(Bloomberg) -- New York state reported 11,300 new Covid-19 cases, the most since January, as dozens of hospitals neared capacity.
Total patients hospitalized for the virus have climbed by more than 1,000 in a month, reaching 3,093 on Wednesday. As of Thursday, 56 hospitals in the state had a bed capacity of 10% or less, including Albany Medical Center Hospital, Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, Long Island Jewish Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, according to the state health department.
Governor Kathy Hochul last week issued an executive order, which takes effect Friday, allowing state officials to limit non-essential hospital procedures in an effort to increase bed capacity and address staffing shortages.
Hospitals in New York with less than 10% capacity would be targeted. Not all of the 56 will be affected by the final guidance, and the health department said it continues to work with the hospital systems.
New York is not the only state seeing the effects of a colder-weather virus surge and holiday gatherings. Hospital admissions are higher in 39 states, stressing the U.S. health-care system. The seven-day average of hospital admissions with confirmed Covid-19 has climbed 18% in the past two weeks to 6,691, the highest since Oct. 13, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data.
Read more here: Delta Sends Hospital Admissions Up in 39 States as Omicron Lands
New York's surge is the worst in Western New York and the Finger Lakes, which both have positive test rates of more than 10%. New York City, which has fared the best so far, saw its rate jump above 2% on Thursday.
Hochul during a Covid-19 briefing on Thursday urged New Yorkers to get vaccinated, saying the rise in cases and hospitalizations are the result of people not getting the vaccine.
“We're not anywhere near where we were in 2020, but we never want to get anywhere close,” Hochul said.
As of Thursday, 66.7% of all New Yorkers are fully vaccinated.
The state has not yet identified a Covid-19 patient with the new omicron variant, but a Minnesota resident who traveled to a crowded New York City convention ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday was the second omicron case in the U.S.
Read more: NYC Convention Visitor From Minnesota Tests Positive for Omicron
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