New COVID strains raging

Variants rampant in NY; locally, hospitalizations rise but deaths are rare

Two COVID -19 subvariants that first surfaced in New York in March now permeate the entire state, according to state and federal data.

Nearly every New York county is flagged by the Centers for Disease Control as having medium or high COVID-19 levels, with 98 percent of the infections in the state linked to omicron strains known as BA.1 and BA.2, according to the state Department of Health.

Only Orange County still has low levels of transmission, according to the CDC’S COVID-19 levels map, which is updated on Thursdays.

But while hospitalizations in the state continue to rise, severe complications and deaths remain relatively rare.

For weeks, the most recent COVID-19 surge has been concentrated in the Northeast, but cases and hospitalizations are now trending up in other states.

Biden administration health officials this week again recommend people living in high-risk areas — in counties marked orange on the CDC map — to mask up regardless of local policies, and the state Department of Health on Friday afternoon also urged those in areas of high transmission to wear masks indoors. The Biden administration has also announced the availability of a third round of free at-home COVID-19 tests for every household in the country.

“We’ve got to do what we can to prevent infections. We’ve got to do what we can to — to ensure that infections don’t turn into severe illness,” White House COVID -19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said at a press briefing Tuesday. “We’ve got to continue being on the

lookout for new variants, new subvariants; continue to do that surveillance.”

In the Capital Region, case numbers dipped slightly Wednesday and Thursday. An average of 55.54 residents per population of 100,000 were identified daily as having the virus Thursday, down from Tuesday’s 7-day average of 56.62 per 100,000. Statewide, there was an average of 53.51 daily positive tests per 100,000 on Thursday, according to the most recent information from the state DOH.

Hospitalization rates also continue to climb across the region, quadrupling since the season’s low a month-and-ahalf ago, according to state health data.

In early April, there was a rolling 7-day average of four daily COVID-19 hospitalizations per population of 100,000 in the Capital Region.

By Wednesday, nearly 20 people per 100,000 were hospitalized with the disease in the eightcounty region, according to the Department of Health data.

Statewide, an average of 13 people per 100,000 were hospitalized daily per Wednesday’s figures.

“The best way to stay out of the hospital and avoid serious illness from COVID-19 is to get fully vaccinated and stay up to date on your booster doses,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a news release Friday.

“Also, be sure to get tested to ensure you’re not spreading COVID -19 to your loved ones. And if you test positive, talk to your doctor about treatment. Let’s not get complacent and keep using these tools to stay safe.”

According to state health data, 98 percent of infections are linked to the BA.1 or BA.2 subvariants that ripped through central New York in March and spread across the state.

Doctors say increased immunization, either through vaccination or previous infections, as well as new therapies have helped slow the death toll and bring down the percentage of patients requiring intensive care.

Biden administration health officials on Tuesday cited a dramatic increase in prescriptions of the antiviral drug Paxlovid for the lower hospitalization and death rates despite a soaring number of infections.

During the early months of the pandemic, as officials were still learning about COVID-19, New York’s daily death toll reached more than 1,100 and hospitalization numbers peaked close to 19,000.

As the pandemic continued and the virus mutated, the data show a widening gap between infection numbers and hospitalizations/deaths. During omicron’s peak in December 2021 and January, the state saw 90,000 cases daily, but hospitalizations and deaths were strikingly low.

It’s worth noting that COVID-19 positivity rates, which are based solely on lab-based tests, are harder to track than deaths and hospitalizations, which are reported by health care facilities daily.

Public health officials since January have focused more on hospitalizations than case counts as a measure of the virus’ presence in a community since the results of now widely available at-home tests go largely unreported.

Similarly, in the early months of the pandemic, positive cases were vastly undercounted due to a scarcity of diagnostic tools.

Friday infection and hospitalization rates are not yet available from the state, but some county health departments posted updates showing a slight dip in the total number of people who are hospitalized.

Albany County Executive Dan Mccoy reported Friday that there were six new COVID -19 hospitalizations overnight and 24 new hospitalizations overall since his Tuesday update.

There are 47 county residents currently hospitalized with illness — a net decrease of five over the last three days. There are three residents in intensive care units.

Saratoga County’s health dashboard, updated on Fridays, also indicates a drop in hospitalizations.