East Farmingdale, NY- The Omicron variant of COVID-19 now accounts for 92% of positive cases in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands according to data released Monday by the CDC who also say Omicron is quickly taking over Delta’s place as the main coronavirus strain in the United States, accounting for 73% of all infections. Omicron was first discovered in the US less than a month ago. President Joe Biden, will address the nation today and lay out plans for how the US will handle the winter COVID-19 surge.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced Monday that the state will be keeping schools open this winter despite rising infection numbers, by sending millions of COVID-19 rapid test kits to school districts. The rapid tests from the state will be handed out to parents by school districts, as the state adapts to the CDC’s new guidelines to test and say in class if exposed to someone who tests positive for COVID-19.
New York State also plans to supply counties including Nassau and Suffolk with millions dollars to help ramp up COVID-19 vaccination & testing as well as the enforcement of the state’s mask mandate. The mask mandate will be reviewed on January 15, 2022.
Photo: FILE – Katie Lucey administers a COVID-19 test on her son Maguire at a PCR and Rapid Antigen COVID-19 coronavirus test pop up on Wall Street in New York on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. U.S. health officials are endorsing ‘test-to-stay’ policies that will allow close contacts of infected students to remain in classrooms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, Dec. 17, decided to more firmly embrace the approach, after research of such policies in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas found COVID-19 infections did not increase when schools switched to test-to-stay. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
