NYC COVID Cases Jump 125% In July As Experts Warn Of Summer Surge

NEW YORK CITY — The coronavirus isn't taking a summer vacation from New York City.

Daily COVID-19 cases ticked up nearly 125 percent citywide in July, according to health data.

Cases as of Thursday averaged 566 a day, up from roughly 250 as July began, data shows.

City health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan acknowledged the increase in COVID-19 transmission inside the city.

"If you have symptoms of COVID-19 or were recently exposed, get tested and make sure to seek treatment if you test positive," he tweeted Thursday.

The uptick mirrors a nationwide summer increase in COVID-19 case seen in data published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The data shows COVID-19 hospitalizations were up 12 percent nationwide, and that emergency room visits and test positivity also increased in what health officials say is the greatest spike in COVID hospitalizations since last winter. Independent laboratories have also noted an increase in COVID-19 test positivity, CNN reported.

Summer travel outside usual social circles, record heat that keeps people indoors and waning immunity are possible reasons for the uptick in cases. CDC data shows the number of Americans who are up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations is decreasing, and health officials say the low number of cases means people aren't developing enough antibodies compared to previous infections.

Importantly, the mild spike in cases is from an already low level of cases. Health experts expect the wave to be far less intense than in previous summers, and aren’t sure how long it will last.

Wastewater surveillance data suggests new COVID-19 cases are already leveling off, but much of the data public health officials have used to track trends was scaled back when the federal health emergency ended in May.

The last time so little data was available was in the early days of the pandemic, Caitlin Rivers, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNN.

That makes it difficult to “know what lies ahead,” Rivers said. “So it may yet peter out.”

Rivers noted that it is encouraging the increase doesn’t appear to have been driven by the emergence of a new variant.

Some U.S. counties are seeing much higher rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations. Two counties in Texas saw a 250 percent increase with 14 new people hospitalized — a “high” rate given their small populations, according to the CDC classification.

Other areas with higher numbers of cases are in southeast Texas, northeastern Oregon, central Oklahoma, Hawaii County, and southern Nebraska, as well as in Mohave County, Arizona, and Colquitt County, Georgia.