Scott Stringer latest official to get COVID-19

New York City comptroller Scott Stringer said Friday he had tested positive for COVID, joining a growing list of local and national officials caught in the omicron coronavirus wave.

Stringer (photo at right), a 61-year-old Democrat, said that his symptoms were mild.

“I am grateful for the protection the vaccines and booster have given me,” he wrote on Twitter. “Please take every precaution — including vaccinations, regular testing and masks. Stay safe New Yorkers.”

As comptroller, Stringer is responsible for authorizing public borrowing, reviewing contracts and watching over the city’s pensions. He leaves office at the end of the year.

Stringer made his announcement on a Christmas Eve marked by a surging statewide rate of coronavirus cases, and one day after Mark Levine, chair of the City Council’s health committee, said he had tested positive for the virus.

Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, said last week that he had tested positive for COVID.

The fast-spreading omicron variant has been the Grinch in America’s second pandemic Christmas, rattling hospitals, scuttling flights and upending family gatherings.

At least two U.S. senators — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) — have tested positive in the past week.

New York has faced one of the nation’s most ferocious outbreaks. On Friday, Gov. Hochul said the state had logged more than 44,000 cases over the previous day, about double the daily rate logged three days earlier.

It was the second straight Friday the state set a record for COVID cases. The number was a comparatively small 21,027 at the end of the last work week.

Even as New York logs virus cases at record-setting rates, the figures could still represent an undercount, given the overwhelming demand for at-home tests that are not typically reported to authorities.

Despite the omicron surge, the state’s hospital system has far greater capacity than it did in previous waves in the 21-month-old pandemic.

Local leaders are banking that vaccine protection will keep infected New Yorkers from experiencing severe illness.

The state tallied 69 new COVID deaths on Friday.