The number of New Yorkers hospitalized with COVID-19 has more than doubled in the past 16 days, and Long Island’s positivity rate has increased 700% in the past month, as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus continues to spread, state data released Saturday shows.
The 2.86% seven-day average of positive coronavirus test results Friday on Long Island is up from 0.35% on June 29, part of a weekslong rise as hundreds of thousands of Island residents remain unvaccinated, masks are increasingly shunned and research reveals just how dangerous the delta variant is.
Statewide, the seven-day rate was 2.40%, and up from 2.28% on Thursday. A year ago, when mask, capacity and other coronavirus restrictions were still in place, the statewide positivity rate was 1%.
Another 135 people were newly hospitalized statewide with COVID-19 on Friday, pushing the total up by 42 patients to 699, compared with 340 on July 14. Of those, 136 were in intensive care, and 52 were hooked up to ventilators.
On Long Island, there were 123 people hospitalized, up from 118 on Thursday and 53 on July 15.
Two Suffolk residents and three people in Queens died of COVID-19, the state reported.
“The Delta variant continues to infect more and more people, particularly those who are still unvaccinated,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a news release. “We cannot risk throwing away all of our hard-won progress, so I urge everyone who still needs their shot to get it right away and help protect themselves, their neighbors and their loved ones.”
The number of vaccinated residents continues to inch upward, but the pace of new vaccinations is far lower than during the spring. There were 42,284 vaccine doses administered in the 24 hours ending 11 a.m. Saturday, compared with nearly 270,000 doses on April 1.
More than 500 people on Long Island were newly diagnosed with COVID-19 on Friday, 251 each in Nassau and Suffolk. Statewide, 3,050 people received positive test results.
Despite the worrying rise in cases and hospitalizations, the outbreaks in New York and other states with higher-than-average vaccination rates are in general far less severe than in states with lower rates.
New York has had 53 cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics as of Friday. Louisiana, with one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates, has had 573 cases per 100,000 people, CDC data shows.
In New York, 57% of all residents, and 68.5% of adults, are fully vaccinated, according to state and CDC data. More than 60% of New Yorkers of all ages have received at least one vaccine dose.
In Nassau County 82.6% of adult residents have received at least one dose, the highest percentage in the state, and 69% of all residents are at least partially vaccinated, tied for third statewide. In Suffolk, 75.3% of adults have at least one dose, and 62.5% of all residents do.
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David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.
