New York State’s positivity rate for the coronavirus jumped to 8.3% , according to the latest numbers released by Governor Andrew Cuomo Monday. The news comes as the state continues its vaccine roll out, and the Governor is withholding scheduled pay raises for all state elected officials.
After hovering around five and a half percent for several days, Cuomo says on Sunday the positivity rate was 8.33%. He says the numbers could be an aberration, because around 100,000 fewer New Yorkers received test results on December 27th. He speculates that before Christmas, there was a boom in healthy people seeking COVID-19 tests before visiting friends or relatives. Now that has ended, and he says perhaps the smaller number of people seeking tests after the holiday were exhibiting virus related symptoms.
“So the sample is artificially skewed,” Cuomo said. “The number of positive cases didn’t go up, it’s that the number of people being tested went down by almost half.”
Cuomo says a more accurate picture will emerge after more tests are conducted over the next few days.
Health experts expect another surge of the virus after the holidays are over. At the same time, the state continues to administer more vaccines. The governor says the list of those eligible will be expanded this week to urgent care center employees, ambulance staff including EMT’s, and New Yorkers who live at residential centers for the developmentally disabled. Also on the priority list- those who are administering the vaccine.
Cuomo says a criminal investigation is continuing into potential fraud at an Orange County health care center, ParCare Community Health Network. It’s accused of violating state guidelines and giving out the vaccine to people who are not on the priority list.
State Health Commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, says the company may have misrepresented itself as a qualified vaccine distributor when applying to the health department to receive the vaccines.
Zucker says the company also may also have violated state rules and moved the vaccines to other locations that were not approved for distribution.
“And then they gave it to people who were not on the priority list,” Zucker said.
The company denies that it did anything wrong.
Cuomo is issuing an executive order that would fine a health care provider up to $1 million for committing vaccine related fraud. Nurses, doctors and other health care professionals who participate in any fraudulent schemes could lose their licenses to practice medicine.
In addition to challenges related to the coronavirus and vaccine distribution, the state continues to face a multi billion dollar budget deficit. The state’s economy has been weakened by the pandemic related shutdown, and the unemployment rate is high. As a result, the governor is rescinding scheduled pay raises for statewide elected officials, including himself, as well as for state commissioners and agency heads, saying it’s not the right time for a salary increase.
“It’s no reflection on what these commissioners have done, they’ve probably worked harder this past year and performed better than any commissioner in their position, frankly, in decades,” said Cuomo. “There has been no test, like this test for a government official.”
Cuomo said in November that he would halt the planned raises, in light of the budget deficit. Under the executive order, the state’s Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller, and Attorney General will also not receive planned raises.