Gov. Hochul Announces 92% Drop in COVID cases, since Jan. 7

By Yehudit Garmaise

“Just like the snow is melting, we hope that this winter surge is also melting away,” said Gov. Hochul, who announced today that New York has seen a 92% drop in positive COVID cases since Jan. 7, when the number of cases in the state was 90,000: a number that yesterday declined to 7,119.

“Look at those numbers: that is a beautiful sight, my friend," said the governor. "We have been waiting for this.

"New York was the hardest hit in the first wave, the second wave, the Omicron wave, and look where we are today.”

While the state’s seven-day average COVID positivity rate stood at a shocking 23% on Jan. 2, which was the date of Omicron’s peak, that number dropped 17% to 5.9% today, Gov. Hochul said with relief.

Hospitalizations, the number of which lags behind infection rates, are also continuing to drop and have seen a 43% decline since the beginning of January. 

Yesterday, in New York City, 3,000 patients were in hospitals for COVID, and statewide 122 New Yorkers sadly died yesterday from the virus.

Thankfully, the governor said, many New Yorkers who recently tested positive “had cases that resolved quickly at home without having to get hospitalized, and people were able to get back quickly to work and school.”

All the COVID numbers are trending down, Gov. Hochul said, but she warned, “This is not saying it is over. We still have a ways to go to get to [the low numbers we had] before the first case of Omicron in New York City on Nov. 26. 

“I still want people to get that second vaccine dose,” she said. “Let’s finish the vaccine series, and just get it done.”