What you should know
- New York on Sunday broke a new record for daily COVID cases for the eighth time in just over a week as new state data shows declines in vaccine efficacy compared to infection, but not hospitalization.
- More than 49,000 New Yorkers have tested positive for COVID-19, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said. This was an increase of almost 5,000 from Friday. Most of the cases are from New York City and hospitalizations statewide topped 4,800 on Sunday.
- However, officials insist there is no reason to panic. They point out that while the rise in infection alone is staggering, vaccines hold up against severe Omicron infection and state and municipal hospitals are prepared.
—
New York had one of its biggest testing days on Christmas Eve, when the state logged more than 400,000 tests, not counting rapid tests at home, and nearly one in eight of them tested positive, Governor Kathy Hochul announced. on Sunday.
The state fell within a few hundred positive results short of an extraordinary milestone, but still set a new record in a single day when 49,708 people tested positive for COVID-19. The previous record was set a day earlier and had 5,000 fewer tests than the new record set on December 24.
Record days are no longer a new feature, but a byproduct of the fast-spreading Omicron variant that became the dominant strain in New York and the rest of the country in a matter of weeks. The State broke its previous record in most cases in a single day more than a week ago, a record that is not being beaten only by New York City. The latest figures showed that more than 23,000 people tested positive in the city.
And while the actual number of COVID-positive people is in New York due to the increase in home testing operations, Ómicron has clearly already gambled on his claim. Meanwhile, millions are preparing to travel home after the Christmas holidays, but flight cancellations could complicate plans.
Many major airlines have confirmed an increase in calls for COVID illness in recent days, which has forced the cancellation of more than 1: 000 flights during the holiday weekend. The airports of New York City area have reported hundreds of cancellations and delays.
The tests decreased significantly the next day. Gov. Hochul said nearly 150,000 fewer people were tested for the virus, but it’s unclear if that was the result of access tests, lab staff on vacation, or fewer people looking for a test in the last window before. of Christmas.
In response to the rapidly changing terrain and current dominant variant, Hochul on Friday announced modifications to New York’s COVID-19 return-to-work policies for essential workers by shortening the required isolation period to five days.
That shortened window applies to essential workers who are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, as well as fully vaccinated workers who had mild symptoms that resolved and were fever-free for 72 hours without fever-reducing medications, Hochul said. They should also wear masks when returning. No need to test.
The adjustment incorporates the latest CDC guidance, which shortened its recommended isolation window for healthcare workers a day ago, and milder infections with Omicron, which are eliminating large amounts of the workforce just because of high positivity rates. . Many of these positive workers show no or mild symptoms and do not need medical treatment to recover.
Hospital managers, including the director of the largest public health care system in the US, Dr. Mitchell Katz of NYC Health + Hospitals, note that they are wary of staffing shortages for similar reasons, and much more than What worries them is an influx of seriously ill people with Omicron. That is what Governor Hochul is trying to adapt to.
“Positive cases do not necessarily mean that he is too sick and needs hospitalization. We just have to re-administer,” Hochul said Friday. “This is not delta. This is not the first variant. This is Ómicron that so far, and again I have to qualify this, so far, it has shown as we have observed it all over the world and in other places where it struck first, that it did not it is so severe in its impact. “
“So we want to make sure that our critical workforce that we have relied on from the beginning … that our workers can recover,” he added, referring to those who work in sectors such as healthcare, elderly care, home care, sanitation, grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants. “You are the ones who helped us get through the first few months of anxiety. We need you, again, we need you to be able to go to work.”
As she has done in multiple briefings this week, Gov. Hochul acknowledged the high volume of cases related to Ómicron, but downplayed the severity associated with the increase, saying again, “This is not the same situation we had in March of 2020 or even the increase from last winter. We’ve had more testing. We’ve had more opportunities. “
Still, hospitalizations, especially among the unvaccinated, continue to rise, Hochul said, and his main concern is not having enough hospital staff to treat them.
The governor’s hospitalization update on Friday included a 5% day-to-day increase in hospitalizations, which have now surpassed 4,700 and are at their highest levels since mid-March. The next day, state data showed nearly 4,900 hospitalizations in New York, a number that is still well below the 7,000 New Yorkers who were hospitalized with COVID-19 this time last year, Hochul said.
