ALBANY — New York's record-setting flu season keeps getting worse.
The Empire State had 15,753 cases of influenza confirmed by a laboratory for the week ending Feb. 3, easily topping the 11,683 from the previous week, according to the state Department of Health.
It's at least the third consecutive week New York set a new record for weekly cases, which the state first started tracking in 2004. And it's the ninth consecutive week the flu has been widespread across the state.
There were 2,349 New Yorkers hospitalized with the flu for the week, which is also a record.
The increasing number of cases means the state is still in search of the flu season's peak.
It led Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration to announce Thursday that counties would be eligible for extra reimbursement from the state if they expand access to the flu vaccine, such as by adding weekend or night hours for flu clinics.
The state has been encouraging residents to get the flu vaccine for weeks.
"I ask all New Yorkers to take advantage of this expanded access to flu vaccines and join us in slowing down and stopping the spread of this virus in the Empire State," Cuomo said in a statement Thursday.
The state's flu numbers account for lab-confirmed cases, meaning there are many more people who report flu-like symptoms and aren't included.
The entire state, however, is dealing with a high flu rate.
Wayne County, between Rochester and Syracuse, had the highest rate for the second time in the last three weeks.
The county had 228 confirmed cases in the week ending Feb. 3, which works out to about 251 cases per 100,000 people, according to the state's data.
Chenango County, which had 103 cases for the week, came in at second with 212 cases per 100,000 people.
Outside New York City, Westchester County had the highest number of weekly cases with 1,172. That's about 120 cases per 100,000 residents.
The statewide average, meanwhile, was 80 cases per 100,000 people for the week
Dutchess County, home of Poughkeepsie, came in just below that. The county's 217 new cases worked out to 74 per 100,000 people, the state's data showed.
