Another GOP lawmaker says he will back Speaker Mike Johnson's ouster, bringing total to three
📷 Key players Meteor shower up next 📷 Leaders at the dais 20 years till the next one
NEWS
Coronavirus COVID-19

NY COVID-19 cases stay flat as nation continues to fight BA.5 subvariant

Sarah Taddeo and Mike Stucka

New York's tally of new COVID-19 cases declined ever so slightly last week, even as downstate counties continued to fight the highly contagious omicron BA.5 subvariant and officials urged residents to get vaccinated and boosted.

The state's cases declined by 1.5% in the week ending Sunday, reporting 52,115 new cases of coronavirus. That's down from 52,949 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 the week before.

New York ranked 18th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

In the latest week, coronavirus cases in the U.S. decreased 7.7% from the week before, with 862,778 cases reported. With 5.84% of the country's population, New York had 6.04% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 23 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

The omicron BA.5 subvariant is the most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the country and has been on the rise in recent weeks, making up 80% of new cases nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Joe Biden likely contracted the subvariant when he tested positive for COVID-19 last week, his physician wrote in a memo Saturday.

The latest COVID-19 threat prompted federal officials to again point to vaccines and boosters as the most effective way to fight the illness.

“We are at a point in the pandemic where most COVID-19 deaths are preventable,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, earlier this month. “Vaccines remain our single most important tool to protect people against serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths, and staying up to date is essential as we see BA.5 rise across the country.”

More:President Biden's COVID-19 symptoms 'almost completely resolved,' physician says

More:Biden likely has BA.5 subvariant, experiencing sore throat, cough, White House doctor says

How COVID-19 is spreading in NY

New York's community levels of COVID-19, as of Thursday, July 21, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • In the latest week, Westchester County's cases fell by 6%, reporting 2,360 cases and nine deaths.
  • Rockland County's cases rose 14%, reporting 815 cases and two deaths.
  • Putnam County's cases decreased by 5%, reporting 175 cases and one death.
  • Dutchess County's cases leaped by 6%, reporting 557 cases and three deaths.
  • Orange County's cases increased by 22%, reporting 1,158 cases and zero deaths.
  • In upstate, Monroe County's cases remained flat, reporting 706 cases and two deaths.
  • Broome County's cases jumped by 23%, reporting 221 cases and one death.
  • Oneida County's cases rose by 20%, reporting 220 cases and two deaths.

​Within New York, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in:

  • Richmond County with 411 cases per 100,000 per week
  • Queens County with 410
  • Bronx County with 370

The CDC says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Weekly case counts rose in 40 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Orange, Erie and Rockland counties.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

​ Across New York, cases fell in 21 counties, with the best declines in:

  • New York County, with 5,540 cases from 6,365 a week earlier,
  • Queens County, with 9,247 cases from 9,511
  • Suffolk County, with 4,081 cases from 4,266. ​

In New York, 162 ​ people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday, up from 135 the week before.

A total of 5,773,709 people in New York have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 70,096 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 90,410,386 people have tested positive and 1,026,951 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

New York's COVID-19 hospital admissions rising

Gael Brown-Madrigal, 10, receives the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children five to 12 years at NYC Health + Hospitals Harlem Hospital, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, in New York.

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, July 24. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

  • Last week: 4,318
  • The week before that: 3,904
  • Four weeks ago: 3,266

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

  • Last week: 75,961
  • The week before that: 70,927
  • Four weeks ago: 61,308

Hospitals in 33 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 33 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 38 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

Featured Weekly Ad