Mayor Bill De Blasio promotes vaccination amid surge in NYC cases – Telemundo New York (47)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Mayor-elect Eric Adams delivered a speech Sunday to promote vaccination, including booster doses, to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. This amid a winter wave of new virus infections that have already reached record numbers.

In the span of a week, the Big Apple found itself in the midst of an “omicron variant wave” as the number of people testing positive for the virus doubled in a matter of days and setting all-time records for single reports. day.

The state broke its own record for the third day in a row on Sunday, reporting nearly 22,500 cases. More than 12,000 of those new positive cases came from the city, according to state data, reflecting another record for the Big Apple as well.

Both leaders delivered a unified message to New Yorkers: Get vaccinated and get a booster dose now. Data from the Department of Health shows that approximately 71% of all New York City residents are fully vaccinated.

“Vaccination is still vital even against the Omicron variant because it can protect you from serious diseases,” Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city’s Health Commissioner, said Sunday. The best doctor in town called the new variant the “fastest, fittest and most formidable” yet.

Democrat De Blasio, during his final days as mayor, acknowledged that the city faces a “substantial increase in a way that we have not seen before.” Between vaccines, booster shots and the sprawling test apparatus, he said the city is far better equipped than in previous waves.

“We expect Ómicron to be a quick and temporary phenomenon. We expect that in the coming weeks there will be a very, very large increase in cases, more than we have seen previously, “said the mayor.

Meanwhile, many have the same question: what is safe to do on vacation? The mayor and city health officials in Sunday’s press call said New Yorkers who are immunosuppressed or 65 and older should reconsider attending optional events over the next several weeks. Chokshi recommended planning around the most vulnerable individual in any given group meeting and considering moving activities outdoors if possible.

One of the biggest events of the season is the upcoming New Years Eve celebration in Times Square. The outdoor festivities are scheduled to go ahead, but the final decision will come at Christmas, de Blasio said.

The mayor’s unusual appearance over the weekend came amid record positives in the Big Apple and the rest of the state. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reported new consecutive records for the state, breaking previous highs for January.

The key differences between this current increase and one of the deadliest months of the pandemic earlier this year are hospitalizations and vaccinations. As of January, vaccines were still being rolled out to the nation’s most vulnerable populations and it would take several more months before they were widely available to all Americans.

Hospitalizations at the time were overwhelming in New York with nearly 9,000 hospital admissions due to COVID-19. That current figure is still below 4,000 for the state.

“This is not like the beginning of the pandemic. We are prepared for the winter surge because we have the tools at our disposal,” Hochul said in his press release on Saturday. “Getting vaccinated, putting on the brace and wearing a mask are essential to avoid getting seriously ill from COVID-19, so don’t take any chances.”

On Saturday, the governor’s daily report showed that nearly 22,000 people in the state had tested positive for COVID-19, just one day after setting a new record for the first time in 11 months. The 21,908 new infections come from a pot of 290,930 tests completed statewide. Hospitalizations in New York are seeing a small increase, but still remain well below half of what was reported in January.

The increase in cases led to the program “Saturday Night Live“To record your Christmas episode with host Paul Rudd with no audience, no musical guests, and most of the cast and crew. And just the day before, Rockettes Christmas Spectacular closed the season early after groundbreaking detections.

Those changes come on the heels of a difficult week for Broadway, which has seen dozens of show cancellations due to positive cases detected among the cast and crew.

In an effort to bolster current vaccination efforts, the governor on Friday announced plans to expand the state’s vaccination operations by adding 40 additional pop-up locations across the state.

A handful of sites will go live this weekend and the rest will be operational in the coming weeks, Hochul said. Find the full list of pop-up sites here.

Top health officials and elected leaders are reiterating the message that vaccines and booster doses remain one of the greatest defenses against the impending winter surge that appears to be already at the country’s front door.

“We will continue to work with local partners to make vaccines, boosters and testing more available. Let’s celebrate the holiday season with our friends and family safely this year,” added Hochul.

According to the CDC, approximately 25% of the state’s population has received a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. That represents approximately 3.7 million New Yorkers.

“When making a plan to visit one of these Pop-Ups Making it convenient for you and your family is helping to keep your family and all New Yorkers safe, “added Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett.

The sharp rise in infections should be of great concern, but was inevitable given the rapid spread of the newer variant, said Dr. Denis Nash, executive director of the University’s Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health. of New York City.

“We were already heading into a winter surge with delta, which is very worrying in its own right,” Nash said.

“But then the new Omicron variant overlaps, which is more transmissible from an infection point of view,” he said, noting that current vaccines may be unable to contain the new “more invasive” variant.

“The symptoms of Omicron have been very mild. The impact on those vaccinated has been clinically mild. It is not turning into hospital admissions or deaths,” said Dr. Yves Derouseu, Director of Emergency Services at Lenox Hill Hospital.

Despite what appear to be milder COVID cases caused by the Omicron variant, some of the world’s leading experts worry that the variant is so communicable that it can still put our region’s hospital system to the test. Columbia University’s Dr. David Ho estimates the average person infected with the Omicron variant five other people, and said the United States only needs to look across the pond to see what may still be in store.

“The UK surge is bigger than anything they have seen before. Good modeling and data is a week or two out of date – that’s what we need to prepare for a worse surge than we’ve seen before.” said Dr. Ho.

In an effort to combat the delta and omicron variants, the State is rushing to purchase millions of home tests for New Yorkers living in communities with lower vaccine rates. On CNN on Friday, the governor confirmed that 1 million tests were already in the works and another 2 million on the way.

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