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Gov. Hochul Says Stay Strong, Surge Won’t Last Long: Get Both Shots and Booster

Gov. Hochul Says Stay Strong, Surge Won’t Last Long: Get Both Shots and Booster

By Yehudit Garmaise

Gov. Kathy Hochul asked New Yorkers, on Friday, to stay strong though the latest COVID surge that she and health officials say will likely last only a couple of weeks.

“Yes, I believe we will get through this,” Gov. Hochul said. “This is a season of hope and gratitude, and we should all feel grateful to live in the great state of New York.

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but dream, not plan, but also believe.”

Gov. Hochul also reminded New Yorkers: at a time when everyone is tired, maybe not feeling well, and working hard to “Please thank everyone you see,” such as people working in stores, healthcare workers, transit, and food delivery workers.

“Please look in their eyes and remind them what they are doing is extraordinary, and we are grateful,” said Gov. Hochul.

New York state reported 44,431 new COVID cases in the last 24 hours, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Friday, which broke the state’s old record for the highest number of COVID cases recorded, as the Omicron variant continues to spread.

Just last Wednesday, that number was 28,942, however, thankfully, the state’s hospitalization rate, while increasing slightly, has not increased at the same rate as the surge in positive cases.

The vast majority of the patients who have the most severe symptoms of COVID are not vaccinated, and therefore Mayor de Blasio, his top physicians, and Gov. Hochul continue to urge all New Yorkers to get their vaccine and booster shots.

One group of unvaccinated New Yorkers who are particularly at risk right now are unvaccinated children, says New York’s Department of Health (DOH).

In New York City in December, for instance, children under the age of 18 have been admitted to city hospitals at a rate that was four times what that rate was in November, and in the past week, none of the kids between 5 and 11-years-old who were hospitalized for COVID-19 were fully vaccinated, health officials warned.

Of the 12 to 17-year-olds who were hospitalized last week, and only one-forth of those young patients were fully vaccinated.

The “startling trends” of increased rates of children who are being admitted to city hospitals highlights the importance getting all eligible kids 5 years and older fully their shots.

“The risks of COVID-19 for children are real,” said Mary Bassett, MD, the state’s health commissioner. “We are alerting New Yorkers to this recent striking increase in pediatric COVID-19 admissions so that pediatricians, parents and guardians can take urgent action to protect our youngest New Yorkers.”

Bassett said the best way to protect children under 5-years-old, who are ineligible for the vaccine, is by “making sure all of those around them have protection through vaccination, boosters, mask-wearing, avoiding crowds, and testing.”

“The rise in infections is pretty dramatic,” said Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who has tracked COVID-19 testing efforts during the pandemic, however, based on short-lived COVID surges in South Africa and other countries, most health officials expect COVID’s latest surge only to last a matter of weeks.

For New Yorkers who feel COVID symptoms or think they might have been exposed to someone who is COVID-19, testing can help ensure the safety of others, especially those who are elderly, under-five-years-old, or immunocompromised, said to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Take a test before you gather,” advised Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, the CDC’s director.

While 259 new patients with COVID were admitted on Friday to New York City hospitals, which showed a 31% increase from the day before, healthcare workers have said that those rates have been manageable, not skyrocketing, like the COVID positivity rates in the city.

“Thanks to vaccines and boosters, our fight against the pandemic is going better than [this time last year,] but we must ensure we’re taking the proper precautions to keep each other safe,” said Gov. Hochul, who along with Mayor de Blasio, has predicted that the surge in cases due to the Omicron variant will only last a few weeks.

“We are New Yorkers, and we show the world that when we get knocked down, we come back stronger,” Gov. Hochul said on Friday.

Photo by: Flickr 


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