New York - which was once the epicenter of the Omicron surge - recorded its lowest positivity rate since the COVID variant was first d...
New York - which was once the epicenter of the Omicron surge - recorded its lowest positivity rate since the COVID variant was first detected in December as hospitalizations continue to fall.
On Sunday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the state's positivity rate is just 3.52 percent, and new cases are down 75 percent compared to two weeks ago - with just 5,680 new positive COVID cases reported the day before.
The number of patients admitted to one of New York's many hospitals has also plummeted, with 558 new patients admitted on Saturday and just 68 new deaths.
'I’m so proud of the work New Yorkers have put in to fight this winter surge,' Hochul said in a statement Sunday. 'The trends continue to be promising, but it is important we continue to be vigilant so we can keep positivity rates low.'
As of Saturday, 80.4 percent of New York residents have had at least one vaccine, and 72.2 percent are fully vaccinated.
But many New Yorkers have grown weary with pandemic-related restrictions, with a new study showing that fewer Big Apple residents report wearing masks at all times - even as New York City remains the epicenter of the state's COVID pandemic.
The city recorded 2,174 of the 5,680 new cases on Saturday, according to New York State health data, or about 38 percent.
New York on Sunday recorded its lowest positivity rate since the Omicron surge first began at the end of December - at just 3.52 percent, with 5,680 new positive COVID cases reported
Hospitalizations and deaths have also declined in recent days, with 558 new patients admitted on Saturday and 68 new deaths
Gov. Kathy Hochul (pictured speaking in January) hailed Sunday's numbers saying she was proud of the work New Yorkers have done
New York City officials are now beginning to prepare for another possible COVID surge or pandemic with a COVID Recovery Task Force.
On Sunday, Huge Ma, who became known as 'Vax Daddy' for creating a website that helped New Yorkers find vaccination appointments, and Dr. Jay Varma, who served as a senior adviser to former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced they were joining the task force, set up by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.
'We need to prepare and assume that the virus will continue to potentially throw curveballs at us,' Varma told the New York Daily News. 'Or if it isn't this virus, there may be another one in the future.'
'Whatever investments we make in preparedness will yield dividends in the future,' he said, adding: 'We should be thinking about what the measures might be. Those could be anywhere from technical guidance about how to improve ventilation in indoor facilities or ... debating what the value is of certain regulations.
'We want to start thinking about how the systems can be ready, so we can just flip the switch when we're in the midst of a future wave of COVID or another pandemic.'
Meanwhile, fewer New York City residents report wearing masks this year than last year, according to a new survey of 2,500 respondents from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health.
It found that in January 2021, 80 percent of respondents reported that they always wore a mask in public, but in the most recent survey, conducted from January 28 to January 30 by Consensus Strategies, only 72 percent said the same.
Huge Ma, left, and Dr. Jay Varma, right, announced on Sunday they were joining Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine's COVID Recovery Task Force to prepare the city for another COVID variant or pandemic
More than half of Big Apple residents have applied for the federal government's at-home testing kits after weeks of long lines outside of testing centers. A man is seen here getting tested ahead of the holiday season on December 19
At the same time, the poll found that more than half of Big Apple residents have already applied for the federal government's at-home testing kits.
About 30 percent of those who said they applied for the set of four at-home testing kits the Biden administration announced last month it would deliver to every household said they wanted to use it in case they start developing COVID symptoms, and 25 percent said they wanted to have the tests available in case they need it.
Another 18 percent of respondents said they wanted to self-test before they get together with friends and family after the city saw long lines outside of COVID testing centers for weeks amid the omicron surge and holiday season.
Of those who ordered the test, the poll found, two-thirds had received a COVID vaccine booster and only about one-third of unvaccinated respondents said they ordered the at-home tests.
'This is an indication of the vigilance of vaccinated individuals in containing the spread,' Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of CUNY Graduate School of Public Health told the New York Post, adding that it is 'disappointing' that so many unvaccinated people had not applied for the free tests.
'It's a shame that so many among us who are not vaccinated would be resistant to getting the COVID test,' he said. 'They should be more willing to get tested to contain the virus, not less.'
Still, COVID seems to be waning nationwide - even as deaths throughout the country increase.
On Sunday, federal officials reported that the average daily confirmed COVID cases is half of what was reported less than two weeks ago and down from the peak of nearly 806,000 infections a day on January 15.
But at the same time, the US reported 902,266 coronavirus deaths, an increase of 875, and a seven-day average of 2,455, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins.
The US tally marks an increase of more than 100,000 fatalities nationwide since Dec. 12, coinciding with a surge of infections and hospitalizations driven by the Omicron variant.
Analysts with Reuters allege the US death tally is the highest number of COVID fatalities reported by any nation, followed by Russia, Brazil and India with more than 1.8 million deaths combined. In terms of coronavirus fatalities per capita, the United States ranks 20th, well below the top two - Peru and Russia.
Now, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will no longer requiring hospital systems to report daily COVID-19 deaths to the federal government.
The policy change, which was announced in January, went into effect last Wednesday, just days ahead of the US death toll surpassing 900,000.
Some health officials are calling the move 'incomprehensible,' alleging the hospital data has, over the last two years, 'changed the response to the pandemic for the better'.
'The hospitals have been doing this for going on two years,' a federal health official told WSWS, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
'It is the only consistent, reliable and actionable dataset at the federal level. Ninety-nine percent of hospitals report one hundred percent of the data every day.'
Although hospitals will no longer need to report the previous day's COVID-19 deaths to the federal government each day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will continue to collect and report COVID data from official death certificates.
The CDC also notes the death data reported by hospitals to the HHS 'is not a CDC-owned data source and does not impact our reporting'.
The organization instead compiles its numbers from death certificate reports sent to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), with officials reiterating 'there have been no changes to CDC data sources.'
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