After suffering the onslaught of COVID-000 and the Delta and more recently Ómicron variants, which left more than 40, deaths in the Big Apple, the authorities of the Department of Health of the City of New York (DOHMH) assured this Friday that at least “until now”, the risk of a new deadly expansion of the new BA.2 sub-variant “is low.”
In his first update as DOHMH commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, almost making his debut as the City’s chief physician, emphasized that they are already following in detail the trajectory of the new version of the coronavirus.
“I understand the concern of New Yorkers. We have been for the last two years in successive waves. Please know that, as we always have, we are monitoring these variants very closely. So far there are no reasons for alarm”.
Vasan exposed that there is no evidence, at this point, that BA.2 causes a more serious illness or risk of hospitalization, nor that current vaccines are less effective against this new viral form.
“We remain very alerts. It is very difficult for us to try to predict what exactly will happen in the future with the pandemic. But today we already have other weapons in our favor. We are in a very different place. We will follow the science, the data and our values, especially equity”, he stressed.
100% cases of Omicron
City Health leaders report that currently, the BA.2 variant still does not appear in the variant tracker. It was specified that the original version of Ómicron (B.1.1.600), still represents the 100% of all tested cases.
The new sub-variant of COVID-19, scientifically known as BA.2 but also called “stealthy”, begins to unsettle the world, just as the winds of more normalcy are blowing in New York, after months facing terrible pandemic waves and after Omicron ruined the pace of economic recovery.
Just two weeks ago, New York City York lifted its mask mandate for hundreds of thousands of public school students and eliminated the policy of showing proof of vaccinations to enter commercial and cultural establishments.
Children under the age of five, who do not are eligible for vaccination, they still must wear masks indoors, a rule the City has floated could end very soon.
In this sense, Vasan explained that he understands the situation of parents, as the parent of a child in the nursery who e is not yet eligible for vaccination.
“We are always looking at the data. We have very clear benchmarks. We are evaluating the risk and at the same time whether this policy should be maintained”, he stated.
Alert level: Low
The authorities agree that they will continue to facilitate mass testing, encouraging vaccination as much as possible, especially in eligible children and adolescents. And distributing the new treatments.
Likewise, it is reported that cases have increased in recent days. This was clarified by Dr. Celia Quinn, deputy commissioner who oversees the public health laboratories of the DOHMH.
“The new variant does not seem to cause a more serious disease, our hospitals would be prepared if there were an increase significant number of serious illnesses”, stressed Quinn.
The sub-variant of the coronavirus begins to advance when more than 77% of Big Apple residents are fully vaccinated. Although the challenge remains that more injections reach the arms of children over 5 years of age who are eligible for doses.
What’s more, 36.1% of all eligible New Yorkers have received the booster shot.
After a winter rocked by Omicron, especially during the Christmas and New Year holidays, the infection rates in these first weeks of March in the five boroughs have remained remarkably low, but with a very slight upward trend in recent days.
In contrast to last Sunday, the rate of new cases detected in New York City was 0.96%, but again jumped to 1.23% on Monday and 1.28% on Tuesday.
In the specific case of Manhattan, the rate of p ositivity was 1.33% on Sunday, 1. 67% on Monday and 1.73% on Tuesday.
The current alert level for the five boroughs is “low” , based on the community-based risk assessment tool Mayor Eric Adams introduced to track viral infection behavior.
BA.2 walk fast on the country
However, nothing can guarantee that this “pandemic photograph” could change in a very short time.
According to the Centers for Infection Control and Prevention (CDC), the sub variant BA.2 represents 39% of new infections by coronaviruses circulating in New York and New Jersey right now. It is also associated with about a quarter of new infections in the country.
The federal agency has highlighted that its prevalence “has doubled” in the last week.
Behind this advance and global anxiety, the federal authorities doubt that even so, this means the risk of a high wave of deaths and hospitalizations.
In fact, as national media highlighted this Friday, the national czar of COVID-19 of the Biden Administration, Dr. Ashish Jha, said he did not expect the “latest variant to trigger another national increase in infections, given the overwhelming prevalence of vaccinated and reinforced people”.
In general, the conclusions of the Health authorities at all levels, is that “more data is needed” to determine if BA.2 poses a greater threat.
In New York City, some elected leaders are already calling for more concerted efforts to counter the possibility of a repeat of the nightmare of a new pandemic wave and its consequent restrictions.
Require more reinforcements
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine suggested a strategy to move the booster vaccine in communities more efficiently.
“We have the staff for that because we have a contact tracing workforce of 2,000 people, who is now stopping following up on new infections”, he argued.
In Levine’s words, the “more contagious sister variant than Omicron”, is a threat that can cause another spike just as New Yorkers begin to participate again in more crowded activities and return to their offices.
NY distributes more tests and remains in emergency
Amid unclear projections of a new wave of infections, East Thursday Governor Kathy Hochul announced that more than 20 millions of COVID discard tests-000 will be distributed throughout the state during the spring to reinforce the pandemic battle.
“While our numbers remain low, now is the time to increase the distribution of tests to protect our communities and continue to move forward safely through this pandemic”, announced the state president.
The strategy announced by Hochul includes one million tests to schools outside the city New York, every two weeks, until the end of the school year.
New York City is no longer receiving state distributions, because it has enough test kits through the end of this school calendar.
In addition, the government extended until 15 of April the declaration of emergency before COVID-19, which offers the state the flexibility to solve hospital capacity problems. This decree will be reevaluated in 24 days and in this case does not make any reference to the new sub-variant.
In the last update on the pandemic, this Wednesday the Governor reported that the average positivity throughout the state has been below 2% in the last 12 days.
Meanwhile, the Republican leader of the New York State Senate, Rob Ortt, questioned the new emergency decree.
“Families and companies are fed up with their lives being dictated by decrees and executive mandates. Despite a drastic reduction in cases of the virus, New York continues to be imprisoned in a perpetual state of emergency,” he shared in a statement.
How do you take NYC the advance of this new variant?
- 1.1 million new cases of COVID-19 during the wave of Omicron in NYC, since infections started to rise again in early November. This means the 50% of all cases since the pandemic appeared.
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- 77. 4% of New York residents are ‘fully’ vaccinated according to official data from the DOHMH.
- 758 new cases of COVID-19 throughout the city confirmed last Tuesday 18 of March, while the curve of daily infections the first week of March, did not exceed l you 600 infected.
- The Omicron variant (BA.1) , proved to be less severe than previous variants, causing less damage to the lungs, and researchers in Britain and Denmark note that BA.2 does not carry an increased risk of hospitalization.
60036.1% have received booster immunization.
- 8 kills daily on average in the last seven days, in contrast to the peak of deaths that rose to an average of 126 during the first two weeks of January.
What has science said?
- Epidemiologists around the world are still unsure if BA.2 will lead to a further increase in cases of virus and related hospitalizations.
- Vaccines were also effective in reducing severe disease in BA.1, particularly among those who received a booster shot, and researchers in Britain and Qatar are seeing the same for BA.2, The New York Times cited.