New York COVID cases up 5% as BA.5 subvariant outbreaks creep upstate: Latest
New York's weekly COVID-19 tally increased about 5% last week as the omicron BA.5 subvariant that began spreading recently in New York City and on Long Island creeped into Westchester County and pockets of upstate.
New York reported 43,641 new COVID-19 cases in the week ending Sunday, up from 41,642 new cases the prior week.
New York ranked 20th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.
Nationally, COVID-19 cases decreased 4.6% from the week before, with 750,600 cases reported. Across the country, 24 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. But the Fourth of July holiday disrupted how and when test results and deaths were reported, skewing week-to-week comparisons among states.
In New York, however, rising numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations offered a clearer picture of the virus' spread in recent weeks. About 3,900 likely COVID-19 patients were admitted last week across New York, up about 20% from the weekly tally a month ago.
The lingering threat of COVID-19 outbreaks this summer differed from prior years of the pandemic when case counts and hospitalization rates plummeted each summer, mainly due to people spending more time outdoors. One reason is the omicron subvariants − including the BA.5 strain that recently became dominant − have proven effective at evading immunity from prior infections and vaccination, despite causing seemingly less severe illness than prior strains.
The BA.5 subvariant's rise in recent weeks appeared to spread upward from New York City through the Hudson Valley. Westchester County last week joined New York City and Nassau County on the high risk category list due to their respective infection rates and capacity concerns at local hospitals, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
State and federal health officials urged people to wear masks indoors in public spaces in all counties within the high-risk category, regardless of vaccination status, to help curb the virus' spread. A growing list of other counties in New York − including Orange, Dutchess, Putnam and Ulster in the Hudson Valley, as well as Seneca, Ontario, Wayne and Yates in the Finger Lakes − fell into the medium risk category.
Still, promising signs that America's hybrid immunity through infection and vaccination is keeping hospitalizations and deaths down compared to prior waves have some experts suggesting the worst of the pandemic is over, barring the emergence of another variant.
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“Hopefully we will see that severity (of disease) continue to decrease and the rate of infections and number of cases will come down as well,” Aubree Gordon, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, told USA TODAY last week.
“We’re at the point in the U.S. where it is quite likely that the worst is over,” Gordon added.
How COVID is spreading in New York
In the latest week, Westchester County saw its COVID-19 cases increase 2%, reporting 2,327 cases and one death.
Rockland County's cases fell nearly 3%, reporting 637 cases and zero deaths.
Putnam County's cases declined 8%, reporting 202 cases and zero deaths.
Orange County's cases increased 56%, reporting 1,076 cases and five deaths.
Dutchess County's cases remained flat, reporting 494 cases and two deaths.
Upstate, Monroe County's cases were flat, reporting 533 cases and three deaths in the latest week.
Broome County's cases increased 44%, reporting 179 cases and two deaths.
Oneida County's cases declined 17%, reporting 153 cases and zero deaths.
Within New York, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in:
Manhattan with 342 cases per 100,000 per week.
Staten Island with 339.
Queens County with 329.
The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.
Weekly case counts rose in 33 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Nassau, Bronx and Orange counties.
>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases
In New York, 101 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 127 people were reported dead.
A total of 5,668,645 people in New York have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 69,799 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 88,593,875 people have tested positive and 1,020,861 people have died.
>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States
New York's COVID-19 hospital admissions rising
USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, July 10. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:
Last week: 3,930
The week before that: 3,457
Four weeks ago: 3,267
Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:
Last week: 69,400
The week before that: 63,341
Four weeks ago: 57,327
Hospitals in 39 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 35 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 42 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.
The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on New York State Team: New York COVID cases up 5% as BA.5 subvariant outbreaks creep upstate
