New York Could Be Days Away From More COVID Restrictions

Gov. Kathy Hochul said New York's "not in a good place" in its fight with COVID and she's days away from possibly adding more COVID restrictions.

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On Monday, Hochul confirmed 51,698 new COVID positive test results. That number is below the record-breaking number reported earlier this week, but Hochul believes the number could be an undercount due to the holiday weekend.

“Those numbers are going to be much higher tomorrow,” Hochul said Monday. “These numbers are rather shocking when you think about where we are.”

Hochul reported 103 more New Yorkers died from COVID in the past 24 hours, that's a number New York hasn't seen in quite some time.

“We are not in a good place,” Gov. Hochul said. “I’ll be honest with you. This is the winter surge we were expecting. There’s a lot of human interactions, and what happens they interact? They spread the virus.”

Hochul also announced 9,563 are currently hospitalized across New York with COVID. It marks the first time the number has been this high since very early in the pandemic. New York has seen about a 200 percent increase in hospitalizations in the past month.

On Tuesday, Hochul announced 23.17 percent of COVID tests in the past 24 hours came back positive. The 7-day average percent positive has increased to 21.49 percent. New York hasn't reported a number that high since April 2020.

Last week, Hochul extended COVID mask rules. The indoor mask mandate was set to expire on Jan. 15 but Hochul has extended it to at least Feb. 1.

Hochul has hinted more COVID restrictions could be announced very soon.

"We could see a drop soon in our hospital capacity. And at that point, we'll be deciding whether we need to take wider steps and we're ready to do it. We have the plans in place, we're just watching this for a couple more days to see what those steps might," Hochul said.

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