NY's COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates drop to levels not seen since Thanksgiving, Cuomo says

NEW YORK — Coronavirus infection and hospitalization rates have dropped to nearly four-month lows in New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday.

Just 2.81% of COVID-19 tests were positive, and the seven-day average stood at 3.04%, a low since the last week of November.

Just 3,884 New Yorkers were hospitalized with coronavirus, also a number not seen since the week of Thanksgiving.

“We are fully back to the point before the holiday surge,” Cuomo said, praising New Yorkers for respecting public health restrictions. “It is the actions of a community — the actions of individuals as a collective — that matter.”

Despite the good numbers, 43 New Yorkers died from the virus in the past day, including 25 residents of New York City.

The death toll has remained stubbornly high even as caseloads and infection rates have dropped.

But New York has so far avoided the dreaded fourth wave of the pandemic as numbers dipped to new recent low marks.

Cuomo credited the successful vaccination effort with significantly slowing the spread of the pandemic throughout New York.

“We are continuing to work around the clock to get shots in arms as quickly and fairly as possible,” Cuomo said.

More than 12.8 million vaccine doses have been administered in the state so far, including 233,000 in the past day alone.

About 40% of the state's residents have received at least one of the life-saving shots and 27% have gotten at least one vaccination, Cuomo said.