COVID variants ’cause concern’ after the number of cases in NY almost doubled in the last week – Telemundo New York (47)

NEW YORK – Positive COVID-19 cases have nearly doubled across New York in the past week as vaccinations decline, the delta variant spreads, and public officials weigh in on the possibility of requiring mask use again in indoors, even for fully vaccinated people.

Daily coronavirus metrics released Sunday by Governor Andrew Cuomo show an alarming trend in new infections, especially the growing number of new daily cases. That figure fell below 2,000 for the first time since mid-May and reflected a doubling of daily tests counted a week earlier, according to state reports.

The percentage of positive cases reported Sunday was 2.23% with the seven-day state average up 1.76%.

These are the daily positive tests and the percentage of positive cases for each day during the last 10 days:

• 7/16: 981 (1.23%)
• 7/17: 1,156 (1.29%)
• 7/18: 1,142 (1.51%)
• 7/19: 823 (1.18%)
• 7/20: 1,144 (1.67%)
• 7/21: 1,452 (1.75%)
• 7/22: 1,584 (1.70%)
• 7/23: 1,830 (1.78%)
• 7/24: 1,846 (1.86%)
• 7/25: 1,982 (2.23%)

“COVID-19 continues to spread in New York State and the new variants are cause for concern, so it is absolutely vital that all New Yorkers who have not yet been vaccinated do so immediately,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The rapidly spreading delta variant leaves officials at all levels of government wondering what measures should be taken to protect the public, especially Dr. Anthony Fauci, who on Sunday said the country is in a “unnecessary situation” of variant-driven increasing cases and unvaccinated people.

“We are going in the wrong direction,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, who described himself as “very frustrated.”

He said recommending that vaccinated people wear masks is “under active consideration” by top government public health officials. Also, booster shots may be suggested for people with weakened immune systems who have been vaccinated, Fauci said.

The delta variant is now the most dominant COVID-19 variant in New York City, detected in about a quarter of the positive samples tested to nearly 60% in just two weeks, and virtually all major infection metrics in the city are getting worse too.

As of Friday, the delta variant that first devastated India before spreading globally, and is believed to be much more contagious than the widely tracked first alpha variant, accounts for 57% of city samples tested in the last four weeks, according to the latest weekly data from the city’s Health Department.

Mayor Bill de Blasio called on private employers in his weekly radio appearance on WNYC to begin demanding that their employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

“So let me make the signal explicit. I’m asking all New York City employers, including our private hospitals, to immediately move to some form of mandate, be the most they think they can do,” de Blasio said .

It took just 14 days for the delta variant to jump from being the fourth most common COVID-19 variant in the city to being the first and overtaking the so-called New York City strain that initially emerged in Washington Heights before spreading to other locations, as well as the other variants that first emerged in the UK and Brazil.

As the delta variant spreads and what the CDC calls an “unvaccinated pandemic” worsens, nearly all key metrics are worsening in New York City, still far from the darkest days of the Big Apple, but just as worrying because it continues to increase.

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