New York Omicron cases rise to eight as official warns of community spread

INA - SOURCES 

New York announced three more cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the number of state cases linked to the new variant to eight.

“The Omicron variant is here, and as anticipated we are seeing the beginning of community spread,” the state health commissioner, Mary Bassett, said.

Seven of the cases have been found in New York City and one in Suffolk county.
The arrival of Omicron comes as hospitals statewide strain under a surge in coronavirus cases, most traced to the Delta variant, along with staffing shortages.

The number of people testing positive statewide each day for the virus has doubled in the last 30 days.

Governor Kathy Hochul has authorized the health department to limit non-essential, non-urgent procedures at hospitals close to running out of beds and deployed national guard teams to relieve healthcare workers at facilities dealing with staffing issues and surging caseloads.

Fifteen members of the national guard arrived at Monroe community hospital in Rochester on Saturday, WROC reported. The lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, said on Wednesday the state would send 13 national guard teams to the western New York county, where the county executive, Adam Bello, has declared a state of emergency.

New York’s Omicron cases so far appear unrelated, Hochul said. One of the known cases involved a man from Minnesota who was among 50,000 people who attended a three-day anime festival in New York in November.

Authorities have urged anyone who attended the conference to get tested for Covid-19 and wear a mask in public.