NYC COVID cases rise; CDC says spike in deaths coming

CDC: NY and NJ will see sharp increase in COVID deaths

New York City officials say they are not ruling out a return to mask and vaccine mandates as COVID cases and hospitalizations continue to tick up again across the five boroughs.

NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he is concerned about the rising COVID numbers in the city and the forecast for the coming weeks, but says the city is not in a crisis situation.

"Preparation not panic. We are prepared as a city and we are not going to panic," Adams said.

The CDC is projecting about 5,000 deaths could occur over the next two weeks with New York and New Jersey among the states expected to see the highest numbers.

Earlier this week, the city raised its COVID alert level from low to medium as the more contagious Omicron subvariant BA-2 continues to spread.

The mayor and city's health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, have been speaking daily about the steadily rising numbers.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine on rising COVID cases

Health officials are calling for renewed caution as COVID hospitalizations continue to rise, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. FOX 5 NY speaks with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who has been pushing for the city to be better prepared.

"What I'm most concerned about is that we are seeing rising cases not only here in New York, in this region, but all across the country we're seeing rising cases and as we've seen when you've got significant numbers of people who are unvaccinated or significant numbers of people who haven't gotten their booster, that puts you at more risk," Dr. Vasan said.

Dr. Vasan said the city would seriously consider bringing back mask mandates and vaccine checks, once again, if hospitalizations continue to increase.

"We'd need to see our hospitalization rate jump above 10 per 100,000," Dr. Vasan said.

Currently, it is 7 per 100,000.

On Friday, Mayor Adams said he is not ready, yet, to reinstate a mask mandate for public schools K through 12.

As for vaccine mandates for schools in the fall, the Mayor said he would make a determination after sitting down with his medical team.