NY Positivity Rate Hits Single Digits for 1st Time in Month, Hospitalizations Plunge – But No Move on Mask Order Yet

Gov. Kathy Hochul says she’s lastly beginning to sleep higher at night time.

It’s no secret why. COVID-19 hospitalizations are constantly trending down in New York, with the governor — who recognized that metric as most regarding to her when omicron-fueled circumstances began to skyrocket in December — reporting a state whole of 11,016 on Friday. That’s down 12% from the omicron peak simply 10 days in the past.

The share of recent COVID optimistic hospital admissions within the densest areas downstate — New York Metropolis, Lengthy Island and Mid-Hudson, which even have the best grownup full vaccination charges per capita within the state — declined by 20% at minimal during the last seven days, Hochul stated. These three areas are fueling the general statewide lower (-20.8%) on that metric during the last three weeks.

Simply two areas — the Southern Tier and the North Nation — are seeing new COVID optimistic hospital admissions rise by at the least 9% during the last week. These occur to be the 2 least totally vaccinated areas so far as adults go. Hochul has stated it seems upstate was about two weeks behind downstate on the omicron development decline, so elective surgical procedures stay paused in a number of the weak spots.

Handout

But it surely may not be for an excessive amount of longer. Hochul introduced a serious milestone on Friday: New York state’s day by day positivity fee fell beneath 10% Friday, marking the primary time since Dec. 20 it was within the single digits. It peaked above 23% 19 days in the past.

The seven-day case common goes down, too, Hochul stated as she delivered her briefing from the famend Brookhaven Nationwide Laboratory on Lengthy Island.

As she quipped, you don’t need to be a analysis scientist to grasp these traits. New day by day circumstances Friday stood at 28,296, down 69% from the all-time pandemic excessive of 90,132 set on Jan. 7. That’s a outstanding drop in simply two weeks and helps ever-strengthening proof that the omicron case surge seems to be abating simply as quickly because it emerged, particularly in higher-vaccinated areas.

“We’ve got been ready for this second,” Hochul stated Friday. “We’re lastly trending within the path we wish to go, down — and that’s downward, downward, downward. It was simply Nov. 26 when WHO really gave a reputation to omicron.”

Handout

Deaths, the last word lagging indicator, are nonetheless holding round their latest highs at 154. The best day by day fatality quantity the state noticed throughout omicron’s peak was 199, and the day by day reviews have hovered above 150 since then.

That metric, as comparatively excessive because it has gotten just lately, has remained mercifully beneath the 800 New Yorkers who have been dying a day in April 2020, a testomony to the vary of instruments, from vaccination to masks and testing, that weren’t accessible then.

Nonetheless, core viral charges are nonetheless a lot increased throughout the board than they have been in mid-November. As just lately as Nov. 11, the state rolling positivity fee was holding at 3% or decrease. New York Metropolis’s rolling positivity fee at the moment was simply 1.3%.

It comes a day after new COVID an infection information launched by New York confirmed within the clearest phrases but the across-the-board retreat of the omicron wave, with each breakthrough and unvaccinated charges plunging by half for the reason that final weekly report, which marked the primary time both dipped since omicron emerged within the state.

As encouraging as traits during the last week or so have been, Hochul says now shouldn’t be the time to let one’s foot off the gasoline. Not simply but.

“We’re not letting our foot off the pedal till we are able to declare that we’re at a spot that we are able to handle with out all of the restrictions we put in place — however till then we do consider that every thing we’re doing is making a distinction,” Hochul stated.

Meaning statewide mask-or-vaccination mandates, together with different core protocols, stay the standing order, Hochul stated. Requested for the second time in as many weeks Friday whether or not she’d permit her govt order for companies to lapse on its set expiration date Feb. 2, the governor remained steadfast in her unwillingness to commit simply but. She stated she’d doubtless make the choice, in session with well being consultants and different officers, a day or so forward of deadline.

Why? Hochul referred as soon as once more to the place New York was in November on the COVID entrance as proof of how shortly traits can change both means.

“I stay up for the day we are able to raise masks mandates in colleges as properly,” Hochul stated. “Meaning we’ve turned the nook in a means that we don’t assume we’re going to be sliding backward anytime quickly.”

New Yorkers will be doing extra, too, to get there Hochul stated — particularly relating to vaccinating the youngest eligible age group. She shared a chart Friday exhibiting dramatically lagging vaccination charges for that youngest inhabitants — and introduced she’d be opening one other 80 pop-up vaccine websites for teenagers aged 5 to 11 subsequent week to encourage dad and mom as soon as once more to get their children’ pictures accomplished.

(For folks of youngsters youthful than 5 who aren’t but eligible for COVID immunization, medical doctors just lately provided up a slate of suggestions right here that can assist you defend them proper now.)

The state can also be plowing forward in its effort to guard essentially the most weak, deploying 88 nonmedical Nationwide Guard troops to assist employees at 9 nursing houses in New York Metropolis amid staffing and different considerations. Extra assist upstate is forthcoming, Hochul stated, and extra federal assist can also be on the best way — with navy surge groups from the Biden administration set to reach at a Brooklyn hospital and one in New Jersey within the coming days to assist alleviate the burden.

Hochul additionally plans to have Nationwide Guard members skilled to carry out medical duties, like vaccination and different primary therapy wants, to allow them to help extra.

“It is a reminder that this isn’t over,” she stated Friday. “We’ve obtained overworked healthcare staff nonetheless on the entrance strains.”

The Biden administration will start making 400 million N-95 masks accessible free of charge to Individuals beginning subsequent week.