Story at a glance
- New York state is seeing a surge of new COVID-19 cases.
- Officials reported 21,027 new cases of the virus on Friday, the most the state has seen in a single day since January of 2020.
- Gov. Kathy Hochul said it was unclear how or if the omicron variant is linked to the surge in new cases.
New York state saw the highest number of COVID cases in a single day Friday since the pandemic started.
State officials reported 21,027 new cases of the virus and a daily COVID-19 positivity rate of almost 8 percent, according to data from the New York State Department of Health COVID-19 tracker.
The state’s previous record for single COVID-19 cases in a day was set on Jan. 14 of 2021 with health officials logging a total of 19,942 new cases of the virus that day, according to NBC.
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In order to knock down the surging number of COVID cases, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state is working to get millions of at-home coronavirus tests for those living in communities with low vaccine rates, reporting that 1 million tests were in hand and another 2 million are being shipped to the state, the outlet reported.
The spike is assumed to be linked to COVID’s more aggressive omicron variant but Hochul said Friday it was unclear if or how the surge could be connected to the variant, the Daily News reported.
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Published on Dec 17,2021