New York just had its highest rate of positive COVID-19 tests since May, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
Cuomo — who has said the positive-test-rate figure is the most accurate in terms of predicting worrisome potential spikes — said the state’s percentage Saturday was 4.27, up from 3.9 the day before.
The state last hit 4.2 percent on May 20, according to its Web site. It went over 4.2 percent on May 18.
“This is a new phase for COVID. You want to call it the winter phase. You want to call it the holiday phase. You want to call it the surge upon surge phase,” Cuomo told reporters on a conference call. “That’s where we are.”
He said the recent uptick in cases is still part of the virus’s “first wave.
“If you look at New York versus other states, New York is doing very, very well,” the governor said. “If you look at New York relative to only New York, you see the numbers going up. Not as fast as in other states, but the numbers are going up.”
Cuomo said 55 people were reported to have died from COVID-19 on Saturday, while hospitalizations and ICU patients rose slightly.
He said the state would be revealing its “winter plan,” or “next-phase plan,” to keep the virus in check starting Monday.
