NEW YORK (WBEN) – New York reported another case of the highly contagious COVID variant on Saturday as the state's hospitalizations increased.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a 17th case of the variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, was found in Tompkins County upstate.
Two cases of the variant have been reported in New York City. Two cases were also found in both Nassau and Suffolk counties, respectively. The first case in the state was found in Saratoga Springs earlier this month.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Friday that the variant could become the dominant strain in the United States by March.
While the mutant strain isn't believed to be more deadly, it is more transmissible, which could lead to more cases and, thus, more deaths, officials have warned.
New York reported 15,998 more cases on Saturday, a drop from the record 19,942 cases reported on Friday.
The 15,998 new cases were out of 277,286 tests. The state's positivity rate dropped from 6.14% to 5.77%.
Hospitalizations increased by 80 patients to 8,888, Cuomo said. That includes 1,144 newly admitted patients and 949 discharges.
The number of patients in intensive care rose by 10 to 1,580, while the number of intubated patients increased by 21 to 983.
The state reported 157 more deaths. The death toll is now 32,725.
COVID-19 cases for Jan. 15: 592 new cases were confirmed by @ECDOH out of 11,994 diagnostic reports received for a daily positivity rate of 4.9%. The 7-day positivity rate average is 5.9%. Total cases through Jan. 15 are now 50,351. pic.twitter.com/uzKKFNMqhr
— Erie County Department of Health 😷 (@ECDOH) January 16, 2021
Positivity rate by region
