Drop in N.Y. Virus Deaths Could be ‘Blip’ or Trend: Live Updates

For days, officials in New York have been searching for signs that the coronavirus is reaching a peak in the state and will start to ebb.

On Sunday, there were some hopeful signs, but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo cautioned that it was too soon to say whether they indicated a trend:

• The one-day death toll from the virus, which had increased each day since the outbreak’s early days, fell slightly for the first time, to 594 deaths reported Sunday, from 630 deaths reported Saturday. The state’s total stands at 4,159.

• While the number of people currently hospitalized is still increasing, the one-day increase reported Sunday was the smallest in at least two weeks. The number grew by 574, to 16,479, from 15,905. That is a 4 percent increase. The increase the day before was 7 percent. Two weeks ago, the number was growing by more than 20 percent per day.

• The number of people in intensive-care units, which are equipped with ventilators, is still increasing, too. But the rate of increase is slowing. Sunday’s count — 4,376 — was 6 percent higher than Saturday’s — the first single-digit percentage increase recorded in at least two weeks.

“You could argue that you’re seeing a slight plateauing in the data, which obviously would be good news,” Mr. Cuomo said Sunday at his daily briefing in Albany, citing “the interesting blip maybe in the data, or hopeful beginning of a shift in the data.”

But he added, “You can’t do this day to day. You have to look at three or four days to see a pattern.”

Even if the curve of infection is slowing, the virus’s daily toll remains horrific.

New York City reported a one-day total of 351 deaths on Sunday morning. On a normal day in New York City, 158 people die, so more than twice as many people are dying in the city of the virus than of all other causes combined.

New York City has enough critical medical supplies to last “a few more days,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday.

He cautioned that the city was not yet out of the woods, and that local hospitals still needed N95 masks, gloves and gowns.

The city has 135 ventilators in reserve and needs 1,000 to 1,500 more to get through the week, Mr. de Blasio said.

The mayor also said that 291 military medical personnel were arriving to work in the city’s public hospitals, but that the city still needed more aid.

“That’s a very good start,” he said. “But I want to say to everyone in Washington: That’s a start. It’s nowhere near what I requested for our public hospitals.”

Mr. de Blasio said that he had asked for 1,450 military medical personnel, and that he would be “going to go back to the president, to F.E.M.A., to the Department of Defense and let them know we need a lot more help for our public hospitals.”

Domestic workers weigh risk of working against the risk of unemployment.

Thousands of domestic workers in New York City who clean and cook for well-off families are still working every day. They ride the mostly empty subways and buses to go clean and sustain the homes of people who can afford to self-quarantine.

Some workers have lost their jobs, as their employers have departed to second homes at the beach or upstate, while others grapple with working and risking exposure to the coronavirus, or staying home and falling into a deeper financial hole.

“You run a risk each time you step out of your home,” said Luz, 36, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who works for a family on the Upper East Side with two children, ages 8 and 12.

There are nearly half a million undocumented immigrants in New York City, and they report the lowest median annual earnings of any group of working New Yorkers, just over $26,000.

Because of their immigration statuses, they do not qualify for most forms of government assistance, including any of the emergency benefits in the $2 trillion stimulus package.

But many cleaners do pay taxes, though not with a Social Security number that would then qualify them for one of the $1,200 cash payments included in the federal aid package,

One cleaner in Manhattan, Celsio, who is from Ecuador, said, “I came here to work, but also to pay taxes.”

A Rikers inmate died of complications from the virus.

Weeks after the coronavirus was first detected in Rikers Island, the first inmate at the jail complex died on Sunday from complications related to the virus, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The inmate, a 53-year-old, arrived at Rikers on Feb. 28 and was hospitalized on March 26, according to an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

The City Department of Correction did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Public officials have moved to release hundreds of inmates in recent weeks in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus behind bars. Public defenders and jail health officials have called for more releases.

The coronavirus is causing many students to miss class.

Chronic absenteeism is a problem in American education during the best of times, but with the vast majority of the nation’s schools closed and lessons being conducted remotely, more students than ever are missing class — not logging on, not checking in or not completing assignments.

The absence numbers appear particularly high in schools with large populations of low-income students, whose access to home computers and internet connections can be spotty. Some teachers report that only half of their students are regularly participating.

New York City, the nation’s largest school district, has not yet released data on the number of children participating in online learning. The district said it will officially begin tracking remote attendance on Monday. But students and teachers reported widespread disparities like those being seen elsewhere in the country.

Titilayo Aluko, 18, a junior at Landmark High School in Manhattan, has been thwarted by her access to technology. She has a district-issued laptop, but no home Wi-Fi. The cable company removed the router from her family’s Bronx apartment after they had trouble paying the monthly bill.

“I just keep thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I might not pass,’” she said. “I’m just really scared for the future.”

The cratering attendance in low-income schools is in contrast to reports from several selective or affluent schools, where close to 100 percent of students are participating in online learning. The dramatic split promises to further deepen the typical academic achievement gaps between poor, middle-class and wealthy students.

A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has the virus.

Nadia, a four-year-old Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo, has been confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus, in what is believed to be a case of what one official called “human-to-cat transmission.”

“This is the first instance of a tiger being infected with Covid-19,” the federal Agriculture Department said. Although only Nadia was tested, the virus appeared to have infected other animals as well.

“Several lions and tigers at the zoo showed symptoms of respiratory illness,” the department said in a statement.

Public health officials believe that the tigers caught Covid-19 from a zoo employee. Nadia appeared visibly sick by March 27.

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Reporting was contributed by Jonah Engel Bromwich, Annie Correal, Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, Dana Goldstein, Thomas Kaplan, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Andy Newman, Azi Paybarah, Adam Popescu and Katie Van Syckle.