NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul provided an update on the state's progress of fighting COVID-19. Cases have been going up in the state, but Hochul emphasized she is just warning people to be cautious.
"We want to make sure we are alerting people. This is not the sky is falling, just want to make sure that people take this very seriously," Hochul said in regards to hospitalization rates around the state.
Hospitalizations have spiked, but they are not at the rate statewide that they were in April. This spike is the reason Hochul has ordered seven hospitals in Western New York to stop elective procedures.
Two weeks ago, the state average was 34 COVID-19 cases per 100,000, but that has increase to 49.83 per 100,000. Western New York has a rate of 79 cases per 100,000.
"We are not an anomaly, but this is not a good place to be," Hochul said.
State health commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett spoke about the spread of the omicron variant in the state. A total for 20 cases of omicron have been identified in the state, mostly from the New York City area, but it is all over the state. The variant is being spreading through community transmission.
"We know that in the state there are more undetected omicron cases as there also in the rest of the country," Bassett said.
Bassett emphasized that it is still too soon to know if it is more transmissible, if it causes severe disease, and if it is more lethal. The delta variant is still the dominant variant in the country.
Hochul was optimistic about wider availability of at-home testing kits. An additional 1 million test kits have been order for school district to help with their efforts to keep students in school.
The state was able to provide information about the cases per 100,000 in each region, a change from reporting about case percentages to adapt to increase in at-home testing occurring.
To help keep people out of the hospital and total cases down, Bassett and Hochul urged people to stay home if they are sick and continue wearing a mask.