Omicron Will Get Worse In NYC In Coming Weeks, De Blasio Warns

NEW YORK CITY — Expect omicron COVID-19 cases in New York City to skyrocket even farther in the coming weeks, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

De Blasio repeated that grim prediction Monday and paired it with a somewhat hopeful assessment.

“We’re going to see a surge in cases for a few weeks, then we think we’re going to see it start to trail off,” he said.

The daily average of new COVID-19 cases stands at 6,989, according to city data.

But that seven-day average is likely to rise — on Sunday, officials said the state broke its single-day record for the third straight day. There were 22,478 positive tests, of which 12,404 were from people in New York City, according to data.

The surge spurred long lines at testing sites, anxiety among New Yorkers and de Blasio to implement a series of steps to address the growing cases.

But those steps won't include shutdowns, de Blasio said.

"In fact, we're going to double down now on vaccination to avoid shutdowns, to avoid restrictions," he said. "I do not see a scenario for any kind of shutdown because we are so vaccinated as a city, because we have the ability, get a lot more vaccinated — that's where our energy should go.

"Another shutdown would have horrible, horrible impacts on the people of this city, but more importantly, it's not necessary if we keep getting more and more people vaccinated, keep ensuring that people get tested, we keep reinforcing our hospital system, which is doing very, very well."

Hospitalizations are up to 1.8 per 100,000 people, according to data — nearly twice what the number was when December began, but still not enough to overwhelm facilities.

Research is ongoing on omicron, but it appears to be much more transmissible than the delta variant and shows an ability to better evade vaccines, at least for people who only received two doses. Booster doses show signs of added protection and vaccination in general helps avoid severe illness, experts say.

“The more people are vaccinated, the more people get the boosters, the better off our hospitals will be as well,” he said.

Mitch Katz, who heads the city's Health + Hospitals system, said people in the hospitals for omicron appear to have shorter stays. He said that's also likely because more people have immunity and exposure to the virus.

“It certainly looks like omicron does not cause as severe disease as we’ve seen with delta,” he said.

But, still, state officials have warned that even the less severe omicron variant can overwhelm hospitals because it's more transmissible and causes more cases.

De Blasio said vaccinations will help avoid those worse outcomes.

“The more people are vaccinated, the more people get the boosters, the better off our hospitals will be as well,” he said.

In a sign of COVID-19's recent spread, Gov. Kathy Hochul said state health Commissioner Mary Bassett tested positive.

Hochul, in a news conference Monday afternoon, reiterated she wants to avert shutdowns as well. She said the state will provide counties with $65 million to enforce an indoor mask mandate.

State officials also ordered 10 million at-home COVID-19 tests for the state, of which 1.6 million will go to New York City, said Kathryn Garcia, the director of state operations.