‘ALARMING JUMP’ IN VIRUS HITS MOSTLY UPSTATE
70% spike in cases since Thanksgiving, says Hochul as omicron worries mount
The count of COVID hospitalizations in New York has climbed by 70% since Thanksgiving, Gov. Hochul said Tuesday, as a cold-weather virus wave crushes the western and northern reaches of the state.
“This is an alarming jump,” said Hochul, who has found herself parrying upstate criticism over a mask mandate she ordered at the end of last week.
Case counts climbed throughout November, but indoor Thanksgiving gatherings appear to have exacerbated an already worsening period of the pandemic. The case rate has surged by 58% since the holiday, Hochul said.
The governor said the state has slightly more hospital beds available than it did a week ago. She issued an order in late November allowing the medical centers to clear up hospital beds by pausing non-essential procedures.
“The measures are working — they’re starting to take hold,” Hochul, who lives in Buffalo in Western New York, said in a news conference in Midtown. “We’re working round the clock to bring more relief to hospitals and to free up more beds.”
Statewide, about 19% of hospital beds were aailable, according to state data. The picture looked bleakest in western New York, where 7% of beds were open and where almost 10% of COVID tests came back positive over the last week, according to the data.
The explosion of cases has been driven by the dominant delta variant, but community spread of the heavily mutated omicron strain has added another level of concern for local leaders and health officials.
On Friday, Hochul issued an indoor mask mandate, a response to the brutal Christmastime mix of cooling weather, rising cases and omicron’s threat.
The directive took effect on Monday and carved out an exception for businesses that require proof of vaccination for entry. But it has faced swift criticism from upstate Republicans.
Authorities in some counties, including Livingston County, Madison County and Saratoga County, have said they will not enforce the mandate.
Under the order, which is set to last until at least Jan. 15, businesses that violate the mask rule face fines up to $1,000. Local officials are tasked with enforcement.
“Any state mandate of this type should come with corresponding state-led oversight and resources from the state government, not pushed down to counties,” David LeFeber, a Republican who serves as chairman of the Livingston County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement.
Todd Kusnierz Jr., the chairman of the Saratoga County
Board of Supervisors, argued his county’s resources are better spent focusing on bolstering booster shot rates.
“Asking already thin-stretched local health departments to enforce mask or vaccination mandates only detracts from this critical endeavor,” Kusnierz, a Republican, said in a statement.
In New York City, Mayor de Blasio and Mayor-elect Eric Adams, both Democrats, have expressed support for the mandate. Still, the rule had a somewhat bumpy rollout on Monday, as workers and shoppers tried to make sense of the requirement. Adherence was sometimes spotty.
The city has proof-of-vaccination requirements in many indoor spaces and has enjoyed relatively low case rates throughout the fall. Its test positivity rate across the last week was 2.8% as of Tuesday, according to state data.
But some counties that have resisted the mandate are facing concerning trends. Livingston County’s test positivity rate sat at 8.2%, Madison County’s stood at 9.7% and Saratoga County’s was at 6.6% on Tuesday, according to the state figures.
Hochul called on New Yorkers to reach a point of “rational discussion” around the mask mandate and said she would not feel confident about the positioning of any county amid the spike.
The governor has said that the measure would help prevent broader shutdowns to the economy and would also provide “air cover” to local officials who wanted to push masking.
Hochul has called on New Yorkers to get fully vaccinated and boosted, but she expressed frustration on Tuesday that inoculation rates remain stubborn: The share of New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated has only grown by 2% since Thanksgiving, she said.
“We are not doing this to win any popularity contests,” Hochul said of the mask order. “But I’m not going to engage in a political discussion about this, because this is just too important. This is about getting us through this pandemic.”