Hospitals in the state of New York discharged more COVID-19 patients than they admitted for the fourth day in a row Saturday, a sign that the state hit hardest by the novel coronavirus from China may be moving in the right direction, The Epoch Times reported.

On Saturday, state data shows that New York hospitals admitted 574 COVID-19 patients while discharging 1,704. New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the trend "good news" during his Sunday news conference.

The discharge rate is significant because one of the primary concerns about the coronavirus outbreak is whether hospitals would have the capacity to treat all the patients. If there aren't enough intensive care beds or ventilators for COVID-19 patients who are in serious or critical condition, some of those patients could die simply because they can't receive full treatment.

Sunday also marked a decrease in the number of new coronavirus deaths in New York — 594 on Sunday compared to 630 the previous day. Cuomo was encouraged by the numbers, but cautioned that it was too early to tell whether New York was on the downside of the curve or not.

"We could either be very near the apex, or the apex could be a plateau and we could be on the plateau right now," Cuomo said Sunday, WABC-TV reported. "You can't do this day to day. You have to look at three or four days to see a pattern."

Trump administration officials have warned that this week may be the worst yet for Americans during the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said it may be the hardest week of most Americans' lives, and compared it to Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

President Donald Trump said the upcoming days will be "very horrendous." More than 9,600 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. so far, with administration officials having projected an eventual total of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from the virus as the best-case scenario.