U.S. COVID cases rising; holiday travel, gatherings could make things worse

NEW YORK - As people are traveling for Easter, Passover, and spring break for the kids, heads up: COVID cases are on the rise in some areas.

"Manhattan has just passed the CDC's threshold," Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine tweeted on Monday, pointing out that if the city color-coded its COVID alert level by borough instead of city-wide, then Manhattan would now be yellow, which is medium. Green is low.

"We're still seeing close to 2,000 cases a day in New York City," Levine said. "Get your booster shot. Stay up-to-date on your vaccinations. We're way behind on that."

Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital's Dr. Chid Iloabachie, the associate chair of emergency medicine, said his hospital anticipates an increase in cases in the coming weeks driven by the BA.2 subvariant. However, he isn't fearful because the BA.2 variant is more contagious but much less deadly.

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"We're optimistic that it won't be a significant uptick," he said. "And we're optimistic that it won't cause a surge in hospitalizations."

And even if there was a hospital surge, the doctor said hospitals are much better prepared now than a year ago.

"We have numerous medications to treat COVID infections, both in the intravenous form and now, gratefully, in the oral form," Iloabachie said.

But he warned that the pandemic is global and a mutation in another country could quickly make its way to the United States.

"Some of those mutations could potentially make it a more dangerous version," Iloabachie said. 

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