NEW YORK (WBEN) -- New York state reported Friday that just over 21,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 the previous day, the highest single-day total for new cases since testing became widely available.
New York's latest case count was 21,027 Friday, breaking the previous high 19,942, set back in January. That's up by nearly 3,000 cases from just yesterday.
The state positivity rate has continued to balloon, now at 7.98%, up 1.4% from yesterday, and over 5% higher than the figure was this time last week.
COVID-related hospitalizations continued to rise, now up to 3,839. In late October, that number dropped below 2,000.
Sixty new COVID deaths were reported, only slightly higher than what was recorded Thursday.
One-day snapshots of virus statistics can be an unreliable way to measure trends, but the new record punctuated a steady increase that started in the western part of the state in late October, and has taken off in New York City in the past week as the omicron variant spreads.
"This is changing so quickly. The numbers are going up exponentially by day," Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a Friday appearance on CNN.
The steep rise in infections should be of great concern but it was inevitable, given the quick spread of the newest variant, said Dr. Denis Nash, the executive director of the Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health at the City University of New York.
"We were already headed for a winter surge with delta, which is a very concerning thing in its own right," Nash said.
"But then you layer on top of that the new omicron variant, which is more transmissible from an infection standpoint," he said, noting that current vaccines may be unable to contain the "more invasive" new variant
Lines at COVID-19 testing centers have grown to massive lengths in parts of the state as numbers rise and with Christmas just over a week away.
Daily case counts have flown above 9,000 for much of December, but hitting over 20,000 is a new, unfortunate record.
During the peak of the first wave of COVID-19 in March and April 2020, the highest figure recorded was just above 10,000, although with much fewer testing resources available.
Those figures again peaked in January 2021, but never over 20,000. On the previous record day, Jan. 14, over 324,000 people were tested for a positivity rate of 6.1%. On Friday, there were over 263,000 tests recorded.
534 new COVID-19 cases confirmed for December 16 by ECDOH. 3,633 total cases over the past 7 days. 381 total new cases per 100,000 Erie County residents over past 7 days. Total cases through December 16: 136,601. @HealthNYGov data at https://t.co/bUCPJy0NcZ
— Erie County Department of Health 😷 (@ECDOH) December 17, 2021
Positivity: 7.6% /1
