At the height of the pandemic, hundreds of New Yorkers a day were succumbing to COVID-19. The sounds of ambulances could be heard across cities. 

But after six months, over the last day in New York on Sunday, only one person died of the virus as the infection rate has leveled out statewide, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday. 

"There was a time we were going through this when we literally had people dying every day," Cuomo said. "I said that what the future holds is determined by what New Yorkers do. Flattening the curve actually saved lives."

Projections in the late winter and spring suggested hundreds of thousands of people would die of the virus in New York by the summer. The death toll in New York, according to state figures, is at 25,328 people. 

Over the last day, New York's infection rate stood at 0.9 percent and hospitalizations stand at 418 patients due to the virus. 

Cuomo credited the state's policies -- and New Yorkers following them -- with slowing the rate fo the virus's spread. 

"This is not China," Cuomo said. "China can dictate a policy and people will follow it ... This is New York. No expert believed New York would enact a policy and we would follow it."