New York is experiencing a surge of COVID-19 cases as it was revealed that a recent visitor to the state tested positive for the Omicron variant.
The state recorded 11,300 new cases on Thursday, the highest single-day total since January, when the nation was in the midst of the devastating third wave.
It comes hours after a Minnesota man who had attended the Anime NYC convention last month in Manhattan was found to have been infected with the Omicron variant.
While no cases of the variant have been detected in the state yet, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that it is likely others in the city have been infected as well.
New York state recorded 11,300 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest total since a massive winter surge in January 2021. The increase comes after a case of the Omicron variant in Minnesota was tied to an anime convention held in New York City last month
Less than 4% of positive COVID-19 tests in New York are sequenced to find what variant they are of, meaning it is possible that existing Omicron cases have so far gone undetected. Pictured: Two men in New York City, New York, take COVID-19 tests on December 1
The variant was discovered by South African health officials last week, and while not much is known about it yet, it is was recently found to be 2.4 times more infectious than previous variant.
Due to its high number of mutations, it's also believed to be vaccine evasive, though cases have mostly been very mild.
January 31 was the last time New York recorded more than 11,200 cases in a single day, as a disastrous early 2021 Covid surge begin to wind to an end.
COVID-19 infection have nearly doubled over the past week, from around 5,500 new cases a day on November 19, to more than 11,300 on Thursday.
While the state did experience an uptick of cases during the summer Delta wave, the early autumn season has already topped the high of around 6,000 cases per day over the summer.
Currently, New York sequences under four percent of positive Covid tests, meaning that any Omicron cases among the 96 percent that are not sequenced would not be detected.
The state, and specifically New York City, is on high alert now after news of a man who recently traveled to the city having the variant.
Minnesota health officials revealed on Thursday that a man from Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, was discovered to have the second case of Omicron found in the U.S.
The man attended Anime NYC last week, a three day event that ran from November 19 to 21 at the Javits Center in Lower Manhattan - along with around 53,000 attendees from around the nation.
He returned to Minnesota, and began feeling symptoms of Covid on November 22.
Two days later, on November 24, he tested positive for Covid.
Gov Kathy Hochul (pictured) told New Yorkers to get vaccinated and wear masks when possible to protect themselves from the new Omicron variant after a Minnesota case was tied to a New York City event
Officials
