More people in New York State are in hospital with COVID-19 than last winter’s January surge, with over 9,500 now receiving medical treatment.
The latest numbers show more than 9,000 New Yorkers are currently in hospital with the coronavirus at level that surpass those of January 2021’s peak.
Such is Omicron‘s infectiousness, the levels are also close to those that were seen during the early days of the pandemic in May 2020.
Currently, there are 9,563 people in hospital across the state which is 290 more than the previous highest peak, on January 18, 2021. On Monday, daily deaths hit 103 – the first time they’ve reached triple figures since vaccines became widely available last year.
The numbers are 199% higher than those of last month and five times higher since figures recorded in November.
More than 9.500 people are being treated for COVID in hospital. Hospitalizations started to rise even more steeply than cases with a rise of 130 percent between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve
There has been an an enormous surge in new cases in New York State, from less than 2,500 per day to nearly 50,000 per day on New Year’s Eve
On Sunday, more than 4,500 people were hospitalized in the city, with 500 of them in intensive care units.
The number of daily new cases fell to around 51,700 although the figures over a holiday weekend are never as accurate tend to lag.
‘We’re not in a good place, I’m going to be really honest with you,’ Governor Hochul said. ‘Those numbers are going to be much higher tomorrow. They didn’t go from, really, 90,000 to 51,000. That is simply a function of people not getting tested over the weekend,’ New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul said on Monday.
‘This is not the wave we saw last year, where it kept just going up and up. It’s just going straight up.’
People wait in line to get a Covid 19 test at a Pop Up site at West 72nd Street in New York City
The sheer numbers of hospitalizations are pushing healthcare staff to their limit.
At least 20 hospitals across the state have been ordered to stop elective surgeries because they lack the capacity to perform them.
From Tuesday, hospitals will record just how many people are being admitted for Covid-19 symptoms in order to assess how severe the wave might be.
‘I just want to always want to be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is,’ Hochul said. ‘Yes, the sheer numbers of people infected are high, but I want to see if hospitalizations are correlated to that.’
Current data details how more than 335 New Yorkers per 100,000 tested positive over the latest seven-day average.
New York City has the highest numbers in the state with 457.75 new cases per 100,000 residents, followed by Long Island (398.82) and the Mid-Hudson region (304.18).
The same three regions have the highest levels of vaccination among their populations but their density means people living there are more susceptible to viral spread from the omicron variant.
‘Let’s celebrate the first day of school in 2022 by ensuring we are taking the proper precautions to keep them open through the rest of the year,’ the governor said.
‘We know how to overcome this winter surge: Get the vaccine, get the booster, mask up, get tested and stay home if you’re feeling sick. If we don’t use these tools, many more in our communities will get sick.’
New York City, home of the nation´s largest school system, reopened classrooms to roughly 1 million students on Monday with a stockpile of take-home COVID-19 test kits and plans to double the number of random tests done in schools.
‘We are going to keep our schools open and ensure that our children are in a safe environment,’ newly sworn-in Mayor Eric Adams said.
Across the U.S., new COVID-19 cases have tripled in the past two weeks to over 400,000 a day, the highest level on record, amid a rush by many Americans to get tested.
The high infection rates and resulting worker shortages are putting a heavy burden on employers large and small. Thousands of airline flights have been canceled in recent days, and many businesses have shelved return-to-work plans.
Weekend garbage collection was delayed in New Orleans, and jury trials in several Colorado counties were suspended. Some libraries on New York´s Long Island and a ski resort in New Hampshire had to close. A restaurant owner in Atlanta has spent $700 on rapid test kits and resorted to testing workers in the parking lot to make sure he had enough help to staff a recent dinner shift.
Policymakers and health authorities have been mindful of the toll on the economy and the education system.
Public heath experts have said that eradicating the virus is unlikely and that the world will instead have to find a way to keep COVID-19 down to an acceptable level, the way it does with the flu.
Last week, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut the recommended COVID-19 isolation period from 10 days to five, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said: ‘We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science.’
In another development Monday that could have a bearing on the ability of schools to stay open, the Food and Drug Administration gave its OK for Pfizer booster shots for children as young as 12. Boosters already are recommended for everyone 16 and older.
John Marro, the dean of students at P.S. 347, The American Sign Language and English Lower School, in New York, takes students’ temperatures as they arrive on the first day after the holiday break, Monday. New York City schools reopened Monday after the holiday break despite a surge in coronavirus infections
