New York reports more than 85,000 new cases of COVID-19 on New Year’s Day – Telemundo New York (47)

New York recorded a new high number of new COVID-19 cases on Saturday when the governor’s daily report announced 85,476 positive results in a single day.

The exponential trend has shown no signs of slowing down since the state broke its previous all-time pandemic record last month. And with home testing available to those who can find them, the true total of positive cases cannot be known.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations continue to rise. As recently as the second week of December, Governor Kathy Hochul assured New Yorkers that “this is not March 2020 or even January 2021,” and cited admissions totals well below January peaks of about 9,300.

COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide have more than doubled since then and now total 8,451 with Hochul adding another 532 to the growing tally on Saturday. For every 100,000 New Yorkers, 30 who are not vaccinated are currently hospitalized compared to only 2.1 who have received their doses.

About half of those patients are in New York City, where 50 teams of ambulances from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will begin arriving early next month, Hochul said. Thirty teams of federal ambulances were dispatched earlier to other parts of the state.

Meanwhile, Hochul will dispatch 50 more members of the New York National Guard to reinforce the 50 already there to help with non-medical tasks at healthcare facilities. Across the state, they are grappling not only with the increase in the number of cases, but also with staff pressures as workers are sick or quarantined.

The governor began deploying members of the National Guard to assist nursing homes and long-term care facilities about a month ago.

A 35-member federal healthcare team is expected to arrive next week at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, and a team of about 20 members to Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, said State Emergency Services Commissioner Jackie Bray.

Federal ambulance teams and additional National Guard members are heading to New York City, and western New York hospitals are receiving more federal aid as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to rise, state officials said. Friday.

Gov. Hochul also announced that students from state and university universities City University of New York They will need to receive the coronavirus booster dose to be on campus for the spring semester and must test negative before returning from vacation.

“We are being hit hard” by the latest increase, driven in large part by the Omicron variant, the Democrat added.

The booster dose requirement for state and city college students echoes steps some colleges have taken elsewhere. New York’s rule takes effect on January 15, with the understanding that some students may have been vaccinated too recently to qualify for boosters. They will have to get the reinforcements once they meet the requirement.

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