What you should know
- Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday revealed new state dashboards that make the COVID-19 variant and groundbreaking infection data available to the public for the first time since the pandemic began.
- The variant data report monitors the prevalence of variants identified by the CDC; delta represents more than 99% of the new positive samples from NY analyzed in the last two weeks of study.
- The COVID Breakthrough Data Report analyzes current case and hospitalization estimates by vaccine status and vaccine effectiveness.
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NEW YORK – New York State has long tracked COVID-19 variants such as delta and infections among fully vaccinated people, but for the first time, that information is now easily available to the public, Governor Kathy Hochul announced Thursday. .
As of the latest update, which reviews the period from Aug. 29 to Sept. 11, the highly contagious delta variant accounts for 99.4% of all new COVID-19 cases in New York State, a marginal increase from to the previous two week period.
That strain of COVID, classified as a variant of concern by the CDC because evidence shows that it is more transmissible and more resistant to vaccines than previous strains of the virus, also accounts for 99% of all new cases in New City. York and more than 98% of new cases nationwide, federal data shows.
No other variant of concern, or even a variant that is being monitored, has a significant prevalence in New York State at this time.
Delta has been blamed for the latest spike in COVID infections and deaths across the United States, spawning the so-called fourth wave of the pandemic, though its influence appears to be waning. CDC data shows that nearly 67% of all US counties are “high transmission rate” areas, but that’s down from nearly 94% in the past 10 days.
New York State is making its variant data readily available to the public for the first time.
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However, the entire state of New York remains in the red, according to the CDC.
Groundbreaking infections have risen across the country amid the delta threat, which is in part why federal regulators are weighing the immediate availability of booster vaccines for the most vulnerable. However, the overall figures are still quite low.
That fact, officials say, is a testament to the overwhelming effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, especially when it comes to protection against serious illness or death.
In New York, as of September 20, more than 78,400 laboratory-confirmed breakthrough cases have been confirmed among fully vaccinated people, representing only 0.7% of the fully vaccinated population. Fully vaccinated people have accounted for 5,555 hospitalizations to date, which is only 0.5% of the fully vaccinated population.
Both percentages rose a tenth of a point in the past week, an increase, Hochul acknowledged, but there is no need to worry about this point given fractional numbers in general. The breakthrough infection rate increased as delta skyrocketed from less than 1% national prevalence to more than 99% during the summer and so did the rate of severe outcomes among fully vaccinated people, facts claimed in a recent study from the CDC, but declines in the vaccine’s effectiveness have since slowed, the data shows.
For example, the week of May 3, fully vaccinated New Yorkers were estimated to have a 91.8% lower chance of becoming a COVID-19 case compared to unvaccinated New Yorkers, according to the state. That measure dropped significantly through mid-July, the state says, though it did not provide an estimate.
However, by the week of August 23, fully vaccinated New Yorkers were 77.3% less likely to become a COVID-19 case compared to unvaccinated New Yorkers.
In terms of groundbreaking hospitalizations, fully vaccinated New Yorkers were 89.5% to 95.2% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to unvaccinated New Yorkers, according to the panel.
“Taken together, these results demonstrate that vaccines remain highly effective in protecting New York residents from COVID-19 infection and hospitalization. Simply put, these results are occurring among vaccinated people, but at levels much lower than among unvaccinated people, because vaccines work, “reads the state’s groundbreaking infection tracking page.
It also notes that no vaccine provides 100% protection against infection, which is why additional protective measures such as face masks and social distancing remain the recommendation of state and federal health officials.
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