COVID hospitalizations and deaths remain on the decline. The five boroughs' daily case average, meanwhile, is up 39% over the rolling average for the prior four weeks, but reflects only an increase of 391 total cases in terms of raw numbers. That's up from 12% last week and at its highest average so far this year, mirroring increasing trends in overall testing, health department data show. Notably, the strain's dominance comes at a time when New York City is testing for variants at an all-time high, isolating strains in about 14% of positive samples weekly. Officials recognize the subvariant in text, writing, "Omicron remains the dominant variant in NYC, and its BA.2 subvariant accounts for a modest but increasing number of cases in the city." New York City's health department has yet to isolate BA.2 from the original strain on its variant tracker page, with Department of Health data indicating omicron still accounts for 100% of tested cases as of Tuesday. In the case of BA.2, though, positive tests could last for days, complicating matters for a city - and a country - fervently trying to reassert its footing amid the pandemic recovery effort. Hear from him on the second booster, masking and a possible viral surge tied to BA.2.Īnecdotally, reported symptoms are often exceptionally mild - like those common with an innocuous cold that wouldn't otherwise lay people out. Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and a pediatrician and longtime academic, has the answers to all your top questions. That's a lower percentage than the share among some of the highest-volume case states throughout the pandemic like California (5.18%) but higher than Florida (2.37%).Īs a new subvariant of COVID spreads, Dr. New York, for example, has sequenced about 3% of all positive samples submitted to labs over the course of the pandemic, CDC data shows. It represents only positive COVID samples that are genetically sequenced to isolate variants, which means the actual prevalence is likely to be considerably higher, experts have said. The so-called "stealth" omicron variant BA.2, which is fueling a fresh COVID case uptick locally, nationally and abroad, now accounts for 84% of virus circulating in the New York region, a significantly higher prevalence than its national share and a marked increase in the last week, according to new CDC data released Tuesday.įor the New York area, which for CDC purposes includes New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands along with the Empire State, that 84% number is up from 71% last week and 52% the week before that.
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