COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the United States with the Northeast states recording the highest seven-day case rates per 100,000.
New York City is experiencing an uptick in positive cases. Data from New York Times reveal that the average number of newly reported cases per day has gone up by 49% to 1,688 over the past couple of weeks.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seven of the 10 states with the highest seven-day rates are in the Northeast.
Both New York and New Jersey have seen their average daily cases increase by 64 percent, the CDC data shows. Among the other Northeastern states seeing increases are Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut.
Experts say that one of the reasons for the rise in cases is the spread of BA.2, a subvariant of the original omicron variant that is more transmissible.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams joined the growing list of high-profile officials testing positive as New York’s tally of COVID-19 cases jumped 42% last week.
New York reported 32,114 COVID-19 cases in the week ending Sunday, up from 22,654 new cases the prior week. New Yorkers hospitalized due to COVID-19 also increased 14% last week, reaching 2,433 cases.
Mayor Adams revealed his COVID-19 positive test with a Twitter post on Sunday, April 10.
“Thankfully, I’m vaccinated and boosted so symptoms are minimal,” Adams tweeted. “We’ve come so far in our fight against #COVID19 and make no mistake: we are winning.”
A statement from the mayor’s press office said that the mayor has no other symptoms aside from his raspy voice and that he is isolating. His public events for the rest of the week have been canceled and he is now taking the anti-viral medications offered for free to New York City residents.
According to Johns Hopkins University data, a total of 5,037,932 people in New York have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. 68,055 people have died from the disease.
The United States has recorded 80,396,250 people have tested positive and 985,504 people have died.
