NYC Passes 6M Vaccinations As Hospitalizations Reach Pandemic Low

NEW YORK CITY — Six million New Yorkers have rolled up their sleeves in the fight against the coronavirus.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday the city surpassed 6 million people who received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine.

Roughly 85 percent of adults and 75 percent of teenagers in the city are now vaccinated, he said.

“Today is going to be one of those milestone days in the fight against COVID,” he said.

The milestone follows months of ever-increasing vaccination mandates for indoor activities and swaths of city government workers.

De Blasio has leaned heavily on mandates to boost vaccinations and drive down COVID-19 cases. He drew a direct link Thursday between increased vaccinations and decreased hospitalizations.

“As vaccinations have gone up, hospitalizations have gone down,” he said.

“We’re now one of the safest places in the country when it comes to COVID,” he said.

The city's hospitalization rate stands at 0.69 patients per 100,000 people, de Blasio said.

Mitchell Katz, who heads the city's Health + Hospitals system, said that's the lowest hospitalization level since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020.

He said H+H facilities account for about a fifth of hospitalizations citywide. There are currently 70 H+H patients with COVID-19, of which 16 are in intensive care units.

"We haven’t been this low since the beginning of the pandemic,” Katz said.

H+H facilities had 3,700 hospitalized patients, of which 960 were in ICUs, at the pandemic's peak, Katz said.

De Blasio and Katz acknowledged the return of colder weather could drive up COVID-19 transmission and cases. But they said further vaccinations will help protect New Yorkers.

“At this point there’s only about a million adults left to be vaccinated, and they keep coming in,” de Blasio said.