Outgoing New York City Bill de Blasio revealed on Monday that the city’s hospitalization rate more than doubled during the past two weeks — with the number of patients suspected of suffering from COVID-19 spiking “intensely”.
De Blasio said based on their latest health data, the seven-day average number of people hospitalized per 100,000 hit 3.7 on Christmas Day, up from fewer than 1.5 on Dec. 12.
De Blasio added that 296 patients in hospital beds were believed to be infected with the coronavirus amid the ongoing spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
“So, this has just gone up intensely,” de Blasio said.
He also said the latest daily report showed 17,343 new positive test results in the city, which he called a “staggering figure” that should serve as “a powerful, powerful reminder — once again — to get everyone vaccinated, everyone boosted as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, New York governor Kathy Hochul said statewide, hospitalizations surged 11 percent in just one day, from 4,891 on Christmas to 5,526 on Sunday.
Hochul added that a regional breakdown showed New York City leading the state in new hospital admissions, with more than 1,800 on Friday, compared to about 1,000 on Dec. 18.
The latest health data also showed that the Big Apple also had the highest positivity rate — 262 per 100,000 tests — followed by Long Island, with a rate of 221 per 100,000.
The data also showed that the statewide rate was 181 per 100,000, with Buffalo and the western New York region averaging just 69 per 100,000.
Despite the soaring hospitalization numbers, John D’Angelo of Northwell Health, the state’s largest hospital network, still called its COVID-19 caseload “manageable,” with 771 on Sunday, up from 594 on Friday.
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