NYC Poised to Hit ‘High' COVID Alert Level in Days; Health Officials Issue New Mask Advisory

[Gefn]

New York City is preparing to potentially raise its COVID alert level for the second time this month as a fifth pandemic wave fueled by highly contagious subvariants of the potent omicron strain tightens its grip on the metro area and the nation.

Mayor Eric Adams' office indicated a change could come within "days" in a COVID preparedness update Monday. The Democrat's team also said a new mask advisory from the health department would be issued later in the day.

The five boroughs have been in a "medium" COVID alert state since May 2 after passing a key threshold -- 200 new daily cases per 100,000 residents over a rolling seven-day period. An upgrade to "high" alert status would require COVID hospitalizations to hit a critical benchmark -- 10 new admissions per 100,000 residents on a rolling basis -- as well. And the five boroughs are precariously close.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/nyc-poised-to-hit-high-covid-alert-level-in-days-health-officials-issue-new-mask-advisory/3689992/

[Gefn]

CDC recommends universal masking for most of NJ

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending universal masking in nine New Jersey counties.


COVID transmission rates are increasing in all 21 counties, but transmission levels have reached the CDC's highest tier in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Gloucester, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean and Sussex counties.

https://nj1015.com/cdc-recommends-universal-masking-for-most-of-nj/

[Kamaji]

Masks don't work.

[Kamaji]

NYC heads to ‘high’ COVID alert, offering masks, tests — despite milder cases

By Sam Raskin and Bernadette Hogan
May 16, 2022

New York City is headed toward a “high” risk designation for COVID-19 transmission — even as hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively low, city officials announced Monday.

A City Hall press release issued Monday morning that includes information on mask and test distribution efforts notes that they come as the municipal “prepares to potentially hit a high-alert level in the coming days.”

The announcement comes exactly two weeks after health officials raised the Big Apple’s alert level from “low” to “medium” as cases climbed and had crossed the threshold of a rate of 200 cases per 100,000 people.

After the May 2 elevation, when the seven-day average positivity rate in the five boroughs was 7.17%, the figure increased to 8.03% eight days later, according to the most recent city data available. That expected heightened alert came after the positivity rate soared from just over a 1% positivity rate at the beginning of March to over 6% by the end of April.

But from May 2 to May 10, coronavirus-induced hospitalizations declined from a 71-person weekly average to 54 as deaths remained static, the health department stats show. 

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2022/05/16/nyc-heads-to-high-covid-alert-will-offer-masks-tests/

[Wingnut]

Adams will lock the city down.  Good bye NY.