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NY COVID surge
New York saw a record number of COVID positive cases with more than 44,000 reported on Thursday.
NEW YORK - New York reported 44,431 new positive coronavirus tests on Friday. That shot up from Thursday's record total of 38,835 positive tests. Wednesday's record number was only 28,924.
Almost every day in the past week has set a new record for positive cases since the pandemic began in 2020.
A week prior there were fewer than 13,000 cases a day reported statewide.
NY has passed 3,000,000 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic according to statistics released on Wednesday afternoon.
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69 new deaths occurred in the city on Thursday, according to Governor Kathy Hochul.
On Friday morning Hochul did announce that 95% of all adults in New York had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
She also said that fully vaccinated people who are classified as essential workers can return to work five days after a positive test result if they are asymptomatic and wear a mask.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that Times Square New Years Eve events were being scaled back.
But de Blasio has said he's committed to no NYC lockdown or NYC school shutdown.
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"Adamantly I feel this: No more shutdowns. We’ve been through them," de Blasio said on Tuesday. "They were devastating. We can’t go through it again."
New York City is ramping up COVID testing and is offering at home COVID test kits.
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Dr. Mary Bassett, the acting NY State Health Commissioner, says she and other health officials are re-examining the quarantine and isolation recommendations.
City run vaccine sites and booster sites remain in operation. $100 booster shot bonuses are being offered in New York City through the end of the year to get people to get the third shot.
The city has never had so many people test positive in such a short period of time since testing became widely available; there's no clear picture of how many people got the virus during New York City's first surge in spring 2020.
Hospitalizations also have been increasing, though much more slowly.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has vowed to keep schools open despite the increase in cases.
"We believe that it’s critically important that our children not end up in that same situation they were for so many months, when they were so displaced from their normal environment," Hochul said Monday.
144,541 vaccine doses were administered in New York in the previous 24 hours. There have now been 32,693,260 vaccine doses administered in NY, according to state figures.
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De Blasio cuts back on Times Square NYE celebrations
With COVID case records being shattered each day in New York and Broadway theaters shutting up shop again, the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square is being scaled back as well.