February 27, 2023
Albany, NY

Governor Hochul Updates New Yorkers on State's Progress Combating COVID-19

Governor Encourages New Yorkers to Keep Using the Tools to Protect Against and Treat COVID-19: Vaccines, Boosters, Testing and Treatment

19 Statewide Deaths Reported on February 24

Governor Kathy Hochul today updated New Yorkers on the state's progress combating COVID-19 and outlined basic steps they can take to protect against the spread of viral respiratory infections that become more common in the winter season.

"I urge all New Yorkers to remain vigilant and continue to use all available tools to keep themselves, their loved ones and their communities safe and healthy," Governor Hochul said. "Be sure to stay up to date on vaccine doses, and test before gatherings or travel. If you test positive, talk to your doctor about potential treatment options."

Governor Hochul is urging New Yorkers to take common prevention measures — like staying up to date on vaccines and practicing proper hygiene — to protect from the flu and COVID-19 and reduce the patient burden on local hospitals. The Governor reiterated these basic steps when she updated New Yorkers on the state's health preparedness efforts this winter.

Last week, the New York State Department of Health launched a new 12-week campaign on television, social media and streaming services to encourage New Yorkers with underlying medical conditions to recognize the importance of getting and staying up-to-date with the recommended COVID-19 bivalent booster to avoid serious illness or death. These conditions including being 65 or older, pregnant, obese, diabetic, or suffering from heart or lung disease, or having a weakened immune system.

Additionally, the Department of Health released its weekly flu surveillance report for the week ending February 18 and showing influenza remaining geographically widespread throughout the state for a twentieth consecutive week, with a total of 315,732 positive cases reported across 57 counties. The report found that confirmed cases statewide decreased 5 percent to 2,471 for the week, while overall hospitalizations were up 3 percent from the previous week, at 144 hospitalizations across the state.

There were three outbreaks in acute care and long-term care facilities, the report determined. There were no influenza-associated pediatric death reported for the week, for a total of 10 statewide.

With flu season continuing, Governor Hochul reminds all New Yorkers that it's not too late to get their annual flu vaccine. The flu virus and the virus that causes COVID-19 are both circulating, so getting vaccinated against both is the best way to stay healthy and to avoid added stress to the health care system.

The Health Department is continuing its annual public education campaign, reminding adults and parents to get both flu and COVID-19 shots for themselves and children 6 months and older. For information about flu vaccine clinics, contact the local health department or visit vaccines.gov/find-vaccines/.

Governor Hochul also continues to urge New Yorkers to get their bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters. In December, the New York State Department of Health announced new guidance for bivalent COVID-19 booster doses, which are now available for eligible children down to 6 months of age.

The updated boosters are the first to be targeted to the original virus strain and recently circulating variants and are recommended for young New Yorkers and all those eligible. To schedule an appointment for a booster, New Yorkers should contact their local pharmacy, county health department, or healthcare provider; visit vaccines.gov; text their ZIP code to 438829, or call 1-800-232-0233 to find nearby locations.

Today's data is summarized briefly below:

  • Cases Per 100k - 5.04
  • 7-Day Average Cases Per 100k - 8.17
  • Test Results Reported - 37,976
  • Total Positive - 985
  • Percent Positive - 2.43%**
  • 7-Day Average Percent Positive - 3.32%**
  • Patient Hospitalization - 1,850 (-95)
  • Patients Newly Admitted - 245
  • Patients in ICU - 192 (-25)
  • Patients in ICU with Intubation - 71 (-9)
  • Total Discharges - 403,099 (+314)
  • New deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS - 19
  • Total deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS - 61,819

** Due to the test reporting policy change by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and several other factors, the most reliable metric to measure virus impact on a community is the case per 100,000 data -- not percent positivity.

The Health Electronic Response Data System is a NYS DOH data source that collects confirmed daily death data as reported by hospitals, nursing homes and adult care facilities only.

Important Note: Effective Monday, April 4, the federal Department of Health and Human Services is no longer requiring testing facilities that use COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to report negative results. As a result, New York State's percent positive metric will be computed using only lab-reported PCR results. Positive antigen tests will still be reported to New York State and reporting of new daily cases and cases per 100k will continue to include both PCR and antigen tests. Due to this change and other factors, including changes in testing practices, the most reliable metric to measure virus impact on a community is the case per 100,000 data -- not percent positivity.

  • Total deaths reported to and compiled by the CDC - 78,627

This daily COVID-19 provisional death certificate data reported by NYS DOH and NYC to the CDC includes those who died in any location, including hospitals, nursing homes, adult care facilities, at home, in hospice and other settings.

Each region's 7-day average of cases per 100K population is as follows:

Region

Friday, February 24, 2023

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Capital Region

10.74

10.26

10.13

Central New York

11.62

11.16

10.96

Finger Lakes

10.31

9.89

9.92

Long Island

7.76

7.73

7.37

Mid-Hudson

8.89

8.67

8.40

Mohawk Valley

11.98

11.80

11.24

New York City

6.55

6.54

6.32

North Country

14.76

14.80

14.73

Southern Tier

14.04

14.04

13.47

Western New York

10.77

10.60

10.57

Statewide

8.52

8.40

8.17

Each region's 7-day average percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows**:

Region

Friday, February 24, 2023

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Capital Region

6.68%

6.41%

6.29%

Central New York

6.16%

6.06%

6.11%

Finger Lakes

6.64%

6.44%

6.38%

Long Island

3.14%

3.02%

2.96%

Mid-Hudson

2.91%

2.73%

2.33%

Mohawk Valley

6.95%

6.86%

6.41%

New York City

2.42%

2.30%

2.14%

North Country

8.15%

8.24%

8.34%

Southern Tier

7.62%

7.59%

7.25%

Western New York

10.26%

10.34%

10.45%

Statewide

3.71%

3.55%

3.32%

** Due to the test reporting policy change by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and several other factors, the most reliable metric to measure virus impact on a community is the case per 100,000 data -- not percent positivity.

