Still, with Mr. Biden often straining to break through in recent weeks, Democrats absorbing the brash monologues and score-settling of Mr. Trump are plainly eager for any steady-handed fact-slinging from those on the front lines of the virus response.

Pete Souza, the former White House photographer for Barack Obama, shared an old photograph on Instagram on Friday of Mr. Obama with Mr. Cuomo. “A former President with the current acting President,” Mr. Souza wrote. The image has been “liked” more than 240,000 times.

Mr. Biden, left to conduct live-streams and remote television interviews from home, is conscious of his current limitations. “Thanks for giving me the time,” he said at the end of an MSNBC appearance on Monday, “so they don’t wonder where I am.”

He has also been quick to praise Mr. Cuomo. “I think he is doing a hell of a job,” Mr. Biden said on MSNBC last week. “I think he has been the lead horse here.”

If crises tend to amplify and accentuate the most essential tics and instincts of elected leaders, Mr. Cuomo’s reputation for inveterate micromanagement and swaggering protectiveness appears to be serving him well in his televised ubiquity. In public sessions, Mr. Cuomo has long evoked a father who greets his daughter’s prom date with a vise-grip handshake and an overlong stare — then chaperones the dance anyway, just in case. Now, he has a virus to eye warily.

Those appraising Mr. Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic tend to sort themselves into three camps: admirers, new and old, disinclined to miss his daily appearances; longtime skeptics conceding grudging recognition for his triumphs of tone; and other opponents, particularly among progressive activists in New York City, warning that he is still not to be trusted.

All three groups allow that they did not expect to encounter a Cuomo boom cycle this year. A Siena College poll of New Yorkers, released on Monday, found Mr. Cuomo with a 71 percent favorability rating, his best showing in seven years and a 27-point spike from February. Eighty-seven percent of respondents approved of his performance in the crisis.