Mayor Bill de Blasio and top New York City health officials have urged residents to remain calm following a media report that a more infectious variant of coronavirus that is more resilient to vaccines was spreading rapidly in the city.
City officials were wary of a report in the New York Times on Wednesday that cited unpublished research papers from Columbia University and the California Institute of Technology that a new variant, known as B.1.526, appeared in late November and accounted for about 25 per cent of coronavirus genomes sequenced and deposited from New York during February. The studies have yet to be peer-reviewed.
“We shouldn’t assume the worst. We should say we need the proof,” de Blasio said at a press conference on Thursday.
Earlier in the morning, his press secretary said in a message on Twitter that while it was “great” academics were researching Covid-19 variants, “please, please for the love of all that is holy share the data with public health officials before you publicise pre-writes that still have track changes with the NY Times”.
While most of the US is experiencing a decline trends in new coronavirus cases and hospitalisations, New York appears to be lagging. It is one of just five states where the seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 people has fallen by less than two-thirds from its peak rate, according to a Financial Times analysis of Wednesday data from Covid Tracking Project. About 30 people per 100,000 are currently in hospitals across the state with coronavirus, the highest per capita rate in the country.
“We don’t have any evidence at this point that the New York variant is what is contributing to the trajectory of cases,” New York City health commissioner Dave Chokshi said in response to reporters’ questions about the new strain. Dr Chokshi also said cases may appear higher in New York City because it is more densely populated than other cities in the US and was also “testing much more than any other place”.
It should also be noted that New York was among the states that started their autumn-winter surge in cases and hospitalisations later than others, and so its seasonal highs for those metrics have occurred later than in other parts of the US, according to an FT analysis of Covid Tracking Project data.
California, for example, had its seven-day average peak at about 111 cases per 100,000 people on December 22 and is now down to about 14 per 100,000. New York reached a peak per capita rate of about 84 per 100,000 on January 12 and is now averaging about 36 per 100,000 per day. The Empire State’s per capita rate slides in behind top-ranked South Carolina (46 per 100,000), which reached its peak on January 9, and ahead of New Jersey (about 33 per 100,000), which peaked on January 13.
Jay Varma, senior advisor for public health in New York City, urged residents to be “a little sceptical” of news about new variants, as not all of them were problematic and not enough peer-reviewed research has been conducted on B.1.526. Varma urged New Yorkers to “continue doing all the things you have been doing”, such as following guidance on masks — perhaps wearing two — maintaining distance from people, washing hands and being tested.
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2021-02-25 17:24:28Z
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