NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday issued a State of Emergency in New York in order to boost hospital capacity and address staffing shortages ahead of potential spikes in COVID-19 cases over the coming winter months.

By way of Executive Order, Hochul empowered the Department of Health to “limit non-essential, non-urgent procedures for in-hospitals or systems with limited capacity to protect access to critical health care services.”

According to Hochul, the order will also allow the state to move rapidly acquire critical supplies to combat the pandemic.

The order defines limited capacity as below 10% staffed bed capacity.

Hochul's order comes on the same day the World Health Organization named the B.1.1.529 variant first detected in South Africa the "Omicron" variant, and classified it as a highly transmissible variant of concern. The United States issued travel restrictions for South Africa and seven other nations beginning Monday, joining several other nations who had already banned travel to the region in light of the variant

"We've taken extraordinary action to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and combat this pandemic. However, we continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it's coming," Hochul said.

According to the governor, the new protocols will begin Friday, Dec. 3. They will be reexamined based on the latest COVID-19 data on Jan. 15.

Hochul again encouraged New Yorkers to get the COVID-19 vaccine if they are not yet vaccinated, or to get a booster shot if they are already vaccinated and have not yet done so. She said the vaccine "remains one of our greatest weapons in fighting the pandemic." 

NEW YORKERS GRAPPLE WITH THREAT OF NEW VARIANT

Many New Yorkers woke up to the news of the Omicron variant Friday morning, leaving big question marks smack in the middle of a big holiday travel weekend. 

Elizabeth Matchett and Richard Vaughan were in town from California visiting their daughters for Thanksgiving. 

“You figure that this was coming because there was such a lack of vaccinations in Africa and whatnot,” Vaughan said. “They’re going to have these mutations pop up.”

Others traveling into the U.S. said they found out at the airport. 

Liat Katz from Israel said, “It was too late, I was on my way.”

President Biden said his decision to restrict travel to the U.S. was based on advice from the CDC and his COVID-19 team, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“We decided we’re going to be cautious, make sure there’s no travel from South Africa and that region, except for American citizens who are able to come back,” said Biden. 

The World Health Organization said the Omicron variant is “of concern,” partially because it has about 30 mutations. 

“The reason we’re concerned is because those 30 mutations are on the spike protein, and that’s the region of the virus that all the vaccines currently target,” said Dr. Purvi Parikh, an immunologist at NYU Langone.

Dr. Parikh said it’s too early to answer the two biggest questions: whether the Omicron variant is more contagious than others, and if the current vaccines protect against it. 

“Because the variant originated in an area of the world, in South Africa, where the vaccine rates are very low, they’re only 24%,” Dr. Parikh said. “So we don’t know what this variant could look like in a place where people are more vaccinated.”

While that’s encouraging news to some in the U.S., where vaccination rates are higher, some say it’s about the bigger picture. 

“We live in a world, not just one country,” Matchett said. “If we don’t take care of the world, we can’t take care of ourselves. Everybody needs to be vaccinated. We wear masks, we do all the things the science says to do, and we’ll continue to do that. You have to live your life.”

Dr. David Battinelli, Physician in Chief at Northwell Health said the executive order will help hospitals.

"We are all under the regulatory mandate of reporting all of our cases and hospitalizations, et cetera, which will have a very good handle of what's going on, and we will be able to make the appropriate changes to elective surgeries when capacity issues are critical,” Battinelli said.

He said the new variant is a reason to step up protocols and stay vigilant.

"People are using this variant as an appropriate excuse to increase the vaccination rates that really have been much too low," he said. "Our greatest threat is not this variant, but the delta variant, which is the dominant strain in the area, and as has happened in previous surges, people get lax. You see people with less masking, and there is not the vaccine increase that there should be."

Battinelli urged people to get COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.

"We don't know enough about the new strain just yet," he said. "There is some concern everytime you see a new strain, because it is emerging, and that it shows some resistance to whatever else is going on."

Battinelli also encouraged people to get flu shots to keep both COVID-19 and the flu under control in the coming months.