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Coronavirus Updates: NYC Surpasses Threshold Of 550 New COVID Cases

By

Elizabeth Kim

Published Oct 26, 2020

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A mural of Dr. Anthony Fauci dressed as a character from Star Trek is seen in New York City.

 

Andrew Schwartz/SIPA/Shutterstock

By

Elizabeth Kim

Published Oct 26, 2020

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This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Monday, October 26th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.

New York City is in Phase 4 of reopening now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and gyms. Certain parts of Brooklyn and Queens are under a zoned shutdown. A look at preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.

Here's the latest:

4 p.m. Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday reported 551 new coronavirus cases averaged over the last seven days, just one case above the city's warning threshold for indicating increasing spread of the virus.

Over the course of the pandemic, New York City has set several warning thresholds to monitor transmission. The new case threshold of 550 was added in August.

But despite the surge in cases that comes as neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens battle outbreaks, de Blasio said that the city's reopening status would remain unchanged. He said a policy reassessment would involve looking at all of the indicators, including hospitalizations and positivity, in conjunction with one another.

"We are looking at those numbers in combination," the mayor said during his morning press briefing.

The seven-day average COVID test positivity rate is currently at 1.74%, below the threshold of 5%. A total of 75 people were newly hospitalized with potential virus symptoms, also well below the threshold of 200.

"That means the overall picture is still good, but we have to be very, very vigilant," the mayor said. "We have to constantly be vigilant against a second wave."

De Blasio also said that the city had "seen progress in some of the zones of Brooklyn and Queens," where some neighborhoods are facing increased restrictions mandated by the state.

In the wake of the outbreaks, elected officials have been calling on the mayor to release daily test positivities by ZIP code as the health officials did last month as part of a public health alert, but de Blasio has not said whether the city would do so.

NY State COVID Hospitalizations Have More Than Doubled Since The Summer

The number of total hospitalizations in New York State due to COVID-19 recently surpassed 1,000, a critical indicator that is now more than double that of levels in late August.

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday reported 1,015 coronavirus hospitalizations statewide, the third day in a row where the number topped 1,000. Hospitalizations in New York City stood at 444, accounting for nearly half of the total.

Hospitalizations are considered a lagging indicator, which follow an uptick in cases. New York has been battling a resurgence of the virus, concentrated in parts of Brooklyn and Queens as well as several suburban counties. The state's seven-day rolling positivity average has climbed from 1.2% earlier this month to 1.3%.

Cuomo has tried to remind New Yorkers that despite increasing virus transmission, the state is still doing far better than the rest of the country. While total hospitalizations are increasing, their number is still far off from that of the peak in April, when nearly 19,000 people in the state were hospitalized at one point.

"Context is everything here," he told reporters on Sunday. "We're seeing a real national surge and we are battling that national surge, that national high-tide, right?"

"So far, we are defying the national tide," he added.

The hospitalization trend in New York is reflective of a broader trend across the United States, where the spread of the virus is setting caseload records in several states. More than 41,000 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized in the country, a 40 percent rise in the past month, according to the New York Times.

On Sunday, county authorities in El Paso, Texas imposed a curfew as ICU beds reached capacity on Saturday. In addition, city health officials asked residents to stay home for the next two weeks in an attempt the slow the spread of the virus. Cases in that city have soared from 259 to 786 in less than three weeks, marking a 300% increase.

Meanwhile, hospitals in Utah are expected to begin rationing care in a few weeks, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The state last week set record high hospitalization numbers several times last week.

Greg Bell, president of the Utah Hospital Association, told the paper that he warned the governor on Thursday. “I told the governor, ‘It’s gonna happen. We’re going to be back here asking for crisis standards,'" he said.

The state is seeing a weeklong average of 1,355 new cases per day.

Experts have pointed out that the third wave is sweeping the nation at the worst possible moment, with the holidays on the horizon and Thanksgiving family gatherings a few weeks away.

“We are set up for just a perfect storm — a conflagration,” Megan Ranney, an emergency medicine professor at Brown University, told the Washington Post. “Right now, you can talk about there being lots of little burning fires across the country. And then Thanksgiving will be the wind that will whip this fire up into an absolute human disaster for our country.”

Tagged

covid-19 updates

coronavirus

Elizabeth Kim

Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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