New York State’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic continued to rise Friday, with 37 people dying of COVID-19, including five Long Islanders, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced Saturday night.
Two of those deaths were Suffolk County residents, three from Nassau, and seven from New York City, the office said in a news release.
For months, the rate at which people are dying of the virus has stayed relatively steady; during the worst of the pandemic, in spring 2020, the virus was killing hundreds daily, with no end in sight.
Since the pandemic began, at least 9,809 Long Islanders have died of the virus — at least 5,076 in Nassau and 4,733 in Suffolk. The death toll in the city is at least 30,292. Statewide, the number is 57,487.
As of Friday, the statewide positivity rate of infection, averaged over seven days, was 2.15%. It’s 2.23% on Long Island and 1.07% in New York City.
The seven-day average Thursday for the state was 2.20%, and on Long Island 2.34%.
The percentage of the overall population to be fully vaccinated is 72.4% in Nassau, 65.8% in Suffolk, 66.1% in New York City, and 64.1% statewide. Nationwide, 57.4% of Americans are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online COVID Data Tracker.
Earlier in the week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a vaccine mandate for the entire municipal workforce — nearly 350,000 employees. There are exceptions, such as for legitimate religious or medical reasons, but any others who refuse to be vaccinated are to be placed on unpaid leave.
The vaccination mandate is an escalation of one already in place for employees of the city Department of Education and public health system.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is preparing, pending approval, to distribute the coronavirus vaccine to children via pharmacies, doctor’s offices and schools, as federal drug regulators late Friday said that doses for children ages 5-11 appeared highly effective at preventing symptomatic infections.
According to a Food and Drug Administration document, there have been 1.8 million confirmed and reported cases among children ages 5 to 11, with 143 deaths believed to be related to the virus, through Oct. 14, and 8,622 hospitalizations through Sept. 18.
It’s unclear the extent to which children are responsible for spreading the virus. Testing in the city schools, for example, shows children have an exponentially lower rate of infection than the regular population.
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