NEW YORK – More than 3,000 positive COVID-19 cases were recorded in New York on Friday, the highest total in one day and the first time that threshold has been exceeded since early May. This would be one of the consequences of the rapid spread of the delta variant, according to health officials.
A total of 3,050 people tested positive for the virus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office reported Saturday in a statement, the highest single-day total since May 7. More than half of them are in New York City.
Today’s update on the numbers:
Total COVID hospitalizations are at 699.
Of the 119,566 tests reported yesterday, 3,050 were positive (2.55% of total).
Sadly, there were 5 fatalities. pic.twitter.com/DH59N1r43J
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 31, 2021
–
“New Yorkers fought a long time and sacrificed a lot to get to where we are today, where we are not just surviving but living life,” Governor Cuomo said in the statement. “But our fight is not over, and we know it because the delta variant continues to infect more and more people, particularly those who are not yet vaccinated. We cannot risk throwing all our hard-earned progress overboard as well. I urge everyone who still needs their vaccine to get it right away and help protect themselves, their neighbors and their loved ones. “
The number of hospitalized people increased by 40% in one week and the number of intubated intensive care patients increased by approximately 25%.
The State’s 7-day moving average of the percentage of positive tests now stands at 2.4%; just a week ago it was only 1.66%.
An unpublished presentation from the CDC, obtained on Friday by our sister sister NBC News, underscores the increasing severity of the situation: an estimated 35,000 symptomatic infections per week nationwide among those who are already fully vaccinated. It’s unclear from Governor Cuomo’s news release Saturday how many of those more than 3,000 positive cases are among those vaccinated in New York.
(Still, the unvaccinated are eight times more likely to become infected and 25 times more likely to be hospitalized or die, according to the CDC.)
There are new mandates for the use of masks on the table, as well as mandatory vaccinations or tests for public employees. But even as Cuomo urges companies to reopen their offices, federal officials warn that the delta variant is a new beast, potentially more contagious than the common cold.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to make an announcement Monday about a possible mask-wearing mandate. On Friday, the mayor was on CNN to discuss vaccination efforts and the city’s response to the increasing spread of delta.
“We will address the issue of the use of masks. We will, but we have to make sure that everything we do supports vaccination. Yes, you can do more than one thing, but you better make sure that the two things support each other. yes, especially the most important piece, which is vaccination, ”said the mayor.
The Tokyo Olympics clearly demonstrate the risks of the delta variant: the city has set new records for infections in the pandemic for four days in a row.
“The pandemic of the unvaccinated”
Delta, the variant that was first found in India and is now found in at least 104 countries, has dramatically increased its prevalence in the US over the past month, now accounting for more than 80% of samples tested, according to the CDC.
Scientific evidence has shown that the delta variant spreads much more easily than previous strains of the virus and causes more severe results for those infected, prompting new efforts at all levels of government to vaccinate people if they have not done so. .
Officials now believe that the delta variant may be as contagious as chickenpox, well known to generations of parents as one of the most contagious viruses in life.
Earlier this week, the CDC said that vaccinated people infected with delta can have the same viral load as an infected unvaccinated person and be just as contagious.
The World Health Organization, which has called it the “fastest” strain so far, expects it to become the dominant strain globally.
Given the relatively small subset of positive samples sequenced to assess possible variance variations, both the CDC and local experts believe that the prevalence of delta, which is classified as a variant of concern, is much higher than reported.
The variant is blamed for an increase in cases in the United States that has seen new cases confirmed daily increase fivefold since July 1 – now more than 100,000 people a day test positive nationwide, back to levels last seen in early March. While daily hospitalizations and deaths remain comparatively low, those are lagging indicators and may increase as the delta spreads into unvaccinated areas.
The latest data from the CDC shows that they are already increasing.
“There is a message that is very clear: this is turning into an unvaccinated pandemic,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said recently. “We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage because unvaccinated people are at risk.”
– .
