Newsman: New York Governor Kathy Hochul said New York has ordered a total of 37 million free take-home tests to making sure the state has the supply to allow everyone to get tested.so that everyone who wants a test can get one. New York State has set yet another daily case record with 44,431 new positive COVID-19 cases, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday. This comes as New Yorkers seek testing in record numbers ahead of the holidays.
This breaks Thursday’s record high of 38,835 cases.
Friday’s case count is double the positive case count from last Friday (21,908). But testing has increased in the last week, jumping from 290,000 to 360,000.
For comparison, three months ago, New York saw just 5,288 people test positive for COVID-19 statewide.
The governor on Friday also announced new return-to-work guidelines for critical workers who test positive. If a critical worker has tested positive but is vaccinated, they can return to work after five days if they are asymptomatic or no longer have symptoms.
In New York state 95% of adults have had at least one vaccine dose, Hochul said, but she stressed that one dose isn’t enough.
This week as of December 21, 2021, 4,452 New Yorkers are hospitalized with COVID-19.Our 7-day percentage positivity average is 8.58%, which is up from 4.83% last week. There were 115.69 cases per 100K statewide.
Per the CDC as of December 21, 2021, 94.8% of adult New Yorkers have received at least one vaccine dose. So far, 32,693,260 total vaccine doses have been administered, and 144,541 doses have been administered over the past 24 hours.
Several airlines have been forced to cancel hundreds of Christmas Eve flights as the rapidly spreading omicron variant has impacted employees and crew.
Dr. Mitchell Katz, CEO of the city’s hospital system, told news media the 11 city-run hospitals had a total of 54 COVID-19 patients in intensive care as of Wednesday — up from 20 a few weeks ago, but a mere fraction of the 970 ICU patients at the peak in March 2020.
New York City has seen the average number of people testing positive each day spike more than 220% in a week. At least 89,000 people in the city tested positive in the seven day period that ended Tuesday. New York hospitals are up to 4,452 patients as of Tuesday — up 18% from the previous Monday.That’s below more than 6,000 patients were hospitalized in mid-December 2020.Some 17,200 people tested positive in the city Tuesday setting another new one-day record since testing became widely available. Cases are also rising on Long Island, in the mid-Hudson Valley and in central New York counties such as Tompkins County, where Cornell University has faced an outbreak.
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio said the city was opening seven additional testing sites Wednesday, increasing its total to 119, and will set up five distribution sites — one in each borough — on Thursday to hand out at-home rapid COVID-19 tests, which have been hard to come by at pharmacies.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who joined de Blasio at his news conference Wednesday and was honored with a key to the city, said he’s asking the federal government to send the city 100 mobile testing sites.
“Today they said they’re sending six. That ain’t close to enough,” Schumer said.
The news of more city-run testing sites came as CityMD, the privately run chain of urgent care clinics, said it was temporarily closing 13 city locations “to preserve our ability to staff our sites.” CityMD has seen testing lines wrapping around city blocks and wait times of several hours.
But with COVID-19 cases spiking, New York City officials said Wednesday they’re opening more testing sites and restricting visiting at city-run hospitals and jails — but having crowds in Times Square for New Year’s Eve is still a go, for now.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said no decision had been made on banning people from the annual ball drop celebration, even as Fox said it was canceling its live broadcast because of concerns about the omicron variant.
“The preference is to keep it on, it’s an important event for the city,” de Blasio told MSNBC, adding that revelers would have to show vaccination proof and that officials were weighing other precautions.
The city is also temporarily limiting visitation at city-run hospitals, with exceptions for pregnant people, children and hospice patients, and moving from in-person visits to televisits at city jails, where the COVID-19 positivity rate has soared in the last 10 days from 1% to 17%.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said “The winter surge is here, and my team and I are taking action. We have a plan to make vaccines, boosters and testing more widely available so we can get through this” she said.
This week, I spoke with President Biden about actions to assist New York in our fight against the surge. I’m grateful that he is responding to our requests for additional personnel to support our hospitals and health systems, including the deployment of 30 ambulances with staff to Upstate areas; new mass testing sites, including the first one to be operational in New York City before Christmas; and rapid tests sent directly to Americans in their homes. This is real leadership-New York Governor said in a statement..
Governor Hochul said “We’re putting $65 million on the table to support local governments and help them combat rising cases, expand vaccine & booster efforts, increase testing, and enforce our temporary mask-or-vaccine requirement.”
She said PCR testing coming to nyc subway stations. Starting Monday, December 27, testing will be available at MTA pop-up vaccination sites at Times Square-42nd St and Grand Central Terminal. This marks the first time state-funded COVID PCR testing will be available at subway stations in New York City.
Keep yourself and your loved ones safe. Now more than ever, it’s critical to get your vaccine, get your second dose, and get your booster as soon as you can. And continue using the other tools we know work: Wear your mask, keep washing your hands, and get tested.
Let’s spread joy, not COVID this holiday season added further Governor Hochul.
The New York City Ballet canceled its performance of “The Nutcracker” through Monday, citing “a number of” breakthrough infections in the production.
Jail Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi sent a letter Tuesday asking judges to consider alternatives to incarceration, writing that all indications suggest inmates face “an equal or greater level of risk” as at the start of the pandemic.
According to Schiraldi, just 45% of city inmates have gotten one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and only 38% are fully vaccinated. In comparison, at least 90% of city adults have received one dose and more than 82% of adults are considered fully vaccinated.
But north of New York City, hospitalizations are climbing in rural, central New York communities that are seeing more patients than this time last winter. Columbia County reports 26 patients, more than double the number in mid-December 2020.Broome County, along the state’s border with Pennsylvania, reports 118 patients, a 30% increase compared to last December.
