Cuomo OKs hosp, group home visits

New York hospitals and group homes can begin allowing visitors this week as the coronavirus crisis continues to wane in the Empire State, Gov. Cuomo said Tuesday.

Visits at hospitals can begin immediately, the governor said, as long as safety measures are in place, while group homes certified by the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities can begin taking visitors Friday.

“This was always a balance of public health versus the personal relationships, and people were in hospitals who desperately want to see loved ones,” Cuomo said during a briefing in Albany. “Obviously we need to be careful.”

The state has yet to make a determination on visits to nursing homes, as “there is still a high risk,” he added.

The announcement comes as the state reported its second straight day with just 25 deaths from COVID-19.

The governor hailed a new low in the three-day average of deaths from the virus since New York became the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S. over the past three months.

He said the state’s testing program reveals the virus is still under control. Just 1.2% of people in the city tested positive for coronavirus, a dip from 1.7% at the beginning of May.

The results of a new round of antibody tests, which show if someone has already been infected at some point, revealed that about 22% of people in the five boroughs have had COVID-19. That’s only a modest increase since the previous round of antibody tests on May 1, when results showed 19.9% of people had antibodies.