NYC Mayor: Don’t ‘Let Up The Gas’ Or Else There Will Be COVID-19 Resurgence

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks to healthcare workers and military personnel on April 5, 2020 in New York City. The Convention Center has been converted into a temporary field hospital by the US Army Corps ... New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks to healthcare workers and military personnel on April 5, 2020 in New York City. The Convention Center has been converted into a temporary field hospital by the US Army Corps of Engineers in order to ease the pressure on New York's overwhelmed hospitals by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on MSNBC Thursday that despite a decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations in his city, people still need to continue complying with mitigation strategies.

After agreeing that he’s concerned about people causing the coronavirus outbreak to reignite because they’re eager to get outside, de Blasio acknowledged that they should be “very proud in this incredibly painful crisis” for adhering to social distancing and the city’s shelter-in-place order.

De Blasio said that New York City has seen some progress lately due to residents’ compliance with mitigation efforts, but that he wouldn’t call the improvement on hospitalizations “a drop.”

“I would say we have just seen less increase in hospitalizations, with fewer ventilators than what we expected to need are being used,” de Blasio said. “These are good signs but they’re early signs.”

De Blasio then urged New Yorkers to keep up the effort.

“But you cannot let up the gas, you cannot for a moment get ahead of things, or sort of count your chickens before they’re hatched, or this disease will have a resurgence and we could actually be worse off,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio’s latest remarks are in line with comments Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made during an interview on CBS earlier Thursday.

“We have to be prepared that when the infections start to rear their heads again that we have in place a very aggressive and effective way to identify, isolate, contact-trace,” Fauci said on CBS. “And make sure we don’t have those spikes that we see now.”

Watch de Blasio’s remarks below:

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