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COVID cases decline in New York
Governor Kathy Hochul says New York appears to be turning the corner on the COVID surge, as the positivity rate across the state has finally begun to decline.
NEW YORK - After days of record-breaking COVID-19 numbers in New York, the state's positivity rate and weekly case average are finally coming down and Governor Kathy Hochul is saying the state may be finally turning the corner on the winter COVID surge.
"We are appearing to turn the corner on the winter surge," Governor Hochul said. "This is no time to spike the football, we still need to remain vigilant. So let's continue to use the tools we know will help stop the spread and keep ourselves safe: get the vaccine, get the booster, wear a mask, and stay home if you're feeling sick. Let's continue to do the right thing, and we will get through this together."
New York's seven-day positivity rate dropped to 18 percent, while hospitalizations fell by 245 to a total of 12,207.
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However, Gov. Hochul reported that daily deaths increased to 195, the highest single-day total in a year.
New York City represented 21,440 of the state's 49,027 positive COVID tests on Thursday, with the city's seven-day positivity rate now standing at 17 percent. The positivity rate remains over 22 percent on Long Island.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday there are signals that the peak could soon be behind us and the country may start to see a significant drop-off in cases toward the end of January.
Fauci, the president’s chief medical advisor, has stressed that much is still uncertain. But given that the variant has proved so wildly contagious, he cautiously predicted that the U.S. omicron wave could soon start to noticeably decline "about three weeks from now, two to three weeks, as we get to the end of January."
"We hope it is the latter, high up and way down, but we’re just going to have to wait and see."
Fauci pointed to data from South Africa, where in the span of about a month the wave crested at record highs and then fell dramatically. He similarly pointed to Britain, where new COVID-19 cases have also dropped after skyrocketing earlier this month, official government data shows.
"We’re starting to see that turnaround in the U.K., particularly in London which was the epicenter of their outbreak," Fauci noted.
His projection has been echoed by other scientists following COVID-19’s alarming omicron wave around the world.
"It’s going to come down as fast as it went up," Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, told the Associated Press this week.