Hochul On COVID: NY 'Not In A Good Place' After Holidays

NEW YORK CITY — Gov. Kathy Hochul didn't mince words about how New York is faring amid a massive COVID-19 surge.

“We’re not in a good place,” she said Monday.

Hochul expressed concern that holiday gatherings could further fuel an ever-growing coronavirus spike caused by the highly contagious omicron variant.

She did note a silver lining.

“We can say now with certainty that the cases are not presenting themselves as severely as they could have, or we had feared,” she said.

COVID-19 cases in New York City reached a high of 45,000 in a single day on Dec. 31, according to data. Hospitalizations in the city continued to climb to 42 per 100,000 people, one of the highest rates in the state, data shows.

Hochul said daily COVID-19 case numbers statewide took a "misleading" dip over the New Year's holiday weekend.

“They didn’t go from nearly 90,000 to 51,000,” she said. “That is simply a function of people not getting tested this weekend.”

The spike prompted Hochul to recently unveil what she called "Winter Surge Plan 2.0" — a five-step spate of actions. Those are:

1. Keep schools open by providing millions of tests to help keep classrooms open instead of mandatory quarantines
2. Keep masking, keep testing by extending a statewide mask-or-vax requirement for two more weeks, among other steps
3. Preventing severe illness and death by distributing antiviral treatments and boosting hospital capacity
4. Expanding access to vaccines and boosters by giving boosters to eligible teens and in nursing homes
5. Work with local partners