Governor Kathy Hochul held a press conference Jan. 7 addressing the recent COVID-19 surge caused by the Omicron variant, reiterating the precautionary measures she has put in place to protect New York residents as well as updating the public on COVID related developments.
“Before the holidays, we predicted a spike in cases and we got that spike in cases,” Hochul said. “Every day that we can flatten that, is going to be a good day.”
Moving on to statewide hospitalization capacity numbers, Hochul expresses concern, and suggested that these numbers were usually a “lagging indicator” with hospitalization numbers beginning to trend upward, “following the upward trajectory of cases”. With this lag, Hochul said that eventually hospitalizations should see a plateau in late January or early February as COVID experts predict the Omicron variant’s peak by then.
