New York state to launch large-scale COVID-19 antibody testing

NEW YORK, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. state of New York will begin a large-scale antibody testing in the following week as an initial step to decide when and how the state could reopen its economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.

The antibody testing can help determine who have been infected with COVID-19 and then recovered, which "will be the first true snapshot of what we're really dealing with," said Cuomo at his daily briefing.

It will be conducted by the state's health department as the "most aggressive statewide antibody testing survey in the nation," he said.

According to the governor, 507 died of COVID-19 overnight in the state, bringing the total deaths to 13,869. Over 30 of the 507 died in nursing homes.

Cuomo said New York has passed the plateau of infection given the downward trends of key indicators such as total hospitalizations, ICU admissions and intubations.

Nonetheless, he still warned New Yorkers to stay vigilant, saying "This is only halftime in this entire situation."

Cuomo again called on President Donald Trump to allocate more funding to hard-hit states like New York.

"If we don't get federal assistance, you're looking at education cuts of close to 50 percent in New York," he said.

New York state have reported 242,570 COVID-19 cases, over 30 percent of the country's total, which stood at 742,442 as of 2:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) on Sunday, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.