Recent data says the New York City's COVID-19 infections have stabilized at a high level rather than declining.
NBC New York reported that a new and potentially deadly coronavirus outbreak appears to be beginning in New York City, largely driven by the highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.5.
COVID-19 infections in the city have stabilized at a high level rather than trending lower based on current data, according to Dr. Jay Varma, an infectious disease specialist and senior advisor for public health under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
"The decline of reported #COVID19 cases in NYC has stopped. Reported cases are at a high plateau, which means actual transmission is very high when you account for the >20x under-counting. This is likely the beginning of a BA.5 wave," Varma tweeted, per the news outlet.
"Experience from other countries means there will be another big increase in NYC #COVID19 infections, including among those who have had #Omicron in past few months," he continued.
According to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the test positivity rate in New York City reached 10.5% as of June 26, reported by ABC News. Since January 22, the rate hadn't gone beyond 10% till then. The true test positivity rate, however, might potentially be greater given that a number of patients who test positive for the virus using at-home quick tests do not inform health authorities of their findings.
As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), BA.5 accounts for nearly 37% of all COVID-19 cases in the United States, which is more than double the prevalence from the previous two weeks. They now account for more than half of all cases when combined with another highly contagious subvariant, BA.4.
"BA.4 and BA.5 have come out of nowhere the last two weeks." Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of the division of infectious diseases at New York-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, told ABC News. "They are more transmissible than the other recent variants we've seen, they're less susceptible to antibodies both from previous infection or from vaccination-but they don't seem to cause more severe disease," he added.
"As we move into the fall and winter, it is critical that we have safe and effective vaccine boosters that can provide protection against circulating and emerging variants to prevent the most severe consequences of COVID-19," Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA, in a statement he said.
