COVID-19 continues to ebb in Capital Region

John Cropley, The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, N.Y.
·2 min read

Jun. 25—ALBANY — COVID continues its slow retreat across the state, with infection counts and hospital census admissions greatly diminished but still not low.

On Thursday alone, 6,375 New Yorkers were lab-confirmed to have COVID infections and an unknown additional number tested positive with at-home test kits.

Also Thursday, 1,824 hospital patients statewide were COVID-positive, though only 42% originally were admitted because of COVID symptoms or complications.

This compares to a one-day peak this year of 90,132 positive tests and 12,671 people hospitalized, both in January, and a recent one-day high of 13,902 positives in May.

As June ends, COVID infections per-capita are highest in and near New York City. All five boroughs, Long Island and most of the lower Hudson Valley are above the statewide average of 24.8 new cases per day per 100,000 residents on a seven-day rolling average.

The Capital Region stands at 14.2 cases per day per 100,000 residents and the Mohawk Valley at 12.0 cases. The two regions' hospitals were treating 104 and 20 COVID-positive patients, respectively, on Thursday.

This is the second decline for COVID in 2022: After the huge omicron surge in late December and early January, new infections plummeted through March, then rose to a mini-spike in mid-spring, at which time upstate New York had one of the highest rates of new infections in the nation.

As of June 24, if they were a state, the 57 counties outside New York City would rank 42nd among the states for new infections per capita, while New York City would rank eighth.

Almost 28 months after COVID was first reported in New York, the state Department of Health ended its daily reporting of disease statistics on Friday, moving to once-a-week updates in line with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's schedule.

New York also has begun shutting down its mass vaccination sites, even as Gov. Kathy Hochul continues to press vaccine and boosters, particularly the youngest New Yorkers, who became eligible for shots only very recently.

Mass vaccination sites in Queensbury and Suffern were closed June 16 and 17. The sites at Crossgates Mall in Guilderland and SUNY Old Westbury administered their last shots Friday. The remaining four will shut down June 30.

Statewide, 77.7% of New Yorkers are fully vaccinated against COVID. Schenectady County, at 80.3%, has the highest percentage outside New York City and its contiguous counties.