N.Y. Covid Hospitalizations Top 1,000 for First Time Since June

(Bloomberg) --

New York hospitalizations for Covid-19 topped 1,000 for the first time since June, as the state battles clusters of rising cases.

Nearly half of all new daily hospital admissions in the state have been from Brooklyn, Queens, Rockland and Orange counties, as well as in counties along the Pennsylvania border with New York that have hot spots.

“Everything is a consequence of all of our collective actions,” Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Governor Andrew Cuomo, said in an email when asked about the high number of hospitalizations. “This isn’t close to being over. Everyone please ‎continue to wear a mask, practice social distancing and wash your ‎hands.”

Of the more than 141,500 tests conducted statewide on Thursday, 1,637 or 1.15% were positive. The rate in the hot spots was 2.31%, compared with 0.98% outside those areas, according to data from the governor’s office. The 2.31% is down from more than 3% a few weeks ago.

New York, the early center of the U.S. pandemic, had more than 18,000 hospitalized for Covid at the height of its outbreak. At that time in April, the state pitched tents as makeshift hospitals, created temporary medical facilities out of convention centers and had a U.S. Navy hospital ship docked in the Hudson River in case it needed more capacity.

By early September, hospitalizations were just above 400. In recent weeks, state officials have battled a resurgence in areas where mask-wearing and social distancing have been lax. Cuomo has stepped up enforcement and ordered schools, nonessential businesses and places of worship closed in those so-called red zones.

“We are attacking micro-clusters where we see them, and that will be our strategy through this season as we see micro-clusters come and go,” Cuomo said in a statement.

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