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NEW YORK.- The New York City rose today alert level by Covid to “high”, after the increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations reached figures that could exert a substantial pressure on the health care system.
The announcement was caused by a color coded warning system the city introduced in March. But so far, the system has had little impact on the city’s disease control strategy or public perception.
Mayor Eric Adams warned on Monday that the city was nearing the threshold, but said: “We are not at the point of demand chinstraps.”
For two months there a persistent increase in infections registered, driven almost entirely by the subvariants of omicron. In recent days, the city recorded an average of more than 3,500 new cases daily, although those figures significantly underestimate the prevalence of the virus, since many infections are detected through self-tests, which the health authorities do not count.
Hospitalizations for Covid-19 have also been on the rise, recently reaching a 130 new admissions per day throughout New York City, according to state data.
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This latest wave of coronavirus cases, New York City’s fifth, began in mid-March and has so far claimed fewer victims than when omicron first swept through the city in December and January. In that initial wave of omicron, perhaps 30 percent of the city was infected, according to CDC research, and hospitals were hit by pressure from patients filling emergency rooms.
The city’s color-coded alert system incorporates data on case counts and hospitalizations. And it links specific recommendations to each threshold. On Tuesday, the city entered the orange or “high” risk level, which comes with a recommendation that the city government require face coverings in all indoor public spaces.
But Adams has shown little interest in requiring masks. At the “high” level, The mayor may consider reinstating the mask mandate, including in schools, but said Monday that he did not plan to take that step yet.
On Tuesday, its health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, issued a statement urging New Yorkers to take their own precautions. But he did not mention the adoption of government measures to impose mandatory face masks.
“New York City has transitioned to a high level of Covid alert, which means that now It’s time to double down on protecting ourselves and others by making decisions that can prevent our friends, neighbors, family members and co-workers from getting sick,” he said. it’s a statement.
On Monday, Vasan recommended that people use medical-type masks in offices, grocery stores, and other enclosed public places.
Still, some New Yorkers were surprised by how long it took for the city to raise the alert level to high, given that the virus has been circulating widely for the past two months, with test positivity rates in some neighborhoods well above above 10 percent.
“Thresholds don’t make sense,” Professor Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, said in an interview this morning, while recovering from Covid-19.
Por Joseph Goldstein
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