NY Urges Wearing of Masks for Sixth Wave of Covid – NBC4 New York

What you should know

• COVID cases are on the rise across the United States once again, fueled in large part by the highly contagious and more vaccine-resistant Omicron sub-variants.
• All five New York boroughs were added back to the CDC’s high-risk category for the spread of COVID on Friday, with Westchester County also added to the list.
• What is behind the spread? Experts believe it is being driven by Omicron’s BA.5 and BA.4 sub-variants, which are said to be 4.2 times more evasive than their predecessor and are also more transmissible.

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NEW YORK – All five boroughs of New York City are again in the CDC’s category of high risk for community spread of COVID as of the agency’s Friday update, a reflection of the increasingly infectious national climate. as the “worst version” of Ómicron still maintains its dominance.

Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island had been in the CDC’s high-risk category through the second half of May and moved to medium risk through June as viral rates and hospital admissions associated with that wave declined. . The relief was short-lived, however, as all five wards are now in a heightened-risk state.

That means face masks are recommended for everyone indoors and in public places again, regardless of vaccination status. It comes as some neighborhoods in Manhattan and Queens are seeing 25% positivity rates (again). City health officials renewed their indoor mask advisory Friday in light of updated COVID data.

And as in previous waves, the problem is hardly relegated to New York City.

As of Friday, more than a fifth of all counties in the US (667 total) are designated as high risk for community spread by the CDC, an increase of 70% in the last two weeks alone. In New York, Westchester County joined the five boroughs in returning to high risk, while Suffolk County was downgraded to medium after just one week at elevated risk.

What’s behind the latest wave? It doesn’t seem to be much of a mystery. The COVID BA.5 variant, a descendant of Omicron that evidence indicates is more transmissible than earlier strains, also appears to be at least four times more resistant to vaccines, according to a new Columbia University study published this week.

BA.5, which accounted for more than 40% of all positive samples of New York State COVID sequenced for variants in the latest two-week dataset (and the 4th5% of all New York City samples analyzed, according to that health department), and BA. 4, were at least 4.2 times more vaccine evasive than its predecessor, according to research from Columbia University.

He notes that the BA.2.12.1 subvariant, which drove the increase in cases and hospitalizations in May that sent 87% of all New York State counties into the CDC’s COVID high-risk territory, turned out to be only 1.8 times more resistant. And only one therapeutic antibody licensed for clinical use retained full potency against those strains, the study says.

Reinfection rates across New York have supported the research findings in recent times. Overall, that risk is rising across the board in New York state, with Long Island reporting the highest reinfection rate (7.3 per 100K) over the past week, followed by New York City (6.9 per 100,000), according to latest state data.

The two regions represent the most viral in the state right now, though the rolling rate of new cases per 100,000 New York City residents is slightly higher. Health department officials are currently reevaluating their COVID alert system as they try to adapt to the changing climate of the pandemic.

Statewide COVID-advancement infections and hospitalizations have also increased, as the Columbia research suggests, with the first in each of the last three weeks and the second in the last four. That time frame reflects the increase in BA.4./BA.5.

However, both rates remain overwhelmingly below their January 2022 peaks.

The other three states have also been dealing with the latest wave of COVID. New Jersey, which only had four counties at high risk in the CDC update last week, now has zero at low risk. The CDC considers half a dozen to be high risk, mostly in the southern part of the state, while the rest of New Jersey is shaded yellow on the agency’s map.

Meanwhile, Connecticut is divided. The western part of the state – Fairfield, Litchfield, New Haven and Middlesex counties – are listed as medium risk for the spread of COVID by the CDC, while the four eastern counties were at low risk in Friday’s federal update. .

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