(WBEN) - Tuesday was a "glimmer of hope" with regards to COVID-19 numbers across New York State, as Gov. Kathy Hochul provided her latest COVID-19 briefing from New York City.
"Yes, it is actually going downward," Hochul said when speaking of case numbers statewide. "48,686 positive cases yesterday, every one is one too many. I look forward to the day when that plummets even more so, but right now we have an 18.6% statewide positivity rate. ... It looks like we might be cresting over that peak. Cases are slowing down, the rate of increase is slowing down, but we're still high."
Meanwhile, the main area of concern for Hochul and the state continues to be surrounding hospitalizations.
As Hochul pointed out during the briefing, numbers continue to lag behind where the case numbers are. While the number of hospitalizations continue to grow, but the rate of increase is slowing, which the Governor calls "encouraging."
However, Hochul says that the number of patients currently hospitalized due to COVID-19 is still putting too much stress on the hospitals.
"We're still holding the line on the number of people in the hospital. Pre-Omicron it was about 27,000. Right now, it's 27,000. Hospital volume is still about the same, but if you look statewide, 43% are COVID [patients] and 57% are non-COVID patients," Hochul explained. "This is still a very high number of people in hospitals who need constant care, who need nurses, who need doctors, who need people to take care of them. ... If you subtracted out all the COVID patients, obviously our hospitals wouldn't be in trouble at all. We're not at that point. We're still looking at a situation that we're addressing very seriously."
Hochul also continues to stress people not to go to the emergency room of local hospitals to simply get tested for COVID-19. 20% of people at the emergency room are going simply to get a test, which is adding work to already overworked emergency room teams.
An area the state continues to be concerned with is the vaccination rates of kids and continual rise of pediatric hospitalizations for children. According to the latest numbers from the state, 91% of children newly admitted to hospitals are unvaccinated for COVID-19.
"This is the armor we need to wrap our children in as they go off to school, go off to play with their friends and engage in after school activities or sports," Hochul stressed.
As a result, the state is launching a new "Vax for Kids" initiative campaign, which will gear towards encouraging more parents to get their children vaccinated. Hochul says it's even important for older kids in the family to get vaccinated for COVID-19 to protect any younger siblings who are not eligible for a vaccine.
You can listen to Gov. Hochul's entire briefing below:
