The number of COVID-19 deaths nationwide dropped to 128 Friday, after reaching its post-spring peak of 166 on New Year’s Eve, while Suffolk County still had more coronavirus deaths than Nassau County, the state reported Saturday.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York exceeded 1 million, the data released by the government office of Andrew M. Cuomo exceeded.
Suffolk had 17 COVID-19 deaths on Friday, the most of any province in the state. Nassau had eight.
In December, Suffolk had 83% more COVID-19 deaths than Nassau, a Newsday analysis of state data shows: 256, compared to 140 in Nassau.
Experts say it is unclear why the gap in deaths is so large.
“It could just be the fact that there are not that many people who take social distance and wear masks, and that there are more parties or behavioral issues,” said Dr. Bruce Farber, head of infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and Long, said. Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park.
Sean Clouston, an associate professor of public health at Stony Brook University, said the root is in part the coronavirus that spreads during Thanksgiving gatherings, leading to infected people later infecting others.
“The way these infections are growing is fast,” he said. “And they do build on each other.”
Deaths and hospitalizations are leading to new infections, and the effect of many December holiday gatherings will not yet be seen, he said.
With COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths much higher than a few weeks ago, and concerns about a mutated version of the coronavirus that is believed to be more contagious, “things are not looking good in the short term,” Farber said.
In general, the death toll since December 14 has been higher than 100, except for one day, after they usually stayed in the single digits during the summer.
The more than 15,000 new positive test results across the entire Friday increased the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus to 1,005,785. It is the fourth highest in the country, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
“There is no doubt that the number of cases is the number that is widely reported, far more than a number of people, especially people with mild or no symptoms, are not tested, and the tests were very difficult during the spring. to obtain, Farber said.
The new mortality rates and case load come as a result of coronavirus vaccination across the state. By early Saturday afternoon, New York had vaccinated about 274,000 people, Cuomo spokesman Jack Sterne said.
New York was the fourth in Pennsylvania with Pennsylvania having the most vaccinations per capita of the 15 most populous states in the country, according to the latest Public Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, when the number of vaccinations in New York was listed at about 237,000.
The New York vaccination rate was 1,218 per 100,000 people, lower than the 1,342 for Illinois, which according to the CDC was the best among the big states, but significantly higher than the big state with the lowest rate, Georgia, at 708. Eight smaller states , including neighboring Connecticut and Vermont, had rates above 2,000.
The positivity rates on Long Island declined slightly on Friday and were a few percentage points lower than on Tuesday, when it was in double digits.
Another 1,409 Nassau County residents tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday, with a positivity rate of 7.9%, compared to 8% on Thursday and 10.5% on Tuesday.
“After a rise of four days ago, we had a slight decline in positivity for three days, a pattern I hope will continue,” Nassau CEO Laura Curran said in a statement.
In Suffolk, 1,786 tests returned positive, or 9.6%, from 9.7% on Thursday and 12.8% on Tuesday.
“Start 2021 right,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted Saturday. “Practice social distance, avoid large gatherings, wear a mask and let yourself be tested.”
With Matthew Chayes
Sign up for COVID-19 text alerts at newsday.com/text.
David Olson covers healthcare. He has been working at Newsday since 2015 and has previously discussed immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press Enterprise in Southern California.