NYC Counts 23 Omicron COVID Cases As Mask Mandate Takes Effect

NEW YORK CITY — Omicron coronavirus variant cases in New York City ticked up ever-so-slightly as a strict indoor mask mandate took effect.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that 23 omicron cases have been detected so far in the city out of 38 statewide.

She repeated, however, that concerns over the new variant aren't what prompted the mask mandate and additional measures at hospitals.

“This is not what’s driving our policies,” she said.

Overall COVID-19 cases — which are overwhelmingly the delta variant — have spiked statewide in recent weeks.

Hochul said the average number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people is up 58 percent since Thanksgiving. Hospitalizations are up 70 percent, she said.

“This is an alarming jump statewide,” she said.

New York City has seen cases and hospitalizations rise in recent weeks, but not to the same extent as elsewhere in the state.

The city has the lowest number of cases per 100,000 people — 42.59 — out of any region in the state, according to data Hochul presented.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has argued the city's lower numbers are thanks to its stricter vaccine requirements, and thus greater levels of immunity — a stance given some support by a recent New York Post analysis of vaccination percentages statewide.

Hochul acknowledged Tuesday that the state's new masking measure — though not identical — largely follows the city's overall stricter approach toward fighting COVID-19.

She also brushed off recent pushback the rule has received. The measure is designed to expire Jan. 15, assuming coronavirus levels stay manageable, she said.

"I commend all the county leaders and the businesses who have stayed with us through this, who are doing the right thing, because they know that this is a temporary measure to get us through the holiday surge, and will come out at the end of this and hopefully look back and say we were to beat this back or at least keep it from escalating at a scale that we cannot handle,” she said.