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In the past three weeks, there have been 366 new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals in Nassau and Suffolk counties, the most of any region in the state outside of New York City.
Currently, there are 538 reported COVID-19 hospitalizations on Long Island.
The 212.79 percent increase during that span was the fourth highest in the state, behind only Western New York, Mohawk Valley, and the Finger Lakes.
“These are alarming percentages,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday, Dec. 2. “If you adjust for population, Long Island is very high by population, and it’s important to see the numbers (both in total hospitalizations and percent of increase of new patients) because the hospital capacity is roughly relative to the population of the region.
“Looking now (at hospitalizations) region by region, and you see that over the last three weeks it’s the same basic curve on every region in the state. The numbers are going up statewide.”
Cuomo said that “there’s another (COVID-19) mountain to climb,” but that the good news is that “the goal line is in sight, and the goal line is a vaccine that we can administer and people will accept.”
“The good news is that we’re starting at a much better place than the other states,” Cuomo added. “We have a much lower percentage of hospitalizations, a lower percentage of hospitalization increases, less burden on our hospitals pro-rata, and less of a hospital emergency than other states.”
On Tuesday, Dec. 1, there were 193,551 COVID-19 administered in New York, resulting in a 4.63 percent positive infection rate. There were 150 new hospitalizations statewide, with 24 more patients placed in the ICU and 25 placed in intubation. Sixty-nine new COVID-19 fatalities were reported.
“Before we’re even feeling the effects of the holiday season, we’re seeing a rise in hospitalizations all across the state,” Cuomo previously said. “And it’s not a situation where it is only happening in one part of the state and we can shift resources from one part of the state to the other.
“We’re going to have a limited ability to bring resources from upstate to downstate, or downstate to upstate like we did in the spring,” he added. “Literally every region is dealing with a hospital issue now.”
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