The last recent high of daily deaths in the state was around 60 (Hochul added 69 more on Friday), and while some of the rising hospitalizations could increase the death count, daily death rates thankfully remain below devastating highs from the start of the pandemic when 800 New Yorkers died every 24 hours.
Both of these metrics need to be closely monitored, Hochul said, especially amid a week in which the state has shattered its own COVID-19 record at least half a dozen times.
New York, like many states, has had hourly lines for COVID-19 testing amid growing national demand. Gov. Hochul said the state sent 600,000 tests to New York City late last week and is working to bring in more direct resources.
Five more test sites will open next week, one in each county. The State has also launched 37 new pop-ups and plans 17 more in New York City. Another 13 test sites launch across the state on Wednesday. Appointments open from Monday. Here the information.
“We are focusing on high need areas, but also our smaller communities that may not have had the resources to install them and we are also focused on making sure we continue to support New York City, a place that due to its dense community population we know is more vulnerable, “said Hochul.
Ultimately, officials say the vaccines will quell the increases in hospitalizations and deaths associated with the Omicron wave, and those metrics are of much greater concern to them than infections alone. That is why they urge calm at this time, promoting COVID vaccines and booster doses for those who must receive them.
Gov. Hochul has been adamant that there will be no new COVID-19-related shutdowns in New York amid this explosive surge in Ómicron, and while acknowledging that this variant seems more adept at evading vaccine protection when it comes to of infections, state data shows that is not true of the most severe cases.
Perhaps most importantly, data by age shows that vaccines have the highest continuous efficacy rate against serious diseases for the older and probably most vulnerable age groups.
The efficacy rate for those 65 and older is 97.1% for the last study week (December 13), which is actually higher than the efficacy rate for the comparable week of the previous month (95.9%). That could also reflect higher reinforcement rates for that population. In comparison, efficacy versus hospitalization has been reduced slightly (93.8% from 94.5%) for people 50 to 64 years and 18 to 49 years (94.1% from 95%).
The age group 65 years and older also now has a higher efficacy of the vaccine against infections than in the week of November 15 (93.3% today, compared to 90.6%). Efficacy against infection has been reduced, again marginally, for the 50 to 64 group (77.3% from 79%). New Yorkers ages 18 to 49 have experienced the largest decreases in the effectiveness of the infection vaccine (66.4% this past week, versus 76.6% on November 15).
The data supports repeated assurances from Governor Hochul, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and public health experts such as CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Dr. Anthony Fauci that there is no an overwhelming need to panic. While the rising numbers are terrifying to many, the Omicron should peak very high and very fast – and then finish, they say.
The first case of Ómicron in the US was reported on December 1. The highly mutated variant took less than three weeks to establish dominance in the United States. United and Delta airlines have been forced to cancel vacation flights due to high staff infections and hospital managers say they are concerned about staff shortages for similar reasons, and far more than they are concerned about the influx of sick people.
Omicron’s sheer infectivity alone is putting essential workers out of the game, and nowhere is transmissibility more apparent than in the New York area.
The CDC estimates that more than 90% of current cases in the New York area, one that for its genomic surveillance purposes includes New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, are the Omicron strain. That’s a 25% increase last week.
As Hochul said this week, the winter surge is upon us and New Yorkers should expect the cases to continue to rise. But they can also hope to reduce their chances of serious COVID-related illness through vaccinations and boosters.
Ninety-five percent of all New York adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine, Hochul said Friday. She called that a milestone. There is still a long way to go.
“Thanks to vaccinations and boosters, our fight against the pandemic is going better than last Christmas, but we still need to ensure that we are taking adequate precautions to keep each other safe this holiday season,” Hochul said in a statement Friday. .
“Get vaccinated, put on the booster if you are already vaccinated and make sure you put on the mask and wash your hands, especially if you visit elderly loved ones,” he added. “Take care to protect your most vulnerable loved ones who join you at the dinner table this weekend, and let’s make sure we have a healthy Christmas and happy holidays.”
– .
