#New York records 28,000 new COVID cases statewide

New York State reported a record-breaking 28,000 new COVID cases Wednesday, but hospitalization rates are thankfully remaining somewhat stable, Governor Kathy Hochul said at a presser.

4,452 people are currently hospitalized statewide and the state health care system has yet to be overwhelmed as the high rate of vaccination in New York and the seemingly more mild Omicron variant are leading fewer serious cases, Hochul said at her COVID briefing in Buffalo.

“This virus is going vertical, it’s going straight up,” the governor said. “It’s not March 2020, it’s not even December 2020.”

More than 90 percent of the current cases in New York are Omicron, according to recent CDC estimates. The spread is particularly apparent in New York City, where getting a test has turned into an hours-long affair that involves standing in the freezing cold and many Broadway shows and restaurants have been forced to close with staff out sick.

New York City recorded its highest seven-day daily average of cases Tuesday at nearly 9,500 infections, officials said.

There are currently 54 people in New York City public hospital ICUs with the virus, compared to the peak of 970 in March 2020. While that number is up from a low of about 20 at city-run hospitals a few weeks ago, it’s a tiny increase in comparison to the jump in cases, NYC Health and Hospitals chief Mitch Katz said Wednesday.

Current hospitalizations rates statewide have come nowhere close to earlier waves, when the Empire State saw more than 14,000 people in the hospital with COVID in April 2020.

“It’s not the number of people infected that keeps me up at night, it’s the number in the hospital,” the governor said Wednesday.

Hochul said although cases are rising statewide, they are decreasing in Western New York, a region that saw a post-Thanksgiving surge. The governor said she spoke on the phone with the President Biden yesterday, who offered his help and support.

She also said the state should have 37 million additional take-home COVID tests within the next weeks and months, and starting on 12/27 there will be testing temporarily available at some MTA stations.

De Blasio on Wednesday said the city’s testing capacity was about 180,000 per day, about a quarter of which is administered through city-run sites.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday called on the feds to send 100 mobile COVID-19 testing sites to New York City and look into expanding locations on Long Island to prevent an explosion of Omicron cases from overwhelming the regions.

“We need FEMA to do it ASAP,” Schumer said at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s press briefing.

On Tuesday, the Empire State logged 22,258 new infections Tuesday, the third-highest day on record since the pandemic began, according to state officials.