About a quarter of New Yorkers now receive at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 13 percent of all residents have been fully vaccinated, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a news release Saturday.
The COVID-19 test’s positivity rate from the state dropped to 2.95%, he announced. The seven-day moving average was slightly higher at 3.26%.
Although more New Yorkers received the vaccine, the city’s reported positivity rate remained much higher than the state’s overall rates, averaging seven days at 7.82%, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Saturday.
READ MORE: New York will soon receive 1.65 million doses of vaccine per week in the federal “Supercharge”
Here’s a look at Saturday # COVID-19 indicators.
• 231 new hospitalizations
• 1 921 new cases
• 7.82% positivity rate (7-day average)We can not disappoint now. Mask today. Keep doing social distance. If you feel sick, stay home. Let your test: https://t.co/hnU8YAS15r
– Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) 20 March 2021
Hospitalizations in the state also dropped to 4,513 patients on Friday, the lowest since Dec. 5, Cuomo said. Of these, 909 patients were in intensive care units. Of the ICU patients, 575 people were incubated.
There were 62 people who died from COVID-19 in the state, including five people in the Bronx, 13 people in Brooklyn, six people in Manhattan, 14 people in Queens and 1 person on Staten Island.
The state has also administered at least one dose of vaccine to more than 5 million people to date, Cuomo said Saturday, with 188,828 doses given on Friday alone and more than a million doses this week.
“New Yorkers have fought through this pandemic by being vigilant, and even though the vaccine is here, we all need to stay smart until we all want to vaccinate it,” Cuomo said. “We work 24/7 to get vaccines in our arms quickly, safely and fairly – and we will not rest until it’s done. In the meantime, everyone must continue to wash their hands, stay away socially and remain silent. We go through this and defeat the COVID beast together, but more needs to be done before we come to light at the end of the tunnel. ‘