Low Vaccination Rates Correlate to High Hospitalization Rates, Gov. Hochul Stresses

By Yehudit Garmaise

"I want to remind everyone who is filling up the hospitals: the unvaccinated, who are 10 times more likely to end up in the hospital," said Gov. Kathy Hochul this afternoon in a press conference in which she provided a COVID update. High hospitalizations rates, worldwide, correspond to low vaccination rates, Gov. Hochul pointed out.

New York, so far, has confirmed 20 Omicron cases, 13 of which are in New York City.

Mary Bassett, MD, MPH, New York’s new health commissioner, however, believes that more than many more New Yorkers have been infected with the Omicron variant, which has yet gone undetected.

 “At this point,” said Gov. Hochul, who is as soft-spoken, as Howard Zucker, the state’s former health commissioner was outspoken, “what we have is community spread: Omicron is not coming from people who have traveled, but it is being spread in the communities.”

 The governor said that while she expects the number of Omicron cases statewide to rise,

Delta by far remains the dominant variant in the state, country, and world, where Omicron has been detected now in nearly 60 countries.

 The recent uptick in New York’s COVID cases and in hospitalizations, pointed out, “reflects the Delta variant, which remains overwhelmingly the dominant strain in the US and around the world,” said Dr. Bassett, who emphasized the newfound, increased, and daily communication, connection, and cooperation among local, city, state, and federal governments and Gov. Hochul.

 The governor said that to determine what will happen with Omicron in New York, her Health Department is carefully watching what is happening in the African countries, where the strain originated.

“Omicron spreads very quickly,” said Gov. Hochul, but she added, “We are prepared for this. We are working very hard to make sure we have all the tools at our disposal.

 “And we don’t know yet, whether Omicron will out-compete Delta, so we are still learning.

 Dr. Bennett said, “We are lucky in New York state to have the internationally-recognized Wadsworth Center Lab, which conducts [enhanced surveillance variants by examining the] sequences of COVID-19 virus samples.}

 What we still don’t know about Omicron, are three questions: whether the new variant is more transmissible, whether it causes more severe disease, and how well vaccines, which were developed for the original strain will protect against it, New York’s health commissioner said.

 “So far, we know from where Omicron is circulating in other countries that it seems to be highly contagious, but no more lethal than the Delta variant, and that vaccines continue to offer protection against severe symptoms and hospitalization,” Dr. Bassett said.

 “We want people to get fully vaccinated and get boosters,” emphasized Dr. Bassett, who was happy to announce that now that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved boosters for 16 and 17-year-olds, she soon expects the final step of approval, which comes from the US Centers and Disease Control and Prevention.

 While children under 5 are the only ones who remain ineligible to get vaccinated, Dr. Bassett said, “let’s put them in a circle of protection,” by making sure that all adults and teens are vaccinated.

 “The best protection that children have is that every adult around them is fully vaccinated,” she said. “I am hopeful for New York City and for the whole state in 2022, I want to urge everyone: the vaccine is how we protect ourselves. We are in this together.

 Photo: Flickr