COVID cases spike 55% in New York, doctors fear ‘frightening’ new variantsBy Marc Lallanilla
August 8, 2023
In May, the COVID-19 emergency was officially declared over — but the coronavirus is still a significant concern, according to a some in the medical community.
The latest data from the New York state Department of Health, released Aug. 2, shows that COVID cases spiked by 55% since the prior week, with an average of 824 reported cases per day across the state.
And hospital admissions for the disease increased by 22% compared to the previous week, which translates to more than 100 admissions a day.
Meanwhile, a new variant — dubbed EG.5, or eris — has arisen as the dominant strain, causing about 17% of COVID cases nationwide, according to a new alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As new variants continue to appear, health experts are concerned that we’re not prepared — especially for a worst-case scenario.
“The most frightening thing is if the virus was more deadly,” Anna Bershteyn, assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU’s medical school, told The Post.
“That’s really scary,” Bershteyn added, “if a virus had the transmissibility of COVID and was as deadly as the MERS coronavirus,” referring to Middle East respiratory syndrome, a disease with a fatality rate of over 30%.
However, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the NYC health commissioner, has said “the good news is that we’re not seeing anything in the virus that suggests it’s getting more transmissible or more lethal. What this really is, is just waning immunity … This is part of living with COVID and these fluctuations are to be expected.”
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/08/08/covid-19-cases-jump-in-new-york-free-tests-are-hard-to-find/
