US tops 100,000 COVID-19 cases for first time; New York infection rate remains low

Johns Hopkins University reported 102,831 new cases Thursday, with a majority of them coming in middle America, from the Dakotas to Ohio.

News 12 Staff

Nov 6, 2020, 1:51 AM

Updated 1,409 days ago

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COVID-19 cases are surging across the nation, with the U.S. shattering a record for new cases in a single day.
Members of the medical community say they're not surprised that the United States reached another grim milestone by having more than 100,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in a single day for the first time.
Johns Hopkins University reported 102,831 new cases Thursday, with a majority of them coming in middle America, from the Dakotas to Ohio.
"They're not New York cases, they're cases from throughout the rest of the county and people are simply not paying attention to the degree we are in New York," says Dr. David Battinelli, chief medical officer at Northwell Health.
New York's numbers remain low, with the infection rate on Long Island at just 1.4%. On Wednesday, Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone addressed a slight uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations.
"Our hospitalizations have gone from the 20s, back up into the 40s on a regular basis. Now we're currently at a hospitalization level of 42 individuals," says Bellone.
Suffolk County's health commissioner added that while hospitals are seeing more patients with respiratory issues related to COVID-19, the length of stay is shorter than during the early days of the pandemic, and fewer people are admitted to the intensive care unit.
Battinelli added one more piece of good news: The area's high level of mask compliance has resulted in lower levels of the flu this season.
"There is virtually no flu around, virtually none," says Battinelli. "We haven't seen a single hospitalized case of flu at Northwell yet, and that's because the same method of preventing transmission is obviously working."