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JUST STAY HOME
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi on Monday said that while new COVID-19 cases have "increased sharply," hospitalizations have not jumped at the same rate. He credited vaccinations and booster shots, which help prevent severe illness, and urged that more were needed to build a "sea wall" against the variant.
The spread of Omicron prompted Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, on Monday to require all students, faculty and staff to get a COVID-19 booster shot for the upcoming spring semester.
Nationally, cases rose 9% in the past week but are up 57% since the start of December, according to a Reuters tally. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients have increased 26% this month, with hospitals in some areas already strained by the Delta variant.
While cases climbed in the U.S. Northeast, Midwest hospitals were still dealing with a surge in patients from a Delta wave this fall. Michigan, Indiana and Ohio have the nation's most hospitalized COVID patients per 100,000 residents, a Reuters tally found.
Read Also: Moderna Says Full Booster Dose Improves Omicron Protection
In New York City, the daily test rate reached an average of 130,000 per day, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters on Monday, more than double three weeks ago.
With demand for tests exceeding capacity, de Blasio and the White House confirmed that they were discussing how to increase testing availability and provide other resources the city needs to deal with the COVID-19 surge.
President Joe Biden will deliver a major speech on how to deal with the Omicron variant on Tuesday, the White House said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Monday she was ramping up the state’s testing program, with 1 million kits arriving this week and the same amount in each of the next two weeks.
“More and more people are going to be testing positive from this," she said. For those who do, she advised: "Just stay home, do not go out. Don't go to work. Don't go see your family."
Omicron's arrival is a headwind for an economic revival in New York that already lags the rest of the country, especially where employment is concerned.
The pandemic delivered an even larger body blow to the city than the country because of the outsized role played by tourism, leisure and hospitality, which suffered the worst under lockdowns and travel restrictions. New York's jobless rate topped out at 20% in the spring of 2020 - more than 5 percentage points above the U.S. average, and is still 9%, more than twice the national rate.
