COVID hospitalizations in New York fell to pre-Omicron variant levels

COVID hospitalizations in New York state have fallen to their lowest level since mid-December, before the explosion of cases caused by the omicron variant, officials announced Saturday.

According to the latest figures, there are 3,883 patients admitted for coronavirus in the state, which has a population of almost 20 million people, a figure that has not been seen since December 19.

During January, New York had more than 12,000 hospitalized in a few days, the result of a wave of infections with the omicron variant that hit the East Coast of the United States with force.

The number of cases has been falling rapidly since the peak recorded in January and so has the positive rate, which now stands at 2.5% of the tests carried out, after having exceeded 20%.

“New Yorkers should be proud of the continued progress in reducing numbers since the omicron peak in January, but this is not the time to let our guard down,” state Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement.

In another sign that New York is already beginning to consider this latest wave of covid-19 over, Hochul announced today that the Big Apple subway chained this week three days in a row with more than three million passengers, something that did not happen since the arrival of omicron.

The use of the city’s transport system has increased by 54% compared to the end of December, although it is still a long way from pre-pandemic levels.

New York, which was the epicenter in the United States of the first great wave of the coronavirus in the spring of 2020, has accumulated more than 54,000 deaths from the virus since the start of the pandemic, with another 60 new deaths reported in the last day.

BOOST DOSE

The level of protection of the booster doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against covid-19 decreases after four months but is still effective in avoiding hospitalizations due to omicron, according to a study published this Friday by the United States health authorities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that the effectiveness of bracing in avoiding hospital admission is 91% during the first two months of its application, but after four months it is 78%.

According to the study, five months after the third dose, the level of protection would drop to 33%, although the CDC admitted that they still do not have enough data on this group of people.

Therefore, the agency opened the door to “consider” the recommendation of other additional doses in order to maintain protection against hospitalizations.

The CDC currently recommends that everyone over 12 years of age receive a booster dose of the vaccine five months after completing their vaccination schedule in a country where only 63% of the population have been vaccinated with both doses.

The United States is the country most affected by the coronavirus with more than 77.5 million confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and more than 917,000 deaths, according to numbers from Johns Hopkins University.

After breaking historical records in January, contagion levels have been declining for several weeks in the country, although deaths continue to rise, with more than 3,000 deaths per day.

Hospital admissions have fallen in the last week, although they remain high, with a daily average of 13,000.