New York state COVID hospitalizations are now nearing 3,000, more than doubling in the last month as an omicron subvariant believed to be the most transmissible strain yet fuels soaring infection rates across the country, health department data shows.
The statewide admission total stands at 2,705 as of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s latest report, the highest number since Feb. 18, when the total was 2,745. It was just earlier in May that hospitalizations topped the 2,000 mark for the first time since late February. More than half (52.5%) of patients currently hospitalized for COVID across the Empire State, though, didn’t have that diagnosis listed as a primary reason for admission, which Hochul’s office says suggests those cases are typically milder.
While the current hospitalization count is less than five times what it was at omicron’s January peak — and a shred of the nearly 19,000 hospitalized with COVID across the state at the height of the pandemic in April 2020, public health and elected officials are closely monitoring the data even as they continue to stress there’s no cause for alarm.