New York reports 22,000 new Covid cases – but hospitals say they can cope

New York state reported on Saturday that nearly 22,000 people tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday – eclipsing Thursday for the highest single-day total for new cases since testing became widely available. Amid fears over the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, more than half of the positive results were in the city.

The Rockettes on Friday canceled remaining performances of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, citing “increasing challenges from the pandemic”. Saturday Night Live taped without an audience and with reduced crew. Lines at some testing sites stretched around the block and at-home tests remained hard to find or pricier than usual.

But new hospitalizations and deaths are averaging well below their spring 2020 peak and even where they were this time last year, during a winter wave that came as vaccinations were just beginning, city data shows.

Mount Sinai Health System emergency rooms had seen about 20% more patients – with all conditions – in recent days, according to Dr Eric Legome, who oversees two of the network’s seven ERs. But at least so far, he said, “We’re seeing a lot more treat-and-release” coronavirus patients than in earlier waves.

Many are looking for tests, help with mild or moderate symptoms, or monoclonal antibody treatment, but very few require oxygen or a hospital stay, said Legome.

Hospital admissions and deaths tend to rise and fall weeks after cases do. But Dr Fritz François, chief of hospital operations for NYU Langone Health, says so far, “We’re actually seeing something different” than in previous surges.

For one thing, Covid patients are going home a bit quicker, he said.

NYU Langone has seen a small uptick in patients with Covid, now about 80 in its several hospitals in New York City and Long Island. That’s about 80% less than the tally at the top of last winter’s wave, François said.

NYU Langone keeps refreshing its plans to handle a surge if it comes, but such preparedness is just “the new normal”, he said.

At the sprawling Northwell Health system, too, “we’ll be prepared to do it again if it happens” but vaccinations and nearly two years of experience make for a different picture now, said Dr John D’Angelo, chief of integrated operations.

“I’m confident we’ll get through this, but there are some challenges this time around that I think we’re going to have to think through a bit carefully,” he said.

Among them: The possibility of more staffers being out sick or in quarantine as Omicron spreads at a time when many hospitals around the US have been short on staff, for various reasons. Northwell dismissed about 1,400 people – about 2% of its staff – early this fall for refusing to get vaccinated. Still, D’Angelo said it has enough staff to handle projected needs.

Northwell, the state’s largest private healthcare system with nearly two dozen hospitals in and around New York City, had about 400 Covid-positive patients as of Friday – up from around 300 a few weeks ago but a fraction of the 1,350 at one point last January, to say nothing of the 3,500 in early spring 2020.

About a quarter are vaccinated, up from about 10%-15% a month ago. Most are people with underlying health problems, D’Angelo said.

The New York-Presbyterian hospital system said it has seen “a slow but steady” increase in Covid-19 admissions, but all its hospitals are operating normally.