But those plans remain in place. At his daily press briefing Thursday, de Blasio said the city is now under its three key thresholds for reopening.

For Wednesday, the daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19 cases came in at 48, beneath the threshold of 200. The number of people admitted to public hospital ICUs stood at 354, below the 375 goal. And only 3% of people in the city tested for the virus, well under the 15% mark.

“That is very good news,” he said. “Whatever else we’re fighting, whatever else we have to overcome, this is what is going to allow us to move forward.”

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