Each New York City borough's 7-day average percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows **:

Borough in NYC

Friday, February 24, 2023

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Bronx

2.33%

2.27%

2.14%

Kings

1.96%

1.81%

1.67%

New York

2.94%

2.93%

2.71%

Queens

2.78%

2.63%

2.56%

Richmond

2.46%

2.36%

2.31%

** Due to the test reporting policy change by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and several other factors, the most reliable metric to measure virus impact on a community is the case per 100,000 data -- not percent positivity.

On Friday, February 24, 985 New Yorkers tested positive for COVID-19 in New York State, bringing the total to 6,619,788. A geographic breakdown is as follows:

County

Total Positive

New Positive

Albany

79,158

16

Allegany

10,844

5

Broome

59,018

12

Cattaraugus

19,344

4

Cayuga

20,579

3

Chautauqua

29,613

10

Chemung

26,760

9

Chenango

11,872

3

Clinton

22,805

7

Columbia

14,002

5

Cortland

13,501

3

Delaware

10,223

1

Dutchess

85,293

9

Erie

270,453

70

Essex

7,774

8

Franklin

12,162

6

Fulton

16,698

3

Genesee

16,666

3

Greene

11,093

2

Hamilton

1,102

-

Herkimer

17,568

1

Jefferson

27,366

7

Lewis

7,388

1

Livingston

14,462

5

Madison

16,912

4

Monroe

193,025

57

Montgomery

15,119

1

Nassau

550,071

67

Niagara

59,855

7

NYC

3,086,076

333

Oneida

69,469

7

Onondaga

143,296

44

Ontario

26,311

10

Orange

140,458

15

Orleans

10,625

-

Oswego

34,837

9

Otsego

13,390

5

Putnam

31,732

3

Rensselaer

41,996

16

Rockland

119,039

35

Saratoga

61,850

11

Schenectady

43,926

4

Schoharie

6,627

4

Schuyler

4,341

1

Seneca

7,708

-

St. Lawrence

26,437

5

Steuben

25,428

5

Suffolk

568,845

61

Sullivan

24,787

14

Tioga

14,137

-

Tompkins

26,742

1

Ulster

43,434

5

Warren

19,028

3

Washington

15,966

7

Wayne

22,016

10

Westchester

336,122

45

Wyoming

9,976

3

Yates

4,463

-

Below is data that shows how many hospitalized individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 were admitted for COVID-19/COVID-19 complications and how many were admitted for non-COVID-19 conditions:

Region

COVID-19 Patients currently hospitalized

Admitted due to COVID or complications of COVID

% Admitted due to COVID or complications of COVID

Admitted where COVID was not included as one of the reasons for admission

% Admitted where COVID was not included as one of the reasons for admission

Capital Region

136

77

56.6%

59

43.4%

Central New York

72

38

52.8%

34

47.2%

Finger Lakes

244

78

32.0%

166

68.0%

Long Island

258

120

46.5%

138

53.5%

Mid-Hudson

188

56

29.8%

132

70.2%

Mohawk Valley

52

28

53.8%

24

46.2%

New York City

617

242

39.2%

375

60.8%

North Country

55

35

63.6%

20

36.4%

Southern Tier

70

21

30.0%

49

70.0%

Western New York

158

65

41.1%

93

58.9%

Statewide

1,850

760

41.1%

1,090

58.9%

The Omicron variant now represents more than 95% of the viruses in circulation. For more information on variant tracking, please visit here: COVID-19 Variant Data | Department of Health (ny.gov).

On Friday, there were 19 total new deaths reported due to COVID-19, bringing the total to 61,819. A geographic breakdown is as follows, by county of residence:

County

New Deaths

Albany

1

Chemung

1

Columbia

1

Erie

2

Essex

1

Greene

1

Herkimer

1

Kings

1

Monroe

1

Nassau

2

New York

1

Onondaga

1

Orange

1

Queens

2

Richmond

1

Westchester

1

Grand Total

19

New Yorkers looking to schedule vaccine appointments for 5-11-year-old children are encouraged to contact their child's pediatrician, family physician, county health departments, Federally Qualified Health Centers, rural health centers, or pharmacies that may be administering the vaccine for this age group. Parents and guardians can visit vaccines.gov, text their ZIP code to 438829, or call 1-800-232-0233 to find nearby locations. Make sure that the provider offers the Pfizer-BioNTechCOVID-19 vaccine, as the other COVID-19 vaccines are not yet authorized for this age group.

Visit our website for parents and guardians for new information, frequently asked questions and answers, and resources specifically designed for parents and guardians of this age group.

Contact the Governor’s Press Office

Contact us by phone:

Albany: (518) 474-8418
New York City: (212) 681-4640

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