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New York Health officials are advising that the state, region, and country are seeing a surge in COVID-19 infection rates, hospitalizations, and fatalities, ringing alarm bells for some worried about combating the “second wave” of the virus.
In the past three days, Long Island has admitted 64 new COVID-19 patients in Nassau and Suffolk hospitals, 10 more than the nearest region, the Hudson Valley, and 12 more than New York City.
Long Island was also near the top of the list for new hospital patients in the last week, with 188, behind only New York City’s 249 cases. No other region has seen more than 150 new patients.
Currently, there are 605 COVID-19 patients hospitalized on Long Island, representing 0.02 percent of the population.
“Hospitalization by percentage, I think is the most telling tale,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a COVID-19 briefing in Albany on Thursday, Dec. 3.
“Western New York and the Finger Lakes are both at .03 percent, then you’ve got Long Island, the mid-Hudson, down at .02 percent, with New York City and the North Country doing well at .01 percent.
New York continues to see a spike in COVID-19 cases, with the infection rate rising to 4.84 percent statewide on Wednesday, Dec. 2. In the state’s designated COVID-19 “micro-cluster” hotspots, the infection rate hit 5.91 percent, and there were 139 new hospitalizations reported.
There are currently 4,063 New Yorkers hospitalized, with 783 in ICU, and 377 patients are currently intubated.
On Wednesday, 203,440 COVID-19 tests were administered in New York, resulting in 9,855 positive cases. There has been a total of 26,955 deaths since the pandemic began in March.
“In the broad scope of things, in dealing with hospitalizations and increases in hospitalizations, we’re still doing dramatically better than virtually every other state in the country,” Cuomo added. “We know our hospitalization rate capacity, and what we can do with our ‘surge and flex’ plan.”
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