Cuomo Calls New York's COVID-19 Response 'Beautiful' As Nearly 1 in 5 Deaths From State

As coronavirus cases continue to rise in the U.S., New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised New York for its "beautiful" response in fighting the outbreak in a speech Monday for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, held virtually amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The governor noted: "New York has gone from one of the highest infection rates on the globe to one of the lowest...we climbed the impossible mountain and now we're on the other side. And for all the pain and all the tears, our way worked. And it was beautiful."

Cuomo's words came as New York's COVID-19 death toll approached nearly 32,900, making it the worst affected state, according to the latest report Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

New York's death toll of 32,846 accounts for nearly a fifth (over 19.2 percent) of the country's total death count of 170,497, according to data compiled by JHU. This equates to nearly one in five COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. being reported in New York.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new deaths in New York peaked around April 14 and mostly declined through May 5, before slightly rising for a few days until May 12. From then, the figure consistently dropped before flattening out through July and August, according to Worldometer.

Cuomo deplored the federal government's response to the outbreak of the "European virus," noting "six months after it [the outbreak] began, the nation is still unprepared," he said in the speech.

The governor noted: "Our current federal government is dysfunctional and incompetent. It couldn't fight off the virus. In fact, it didn't even see it coming. The European virus infected the northeast while the White House was still fixated on China.

"We saw the failure of a [federal] government that tried to deny it [the virus], then tried to ignore it and then tried to politicize it. The failed federal government that watched New York get ambushed by their negligence and then watched New York suffer but all through it learned absolutely nothing.

"As they proved their way failed, we proved that our way succeeded. That America can still rise to the occasion," the governor said.

New COVID-19 cases continue to emerge across the country, including in New York, which has seen over 425,900 infections to date, including at least 408 reported Monday. Nearly 230,460 cases have been in New York City alone, according to JHU.

The state's three-day moving average of daily new infections was reported to be statistically on an upward trend within a 14-day period from August 15.

However, it has been dropping on a sharp decline from April 9, when it peaked at 10,824 average daily new cases, through early June. The figure then mostly flattened out from around June 9 throughout August, according to data compiled by JHU.

The state's average positivity rate (percentage of positive tests) in the past month was reported to be at 0.95 percent, a stark contrast to the record monthly average of 36.94 percent reported in March. The seven-day moving average of the daily positivity rate also went down this week, according to JHU.

Over 21.9 million people across the globe have been infected since the virus was first reported in Wuhan, China, including over 5.4 million in the U.S. Over 13.9 million have reportedly recovered from infection, while nearly 774,300 have died, according to the latest report Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University.

The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the spread of COVID-19 cases in the U.S.

The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates countries with the most COVID-19 cases.