How many vaccinated New Yorkers are infected with COVID?
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The omicron variant has infected nearly 800,000 New Yorkers who were vaccinated against COVID-19, as the highly contagious coronavirus strain fueled debate over the pandemic’s next chapter.
The so-called breakthrough infections of vaccinated New Yorkers were reported between Dec. 13 and Jan. 17, while omicron replaced the delta variant as the state’s predominant strain, according to USA TODAY Network New York analysis of state data.
The breakthrough cases accounted for nearly half of the 1.7 million total coronavirus cases during the same period.
The findings in part reflected how 73% of New Yorkers are vaccinated and present a larger share of potential virus hosts. They also underscored why authorities say omicron has proved much more effective at evading vaccine protection against infection than prior variants.
Further, about 17,100 vaccinated New Yorkers were hospitalized due to COVID-19 during the same period, though some of these cases could be linked to the delta variant due to lags in infected people reaching hospitals.
Before the month-long explosion of omicron-related infections, the tally of breakthrough cases in New York totaled about 227,000 during the roughly 11-month rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, state data show.
Meanwhile, the overall number of breakthrough cases, which now topped 1 million, corresponds to 7.7% of the population of fully vaccinated people 12-years or older.
Biden to give away 400M N95 masks. When and where to get them
President Joe Biden's administration will start shipping 400 million free non-surgical N95 face masks to distribution sites nationwide this week as part of efforts to fight the surging omicron COVID-19 variant, according to the White House.
Americans will be able to pick up their masks at one of "tens of thousands" of pharmacies, thousands of community centers and other locations across the country beginning late next week, the White House said.
The move comes as the rise in omicron COVID-19 cases has overwhelmed hospitals across the country, leading to mounting criticism over Biden's ability to contain the pandemic. Recent polls have found more Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the pandemic than approve, undercutting a one-time strength for Biden.
The White House expects the program to be fully up and running by early February.
How to get free COVID test kits online
Although a federal website offering free COVID-19 at-home testing kits doesn’t officially launch until today, covidtests.gov was operating at limited capacity Tuesday, allowing some people to order tests.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the site is in its beta phase to allow troubleshooting.
“We can’t guarantee there won’t be a bug or two,” Psaki said, “but the best tech teams across the administration and the postal service are working hard to make this a success.”
Some users immediately identified at least one problem: Orders made by different people living in the same apartment building but in different units were rejected as duplicate, according to some tweets.
The website is expected to officially launch mid-morning Wednesday.
How to order free testing kits from the government
Americans are supposed to be able to order up to four kits per address.
Once ordered, tests are to be mailed within seven to 12 days.
A credit card isn't needed to order the free tests and there is no cost, unlike the insurance reimbursement program that started Saturday where many will have to submit receipts in order to get the tests for free.
“All tests distributed as part of this program are FDA-authorized at-home rapid antigen tests. You will not be able to choose the brand you order as part of this program,” the government says on its website.
COVID-19 cases, deaths in Monroe County NY
Monroe County reported 1,237 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, continuing a downward trend that suggests the surge of local cases related to the omciron variant may be plateauing.
The daily total had spikes as high as 4,094 at the beginning of the month, but the daily total has been below 2,000 cases on four of the last five days. The 7-day rolling average of new cases is 1724 new cases per day, the lowest it has been in two weeks.
The number of patients in area hospitals with COVID-19 continues to rise, however. There were 741 individuals hospitalized for COVID-19 in the Finger Lakes Region on Tuesday, an increase of 52 over the previous week. Of those, 125 are in intensive care, which is an increase of 8 patients.
While those numbers are rising, Dr. Michael Mendoza, Commissioner of Public Health for Monroe County said that when viewed in context, he felt optimistic about what the numbers showed.
Speaking to reporters last week, Mendoza explained that the percentage of patients who required hospitiaization appeared to be significantly lower with the omicron variant than with previous surges.
This is a clear sign, Mendoza said, that the efforts to get residents vaccinated and boosted has helped significantly lessen the severity of illness for those who contract the virus.
NY COVID-19 cases down 39%
New York reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Sunday, adding 360,560 new cases. That's down about 39% from the previous week's tally of new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.
New York ranked 15th 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, coronavirus cases increased 5.8% from the week before, with 5,438,242 cases reported. With 5.84% of the country's population, New York had 6.63% of the country's cases in the last week.
The turnaround comes after COVID-19 cases — fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant — hit home for more than 1.8 million New Yorkers since Dec. 1.
The explosion of infections prompted authorities to debate when to end pandemic restrictions, though health officials warned it remains far too early while the virus continued to send scores of New Yorkers to pandemic-battered and short-staffed hospitals.
"While we are continuing to see promising trends, we are not through the winter surge yet and it is critical that we continue to use the tools that will help stop the spread," Gov. Kathy Hocul said Monday in a statement.
"Our best weapon is the vaccine, so if you haven't, get your shot today and make sure you get your second dose and booster as well," Hochul added.
Meanwhile, New York had nearly 11,800 hospitalizations related to COVID-19 on Sunday, which is down from recent peaks of about 12,600 earlier this month, the latest state data show.
New York ranked 8th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 85.7% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 74.6%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.
In the week ending Wednesday, New York reported administering another 649,736 vaccine doses, including 181,734 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 607,433 vaccine doses, including 188,634 first doses.
In New York, 1,201 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 929 people were reported dead.
Many counties nationally did not report COVID-19 data during the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, disrupting the latest week's statistics. That data is being compared to a week with backlogged cases and deaths from the New Year's holiday weekend, which could skew week-to-week comparisons.
How COVID is spreading in New York
In the latest week, Westchester County had cases plummet about 49%, reporting 16,643 cases and 46 deaths.
Rockland County's cases dropped nearly 44%, reporting 6,694 cases and 22 deaths in the latest week.
Putnam County's cases fell 51%, reporting 1,597 cases and four deaths.
Upstate, Monroe County's cases dropped about 33%, reporting 9,288 cases and 27 deaths in the latest week.
Broome County's cases fell 35%, reporting 2,414 cases and seven deaths.
Herkimer County's cases dropped nearly 23%, reporting 801 cases and four deaths.
Tompkins County's cases declined 29%, reporting 1,308 cases and zero deaths.
Across New York, cases fell in 58 counties, with the best declines in:
Nassau County, with 24,350 cases from 55,615 a week earlier.
Suffolk County, with 24,590 cases from 53,224
Kings County, with 54,438 cases from 82,756.
>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases
Within New York, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in:
Queens County with 2,678 cases per 100,000 per week.
Richmond County with 2,299.
Kings County with 2,127.
The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.
Adding the most new cases overall were:
Queens County, with 60,369 cases.
Kings County, with 54,438 cases.
New York County, with 32,284.
>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States
New York's COVID-19 hospital admissions staying flat
USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, Jan. 16.
Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:
Last week: 13,337
The week before that: 13,463
Four weeks ago: 4,565
Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:
Last week: 203,221
The week before that: 185,954
Four weeks ago: 90,739
Hospitals in 41 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 43 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 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Monroe County NY COVID updates; How many vaccinated NYers infected with COVID?
