New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday the number of people newly diagnosed and hospitalized with COVID-19 has continued to decrease, and was under 1,000 on Monday.

The state reported 900 new infections on Monday, according to the governor. "Overall the numbers are coming down," he said.

But he said 335 people died from the virus yesterday. "That's 335 families," Cuomo said. "You see this number is basically reducing, but not at a tremendous rate. The only thing that's tremendous is the number of New Yorkers who've still passed away."

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According to a tally from Johns Hopkins University, 17,515 people had died from the coronavirus in New York City alone as of Tuesday. The city has the fifth highest death toll in the world, behind four countries.

Original projections showed that at least 120,000 New Yorkers would contract the coronavirus without mitigation efforts, according to the governor. About 20,000 people have so far been hospitalized in the state due to the virus.

Cuomo said the state's stay-at-home order and social distancing guidelines "changed reality," so that "100,000 fewer New Yorkers went into the hospital."

"Un-PAUSE" plan for New York

Cuomo discussed a framework Tuesday for the state to eventually "un-pause" from its stay-at-home order. He said the 12-step "data-driven" plan will start on a regional basis on May 15, but cautioned that restrictions in New York City will likely be extended.

Reopening regions will be contingent on a number of data monitoring mechanisms that the governor referred to as "circuit breakers." If hospitals in a region go above 70% capacity, or its coronavirus infection rate goes over 1.1%, then the region's pause will not be lifted.

A 1.1% infection rate of COVID-19 is "outbreak status," Cuomo said, noting that New York currently has an infection rate of 0.8%. The governor said the "tight margin of error" must be monitored closely.