New York, NJ currently has the highest COVID-19 infection rate

New York and New Jersey currently have the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the country.

The Empire State has averaged 548 cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days, with 647 cases surpassing Garden State.

Despite vaccination efforts, New York has not seen a dramatic reduction in infectious diseases. Since mid-February, the average number of cases per day has been about 50,000.

Crossing the Hudson River in New Jersey, the number of new infections increased by 37% in just over a month to about 23,600 every seven days.

New York has the highest positive test rates in Orange County and Rockland County. According to state health ministry data, they are 6.7% and 6.2%, respectively. Just below that are the Bronx County, which currently has a positive rate of 5.5%, and the Suffolk County, which has a positive rate of 5.4%.

Throughout the state, Saturday’s positive rate was 4.1 percent.

The highest number of new infections recorded on Saturday in New York was Queens and Brooklyn, with 1,661 and 1,547 new cases recorded, respectively. Cases increased in both of these counties last week, but the numbers are still lower than in January, during the post-vacation surge.

Even when New York continues to relax its coronavirus restrictions, a disturbing trend comes.

Governor Andrew Cuomo recently invited Mayor Bill de Blasio to reopen the state’s largest stadium with limited capacity for sporting events and concerts, allowing him to resume indoor fitness classes at Big Apple.

Mark Levine, chairman of the city council’s health committee, called for additional vaccines to be sent to states that have been hit hard by a variant of the virus that local authorities have accused of stubborn infection rates on Sunday. It was.

“It’s in the national interest to slow this wave, which means we’re sending more supplies to the variant hotspots,” he said. Written on twitter..

Meanwhile, New York City public advocate Jumani Williams urged Cuomo to blame the suspension of the reopening plan.

“I ask the governor to stick to science, trust the experts, suspend the planned resumption now, and then let them come into effect and become more infected,” Williams said.

Immunization rates are improving weekly, but little is known about whether the person receiving the injection can infect the virus, said Northwell Health’s Head of Infectious Diseases and Public Health and Epidemiology. Bruce Faber said.

“It’s a mistake to allow larger groups to come together and give the general message that we can overcome the worst and get back to normal,” Farber said.

Experts say new variants of the virus appearing in New York and New Jersey may be part of the problem.

“What’s happening in this part of the country compared to the rest of the country?” Asked Dr. Ed Rifsitz, director of medical services for infectious diseases in New Jersey within the State Department of Health. It was. “And the answer is probably yes.”

Unique to the Empire State Homemade variants are widely distributed In the region — in addition to other related strains from around the world that are understood to be more contagious.

However, deregulation does not always appear to correlate with rising infection rates. Even after Texas has abolished mask obligations and all social distance requirements, Texas cases are declining.

Governor of Texas Greg Abbott on Saturday Presentation The state “recorded a record low” with a 7-day COVID positive rate of 5.27%.

According to Abbott, hospitalization rates have fallen below 6% in five days and below 10% in a month, but hospitalizations are at their lowest level since early October.

But nationally, cases are starting to increase again — data show after cases declined in early March and then leveled off.

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci blamed the lifting of restrictions on both variants and the state.

“Variants play a role, but they’re not entirely variants. We’re most likely seeing them because of spring break or the withdrawal of mitigation methods you’ve seen,” he said. I mentioned in “Face the Nation”.

“Currently, some states are doing that. I think it’s premature. If you come down from a big mountain, reach a point and start reaching a plateau, staying on that plateau is really dangerous. I’ve said many times that it’s been done. There is a possibility of a surge. “

With post wire