Governor Cuomo extends stay-at-home directive to April 15

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo, speaking Sunday in Albany, extended a directive that keeps all non-essential workers at home through April 15. The order came as the total number of COVID-19 cases statewide reached nearly 60,000, with 6,445 of those cases in Nassau County.

The number of deaths statewide rose sharply overnight, from 519 to 728, a nearly 30 percent increase. The peak of the crisis, the governor said, is expected within two to three weeks.

The USNS Comfort, he said, was headed to New York and would arrive by Monday. It would not treat coronavirus patients, but rather would attend to other pressing cases to relieve pressure on New York City hospitals, a number of which are struggling to keep pace with the influx of COVID-19 patients.

Some 76,000 retired medical professionals have volunteered to help treat patients, the governor said, praising their bravery.

An estimated 3,600 patients have been discharged from hospitals, including 846 yesterday. "You see a trend line people being discharged," Cuomo said, noting that 20 percent of COVID-19 patients must be hospitalized. Among those who were hospitalized and released was the so-called "patient zero," the New Rochelle attorney who was the first reported coronavirus case in New York.

Cuomo spoke of the travel ban, or quarantine, President Trump had proposed for New York Saturday. The president backed down on the plan, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instead issued a travel advisory, asking that New Yorkers engage only in essential travel. Cuomo pointed out that New Yorkers are under a stay-at-home directive that requires they only travel outside their homes when necessary.