Wearing his personal protective equipment, emergency room nurse Brian Stephen leans against a stoop as he takes a break from his work at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, Sunday, April 5, 2020, in New York. Located in downtown Brooklyn, the hospital is one of several in the New York area that has been treating high numbers of coronavirus patients during the pandemic. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Wearing his personal protective equipment, emergency room nurse Brian Stephen leans against a stoop as he takes a break from his work at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, Sunday, April 5, 2020, in New York. Located in downtown Brooklyn, the hospital is one of several in the New York area that has been treating high numbers of coronavirus patients during the pandemic. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended stay-at-home restrictions through the end of the month and increased fines on violators to up to $1,000, citing fresh evidence Monday that the outbreak-fighting rules could be helping the state avoid a worst-case catastrophe.

New York state has tallied 4,758 deaths from COVID-19, with 599 reported since Sunday.

The situation remains grim, with close to 17,000 people hospitalized, but there are signs the surge might finally be slowing.

While the death toll grows, the daily increases are leveling off. The daily number of new hospitalizations has dropped. Recent data suggests the state could be at or near the peak, meaning fewer hospital beds would be needed in the coming weeks than the most dire projections had indicated, according to state officials.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sounded a similar note Monday, saying the curve “is beginning, and I use that word cautiously, is beginning to flatten.”

Cuomo called the data hopeful but inconclusive, and warned it was no time the relax rules designed to cut down on transmission. He announced schools and nonessential businesses will remain closed until April 29 and that the maximum fine for violations of state social distancing protocol will soon be $1,000, up from $500.

“This virus has kicked our rear end. And we underestimate this virus at our own peril. We’ve learned that lesson,” Cuomo told a news briefing at the state Capitol. “Now is not the time to slack off on what we’re doing.”

Dr. Christopher Murray of the University of Washington, who developed a model that predicts New York will need 25,000 hospital beds for virus patients at the peak of its epidemic, agreed that people should continue to isolate themselves.

“The potential for rebound is enormous if we let up on social distancing,” he said.

A Siena College poll released Monday found that most New York state residents say they are either quarantining themselves or social-distancing. But Cuomo complained about a “laxness” in social distancing as the weeks of isolation wear on and the weather gets warmer.

Cuomo stressed that even if New York has reached the peak, numbers could persist at these levels, which would continue to stress struggling hospitals.

″This is a hospital system where we have the foot to the floor and the engine is at red line and you can’t go any faster and, by the way, you can’t stay at red line for any period of time or the system will blow,” Cuomo said.

Here are other coronavirus developments in New York:

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SHIP TO TAKE VIRUS PATIENTS

The Pentagon said Monday that the hospital ship USS Comfort, which has taken on just a handful of patients since it arrived in New York City, will stop excluding patients who have the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump said he agreed to the change after speaking with Cuomo.

““We hadn’t had that in mind at all but we’re going to let him do it,” he said.

The ship has beds for up to 1,000 patients, but so far has treated just 41 people, officials said, in part because of strict screening rules. The floating hospital was brought to New York with the intent that it relieve pressure on city hospitals by treating people who had health problems, but were COVID-19 free.

Jonathan Hoffman, chief spokesman for the Department of Defense, said the preference still is to have virus patients go to a temporary hospital set up in the nearby Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. But emergency patients will now be seen on the ship, whether or not they have the virus.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs, the Joint Staff surgeon, said the Comfort has the capacity to isolate only a “small number” of patients with the virus.

Also, an additional 1,500 military medical personnel will be in New York City by Wednesday. Of those, more than 350 are going to 11 city hospitals to help supplement overwhelmed medical staff.

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CROWDED FUNERALS

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio implored the city’s Hasidic Jewish community to comply with social distancing rules after large crowds gathered for a funeral in Brooklyn over the weekend.

Video posted on social media shows officers blaring sirens as they drove up to dozens of mourners Sunday for a 78-year-old rabbi who reportedly died of COVID-19, according to the New York Post .

“It’s just too dangerous,” the mayor said Monday at a press briefing. “We cannot tolerate at this moment in history any gatherings. We have no choice and the NYPD has no choice but to immediately break them up.”

A New York Police Department spokesman said it has yet to fine anyone for violating social distancing guidelines. De Blasio has said he favors trying to educate people about the rules.

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NURSE DIES

A Long Island hospital is mourning the loss of one of its nurses from the coronavirus.

Officials at Huntington Hospital said Monday they were “devastated” by the death of John Abruzzo, who had been among the medical staff providing care to patients with COVID-19 before his own illness.

Abruzzo’s wife told Newsday the 63-year-old died Thursday. He had been a nurse at the hospital in Huntington, New York, since 2007.

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INMATE DEATH

Lawyers for the first Rikers Island inmate to die from COVID-19 say he was being held at the New York City jail on a technical parole violation.

Michael Tyson, 53, died Sunday at Bellevue Hospital, 10 days after being transferred there from Rikers Island with symptoms of the disease.

Tyson was released from state prison last year after serving time for sale of a controlled substance. He was sent to Rikers on a parole violation on Feb. 28, according to jail records.

City jails have released about 1,000 inmates because of the pandemic. Many have a high risk of serious complications if they contract the disease and are a low risk to reoffend, officials said.

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A VIEW FROM THE ZOO

Wildlife seems to have taken notice of the scarcity of people on New York’s streets, where pigeons can be seen strolling in shuttered playgrounds. Some Bronx Zoo animals, too, appear to have registered the absence of the usual crowds, director Jim Breheny says.

Taking a break from his desk recently for a walk in the closed park, “I went by the bears, and I said something to the bears, and just hearing me,” they looked up, he said. “They look at me now like it’s novel to see somebody.”

The zoo, closed since March 16, is contending with the finding that one of its tigers tested positive for the coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere. The 4-year-old Malayan tiger and six other tigers and lions are expected to recover.

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HOSPITAL GOWNS

De Blasio visited the Brooklyn Navy Yard to promote companies teaming up to make surgical gowns for supply-strapped medical workers.

De Blasio says the city’s public hospital system has enough surgical gowns for this week, but some private hospitals and other facilities like nursing homes are running low.

Crye Precision, a design and manufacturing company, is making gowns with the help of women’s wear brand Lafayette 148 and other sewing shops at the Navy Yard, the mayor said.

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Associated Press writers Villeneuve and Hill reported from Albany, N.Y., Jennifer Peltz and Sisak contributed from New York.