Syracuse, N.Y. – The number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 has doubled over the past two weeks in Central New York, a troubling sign that the virus continues to spread and make people sick.
And the new, highly contagious variant that is dominating cases across the country is only just reaching Central New York, said Christopher Morley, a public health professor at Upstate Medical University.
The XBB.1.5 variant now accounts for more than 73% of cases in New York and New Jersey, according to the New York state Department of Health. Morley said the XBB variant makes up fewer than half of local cases in the Syracuse area.
As the XBB.1.5 variant sweeps upstate, it will likely cause more Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, Morley said.
“In previous years when we were dealing the Omicron wave, before people were fully vaccinated, that was disastrous,” Morley said. “I don’t think we’re going to see anything like that, but (Covid) is going to continue to be an issue. That’s an elephant in the room of any health care conversation.”
On Dec. 30, there were 54 Covid patients in Central New York hospitals. As of Wednesday, that number has more than doubled, to 114, according to the New York state Department of Health.
Wednesday’s total is the highest in nearly three months, but still far below the Omicron wave peak of 354 hospitalizations in mid-January 2022.
Even the increasing numbers of people in the hospitals likely misses the full toll of Covid, Morley said. A patient admitted for a stroke might test negative, but the stroke could have been caused by an earlier case of Covid, he said.
People have let their guard down, Morley said, and that’s spurring the continued emergence of newer and increasingly contagious variants like XBB.1.5.
“What we’re doing by starting and stopping protective measures and throwing caution to the wind is promoting the development of the virus,” he said. “We’re evolutionarily encouraging it to evolve and create variants.”
He said few people have gotten the latest booster, call the bivalent booster because it helps protect against illness from both the original coronavirus strain and the omicron family of variants, which are now circulating.
Just one of every five Central New Yorkers who got the original vaccine series is up to date with boosters, the state health department said.
The bivalent booster reduces the risk of Covid-19 hospitalization by 81%, according to a new study.
Morley said it’s hard to know how fast the virus is spreading because so many tests are done at home and not reported to health authorities. He said that wastewater sampling detects the virus that passes through the body and into the sewage system, so it’s not dependent upon testing.
Each of the 14 Central New York wastewater plants being sampled shows “substantial to high” transmission of the virus, according to the New York State Wastewater Surveillance Network.