NEW YORK – The New York City is among many places in the world facing an alarming increase in COVID-19 cases. triggered by the Omicron variant in the middle of the Christmas season.
On Monday, the CDC announced that Ómicron had outgrown the delta variant, with the latest coronavirus mutation representing more than 70% of all cases in the US
This last variant raises a number of questions, including: Do health officials see another variant in the near future? If so, what might that mean for the general population? Mayor Bill de Blasio, Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, and Mitchell H. Katz, director of NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public health system in the United States, answered these questions during the press conference on the coronavirus on Tuesday, sharing his thoughts on how the city would respond in the event that another variant engulfs the Big Apple.
The idea of finding another variant is not so far-fetched since mutations are common when it comes to a virus, Katz said.
“The virus will always make mistakes as it reproduces; that’s part of what viruses do. It reproduces itself and produces a certain number of errors,” Katz said. “These errors in replication are what are called mutations. Most mutations do not offer any advantage to the virus and some of them make the virus not viable and those disappear. The mutations that are more likely to stay are those that they offer an advantage in transmission, they make the virus more capable of transmitting and therefore of reproducing itself… The virus just wants to reproduce, it wants to reproduce as much as possible, that’s what its code tells it to do. So yes, there may be more mutations. “
However, Katz also emphasized that mutations do not necessarily mean that a virus becomes more deadly.
“Mutations don’t have to be more lethal, despite what you see in science fiction movies,” Katz said. “The world survived the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. That same virus continues to circulate and now it is not a harmful virus in the vast majority of cases. Therefore, part of life is the mutation of a virus and we are prepared to be on the defensive and protect New Yorkers. “
“One of the things that we have learned in the era of COVID is to expect the unexpected, so no one can say for sure if there will be more variants or how they are going to act,” de Blasio said.
Ómicron is the dominant variant in the country and in our area
However, the mayor went on to emphasize social practices that have become commonplace in the past two years and that he calls “eternal truths” as a means of slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
“The basics really matter: everything from hand washing to using hand sanitizer and wearing masks, social distancing. All of these fundamental things have had a positive impact,” he said, adding that “reality number one is vaccination.”
Without question, as the mayor and city health officials have continually pointed out, vaccination remains the Big Apple’s greatest weapon against the spread of the coronavirus.
“Regardless of what we’ve seen, each time, the answer has been vaccination and to focus more and more on vaccination. That is why we are doing the booster incentive for the next few days.“, He said.
“We still need to maximize vaccines, that would be my brief on how to approach things,” de Blasio continued.
Chokshi echoed what he told the mayor that inoculation is the fundamental key to defeating the pandemic.
“We are very humbled by the coronavirus. This team as a whole has now faced four waves and the virus has proven to be tremendously formidable and has changed course,” said Chokshi. “We have faced the challenge at all times. And we have done it with the notion that we have to be even more ruthless than the virus. That is why we have taken all the steps that we have taken in recent days. That is why we have had a Such an aggressive approach to vaccination that it helped us reach that remarkable level of more than 71% of all New Yorkers fully vaccinated and more than 90% of all adults with at least one dose. “
Overall, New York City must remain prepared to combat the coronavirus, Chokshi said.
“We have to be prepared and see what else is around the corner, but we are positioning ourselves to be in the best possible place to do it. The last thing I will say from a scientific perspective is that the best way to stop more emerging variants is Once again, vaccination. That’s why we’re emphasizing it for New York City and we have to do the same across the country and around the world as well. “
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