NEW YORK (WBEN) -- COVID-19 cases in New York continued to skyrocket Thursday, with reported cases reaching figures not seen since early this year.
New York's latest virus figures showed 11,300 new COVID-19 cases, the highest total since Jan. 29, when last winter's surge in cases began to decline.
The state's seven-day virus positivity rate is now at 4.61%. That's after that figure was in the low 2% range in October.
COVID-related hospitalizations climbed above 3,000 Wednesday, and now went up an additional 71 patients Thursday, sitting at 3,093.
Exactly one month ago, New York's virus hospitalizations were around 1,900.
The state reported 49 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the reported total to 46,623.
The continued rise comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul asked residents to remain calm in the face of the omicron variant.
Minnesota's Department of Health said Thursday that the state has a confirmed case of the COVID-19 omicron variant -- in an adult male resident who was recently in New York City to attend an event at the Javits Center.
"The information is still evolving, but we understand that this individual, while they were vaccinated, they have very mild symptoms and in fact those symptoms have already resolved," said Hochul.
Mayor Bill de Blasio asked anyone who attended the AnimeNYC conference in November to get tested for COVID-19. He added that the conference required masks and vaccinations.
New York crossed 30,000,000 total vaccine doses administered Thursday, while New York City reported 1,000,000 booster doses administered so far as of Wednesday.
Across the state, 78.4% of all New Yorkers have gotten at least a single vaccine dose, according to CDC figures.
