Gov. Kathy Hochul declares ‘disaster emergency’ in New York until mid-January over omicron despite no cases of new variant in the US yet

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a “disaster emergency” for the state in anticipation of the newly-identified omicron variant of COVID-19.

The Democratic governor declared a state of emergency for the entire state of New York through Jan. 15, 2022, when it will be evaluated if the order needs to be extended. The previous coronavirus-related state of emergency was enacted by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo from March 7, 2020, until June 24, 2021.

Hochul admitted that there have yet to be any omicron variant cases in New York state.

“We continue to see warning signs of spikes in COVID this winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it’s coming,” Hochul tweeted on Friday. “Today I signed an Executive Order to help @HealthNYGov boost hospital capacity ahead of potential spikes. Through this action, we will also be able to acquire critical supplies more quickly to combat the pandemic. I urge New Yorkers to take advantage of our greatest weapon in this pandemic: the vaccine. Get vaccinated and get the booster as soon as you are able.”

The official New York state government website stated, “For samples of SARS-CoV-2 collected between November 7 and November 20, 2021 from New York State that are sequenced and entered into Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID), 100% were the Delta variant.” – READ MORE