Long Island's COVID-19 positivity rate: What to know about the latest data
The latest state numbers show that Long Island's positivity rate for COVID-19 has fallen to 3.99% from a high for the year so far on Jan. 3 of about 10.1% Credit: Getty Images/Spencer Platt
Long Island's seven-day average COVID-19 positivity rate sits at 3.99% as of test results from Monday, according to the state Department of Health, a number that's below the statewide figure and about a 6 percentage-point drop from the year's high after the New Year's weekend.
COVID-19 hospitalizations on Long Island have also declined since the start of the year, according to the state.
On Feb. 17, the last date available, there were 264 total patients hospitalized, compared to 912 on Jan. 3, when the seven-day positivity rate for the Island was at about 10%. Statewide, the average positivity rate stood at 4.25% on Monday.
Health experts on Long Island cautioned against viewing the latest COVID-19 numbers as reason to believe the virus no longer poses a threat — particularly to the elderly and those with compromised immune systems — and urged people to get the updated boosters for protection against a disease that "has not gone away."
State health officials noted that the latest figures on positivity rates included only PCR lab tests reported to the department, not self-administered at-home tests. That makes them a potentially significant undercount, experts said.
"Since mid-December, the number of cases and the number of hospitalizations have gone down … thank goodness," said Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious disease specialist at Northwell Health.
"The surge that we were afraid of after Christmas and the New Year's holiday did not materialize," Hirsch said. "COVID has been apparently decreasing. I say apparently because we don't have quite the understanding of [the disease's prevalence] because so many of us either don't test or test at home."
According to the state, 84.7% of people in Nassau and 76.7% in Suffolk have completed their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines, while a much smaller fraction are up to date on the COVID-19 bivalent booster shots. Only 12.6% in Nassau and 12.3% in Suffolk had received the bivalent booster shots as of Feb. 17.
That's one of the reasons the region "remains, in some ways, vulnerable," said Sean Clouston, an epidemiologist and associate professor of public health at Stony Brook University.
"We're in a better place now than two or three years ago," Clouston said, but COVID-19 "still hasn't gone away."
Clouston said another factor that makes the region vulnerable to the virus is "we're not really doing anything about it. People have gotten some vaccines, but they're not up to date on boosters. There is a reduction in mortality from each additional dose. So, the fact that booster shots are so uncommon is actually a problem." And, he said, "We're not really doing much to protect ourselves anymore. Some people are wearing masks, but as a whole individual choice."
Asked Hirsch: "Don't we have a responsibility to those who are older, who are weaker, whose immune systems are more compromised? … What COVID tells us is that anybody who's sick on the planet can affect the health of the individual right next to us."
Long Island's seven-day average COVID-19 positivity rate sits at 3.99% as of test results from Monday, according to the state Department of Health, a number that's below the statewide figure and about a 6 percentage-point drop from the year's high after the New Year's weekend.
COVID-19 hospitalizations on Long Island have also declined since the start of the year, according to the state.
On Feb. 17, the last date available, there were 264 total patients hospitalized, compared to 912 on Jan. 3, when the seven-day positivity rate for the Island was at about 10%. Statewide, the average positivity rate stood at 4.25% on Monday.
Health experts on Long Island cautioned against viewing the latest COVID-19 numbers as reason to believe the virus no longer poses a threat — particularly to the elderly and those with compromised immune systems — and urged people to get the updated boosters for protection against a disease that "has not gone away."
State health officials noted that the latest figures on positivity rates included only PCR lab tests reported to the department, not self-administered at-home tests. That makes them a potentially significant undercount, experts said.
"Since mid-December, the number of cases and the number of hospitalizations have gone down … thank goodness," said Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious disease specialist at Northwell Health.
"The surge that we were afraid of after Christmas and the New Year's holiday did not materialize," Hirsch said. "COVID has been apparently decreasing. I say apparently because we don't have quite the understanding of [the disease's prevalence] because so many of us either don't test or test at home."
According to the state, 84.7% of people in Nassau and 76.7% in Suffolk have completed their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines, while a much smaller fraction are up to date on the COVID-19 bivalent booster shots. Only 12.6% in Nassau and 12.3% in Suffolk had received the bivalent booster shots as of Feb. 17.
That's one of the reasons the region "remains, in some ways, vulnerable," said Sean Clouston, an epidemiologist and associate professor of public health at Stony Brook University.
"We're in a better place now than two or three years ago," Clouston said, but COVID-19 "still hasn't gone away."
Clouston said another factor that makes the region vulnerable to the virus is "we're not really doing anything about it. People have gotten some vaccines, but they're not up to date on boosters. There is a reduction in mortality from each additional dose. So, the fact that booster shots are so uncommon is actually a problem." And, he said, "We're not really doing much to protect ourselves anymore. Some people are wearing masks, but as a whole individual choice."
Asked Hirsch: "Don't we have a responsibility to those who are older, who are weaker, whose immune systems are more compromised? … What COVID tells us is that anybody who's sick on the planet can affect the health of the individual right next to us."
