New data reveal significant number of New York's COVID hospitalizations are people admitted 'for non-COVID-19 conditions'

More than 40% of all COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York State are patients who were admitted to the hospital for reasons other than COVID-19 or complications from the virus, new data reveal.

What are the details?

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) released new data Friday showing that a significant percentage of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Empire State come from people who were actually admitted "for non-COVID-19 conditions."

A chart released by Hochul's office showed that only 57% of all reported COVID hospitalizations in New York are people admitted "for COVID-19/COVID-19 complications." This means that a whopping 43% of all reported COVID hospitalizations are of people who were not admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 or complications from the virus.

In New York City, the percentage of reported COVID hospitalizations that were actually of people admitted due to COVID drops to 49%. This means that more people in New York City have tested positive for COVID only after being admitted to the hospital.

Hochul released the data after ordering hospitals in New York to begin differentiating between patients admitted due to COVID-19 and those who test positive for the virus after being admitted for reasons not related to COVID, the New York Post reported.

"Think of all the other reasons people end up in a hospital," Hochul said Friday. "You know, it’s an overdose, it’s a car accident, it’s a heart attack. So, I wanted to drill down into those numbers."

However, as the Gothamist cautioned, "The numbers do not mean that a patient contracted the virus in the hospital; simply that a patient went for treatment for another reason and was found to have COVID-19."

Anything else?

WNBC-TV reported that despite New York's COVID hospitalization rate reaching a 20-month high, that number doesn't "tell the whole story."

The news outlet noted that — in addition to the high percentage of COVID hospitalizations being of people who were admitted for reasons other than COVID — 37% of "current state COVID hospitalizations are asymptomatic" patients.