New York state set a new record for Covid-19 cases in a single day on Christmas Eve, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Sunday.
The state saw 49,708 people test positive for Covid on Friday, Dec. 24, according to Hochul, breaking the previous one-day record set a day earlier. The state recorded more than 400,000 tests Friday, with nearly one in eight coming back positive.
According to Fox NY, the state reported 36,454 positive tests on Christmas Day, but noted fewer tests (257,000) likely due to the Dec. 25 holiday. However, the positivity rate was higher than Friday, with 14.17% of Covid tests coming back positive Saturday.
NBC New York reports the numbers also do not include a surge in at-home tests, leaving the state’s cases likely higher.
New York state has set a new record for Covid cases nearly every day over the past week, a huge leap from fewer than 13,000 daily cases a week earlier. On Wednesday, the Empire State passed 3 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began.
Onondaga County similarly set a record on Christmas Eve with 651 new cases Friday, shattering the previous record of 499 new cases on Jan. 1.
Covid has spread rapidly across the U.S. as well. CNN reports the U.S. average for new daily cases rose to 182,682, a 48% increase from the previous week.
Part of the increase is due to more testing by travelers seeking to safely gather with family and friends for Christmas, but also due to the highly transmissible omicron variant, which is at least twice as contagious as delta. Still, the U.S. has seen a 2% increase in hospitalizations from last week, and 12 states and seen at least a 10% increase in hospitalizations, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.