Gov. Andrew Cuomo is urging "serious caution" this Thanksgiving with COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state up 128% over three weeks.

Cuomo was in Wyandanch Tuesday to hand out turkeys and to talk about the rising coronavirus rates. He says COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen alongside overall cases.

The governor also zeroed in on Long Island's increase in hospitalizations, denoting a 149% increase over a three-week period, which he says was at a higher rate than the state's overall figures.

Citing unnamed experts, Cuomo also projected that increased social activity over the upcoming 37-day holiday period would further increase the current rate of growth by an additional 20%.

"Today, 351 people going to the hospital about every day because of COVID," says Cuomo. "It goes up 20%? 1,400 people per day going into hospitals, that my friends is a real problem."

Dr. Patrick M. O'Shaughnessy, the executive vice president and chief clinical officer of Catholic Health Services, says there has been an uptick since the summer, but there are fewer people needing ICU beds.

"Currently we're not seeing patients with the same degree of intense illness as we saw before," says O'Shaughnessy. "We are testing earlier, we are treating earlier, we have different treatments and interventions."

There are six hospitals in the Catholic Health Services system. Back in mid-March, there were more than 900 coronavirus patients. Over the summer, there were 20. Now there are 80.

Back in the spring, there were also additional temporary hospitals built at SUNY Stony Brook and SUNY Old Westbury that were never fully needed. In the Q&A, a reporter asked the governor if Long Island hospitals had the capacity to handle his current projections.

"If we are in that range, we have the hospital capacity," says Cuomo. "If we are above that range, then we would start to look at emergency hospital beds."