Despite having some of the strictest Covid-19 restrictions in the US, New York State has suffered more than 60,000 deaths from coronavirus, new data reveals.

While the Health Department is only officially reporting 47,492 Covid-19 deaths, a more complete tally – based on death certificate data reported by state and city health officials – shows that there have been at least 60,253 Covid-19 deaths in New York State.

Despite the grim death toll, the silver lining is that the death rate of infected patients in New York has dropped significantly since the early days of the pandemic due to being either vaccinated or having built up immunity from a prior infection.

The hospitalization rate is also far lower. Despite infection records being set in recent days, there were 3,909 Covid-19 hospitalizations in New York as of Friday, in stark contrast to a year ago, when there were 8,000 to 9,000 Covid-19 hospitalizations.

But some health officials warn that, despite a lower percentage of infected individuals requiring hospitalizations, New York hospitals could still become overwhelmed soon due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

“Even if Omicron is less severe, unless it’s lots less severe, it could double the current already-high US death rate to 2000-per-day or more by mid-February. There’s a major risk that hospitals will be overwhelmed in the next two months,” warned former CDC Director and ex-New York City Health Commissioner Tom Frieden.

“Bottom line: Omicron is still Covid, it’s still capable of doing damage to your body. And it’s still capable of overwhelming our health systems. It’s shaping up to be a hard winter. Get vaccinated and boosted ASAP,” Frieden said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)