New York COVID-19 hospitalizations nearly triple in past month

COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York almost tripled in the past month as figures exceeded 2,000 on Tuesday. 

The spike in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, which was first reported by NBC New York, marked the first time since late February that the state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations were over 2,000. The latest figures showed a 153 percent increase from this time last month.    

A COVID-19 update from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Wednesday said that the state had 2,119 total hospitalizations, which is still well below numbers seen when the omicron variant contributed to a major uptick in infections and nearly 13,000 hospitalizations in the state earlier this year. 

Hochul’s most recent update also noted that the state had reported 9,139 positive COVID-19 test results on Wednesday. 

Just this week, New York City upped its COVID-19 alert level from “low” to “medium.” The change did not impact much in terms of restrictions, but should the warning level rise to “high,” the city’s mask mandate could return.  

At the end of last month, Hochul had warned that the state was beginning to see another rise in COVID-19 cases but insisted there was no reason to panic. 

“We’re taking this very seriously,” the governor said at the time. “You don’t know, every single variant that comes, is it going to be worse than the last one?

“We’re not panicking about this. We’re not changing, but we also want to make sure we are smart about this,” Hochul added.