New York state is recording double the positivity rates for Covid-19 compared with a month ago, as health experts at the weekend raised concerns over a new rise in infections.
The state reported another 661 cases on Saturday as the seven-day average positivity rate reached 0.79 per cent, nearly twice the record low of 0.4 per cent set last month.
“The positivity is rising due to an increase in the number of infections likely occurring among unvaccinated individuals,” Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiologist at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, told the Financial Times. “Positivity is higher in communities with lower vaccine uptake.”
Positivity rates in New York City and heavily populated Long Island already exceed 1 per cent. However, hospital admissions had nearly halved over the same period.
El-Sadr said the rate is likely to continue given the new variants circulating, “especially those that are more transmissible and if there is no further uptake of vaccinations and as less restrictions are in place in terms of limits on gathering size and easing of masking…
