NYC Mayor says city is winning the war against omicron as cases dip

New York City is winning the war against the highly contagious omicron Covid-19 variant as cases trend down, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday morning.

New York City’s seven-day average of new cases has dropped below 20,000, less than half of the peak from earlier January when cases averaged nearly 43,000, Adams told reporters at a press conference. The city also reported a decrease in Covid hospitalizations, falling from about 6,500 patients on Jan. 11 to about 5,800 as of Sunday.

“Let’s be clear on this,” Adams said, “we are winning and we are going to win because we are resilient.”

Areas that originally saw a surge in omicron are starting to report a slowing number of cases. South Africa and the United Kingdom, for example, saw an initial steep rise in cases that has slowed in recent weeks. Now, some health experts are predicting the omicron wave will trend back down in the U.S. about as quickly as it shot up, with some expecting relatively low cases by February or March.

The U.S. on Monday logged an average of about 685,000 new Covid cases a day over the last week, down by about 10% over the previous week, according to data compiled by John’s Hopkins University.

Still, city officials urged the public to remain vigilant against the virus.

“Let me be clear, these numbers are still very high meaning community transmission remains widespread, and we will need to follow these trends closely over the coming days and weeks,” Dr. Dave Chokshi, NYC health commissioner, said at the press conference.