A new wave of COVID-19 is bearing down on the city, with health experts unsure about what impact it will have; Mayor Eric Adams tested positive Sunday, and is working remotely, according to City Hall.

Many residents are now also facing another new uncertainty: the cost of COVID-related care.

On his 100th day in office, Mayor Eric Adams tested positive for COVID-19, his press secretary Fabien Levy said in a statement on Sunday.

"This morning, Mayor Adams woke up with a raspy voice and, out of an abundance of caution, took a PCR test that has now come back positive," Levy said. "At this time, the mayor has no other symptoms, but he is already isolating and will be canceling all public events for the remainder of the week."

Nightlife is back. Classrooms are mostly maskless. Unvaccinated Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving is on the court at Barclays Center.

Here comes BA.2.

The Adams administration’s mask mandate for children under 5 can remain in place for now, a state appellate court ruled Friday evening.

The stay comes after a Staten Island court ruling earlier in the day struck down the city’s mask mandate, calling it "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."

On Monday, the city will end two pandemic-era policies that have become fixtures of city life for many residents: requiring people entering restaurants, entertainment venues and fitness centers to show proof of vaccination, and mandated masking in schools for most students.

Mayor Eric Adams announced the changes at a Times Square news conference on Friday, saying that the changes would together help revitalize the city, ushering in more economic activity and greater connection between students and teachers.

Anthony Ricciardelli and his girlfriend, Lindy Dehoog, feel as if they're stuck in limbo in their Ridgewood, Queens apartment.

“It feels like being a guest in someone's home who doesn't want you there,” Ricciardelli said.

NEW YORK — The city reached its deadline for municipal employees to either get immunized against COVID-19 or face termination on Friday, putting unvaccinated city workers on track to lose their jobs.

Fewer than 4,000 of the city's nearly 400,000 municipal employees stand to lose their jobs, according to the city.

Ninety-five percent of New York City agency workers have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Feb. 9, data provided by the Mayor’s Office showed.

That number is up from 84% on Oct. 19, the day before Mayor Bill de Blasio’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate was put into place.

A heaping pile of clothes on the floor brought Isabel Varela back to a painful time in her life.

They were all items she bought when she was spending more than she could afford.

COVID-19 cases in New York are down about 92% from the winter infection peak about three weeks ago, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday.

The rapid decline in cases is accompanied by a somewhat slower decline in hospitalizations, and a significant drop-off in testing, especially in New York City. Hospitalizations lag behind infections, and are expected to continue dropping, Hochul said.

Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday that the city is offering free at-home delivery to those prescribed two antiviral pills recently approved by the FDA to fight against serious COVID-19 symptoms.

"For people who are at higher risk, this is something you should seriously consider,” said City Health Commissioner Dr. David Chokshi, who explained that the antiviral pill is another line of defense against COVID-19 and the contagious omicron variant. The federal government is making the pill available for free, and the city set aside $2 million to cover all delivery costs.

Whitney McMullan’s three-year-old daughter, Frankie, attends 3-K in Brooklyn. But she hasn’t been in class much lately.

“She’s now only been in her class for six days since before Christmas,” McMullan said Monday, as she and Frankie sat on the floor of her Bed-Stuy living room.

THE BRONX — A new weapon in the fight against COVID is being tested at Montefiore Medical Center, where a clinical trial is underway studying a pill by Merck Pharmaceuticals called Molnupiravir. Doctors are researching whether the pill can prevent COVID from spreading from one person to another inside the same household.

“What we are hoping to see is [whether] early treatment with this medication might be able to prevent them from getting COVID at all, might be able to prevent them from needing hospitalization, might be able to lower their risk of death from COVID,” said Dr. Barry Zingman, the principal investigator for the Merck trial at Montefiore and Einstein.

The coronavirus wave, driven by the omicron variant, seems to finally be peaking in New York, but experts are warning about the situation in hospitals, where an exhausted workforce is still having to deal with an influx of new patients. One of the ER doctors sounding the alarm is Dr. Craig Spencer, who has been on the frontlines of the pandemic since the very beginning. He joined Errol to share his takeaways from the latest surge and explain the many lessons yet to be learned from the pandemic. Dr. Spencer, who is the director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, also shared his experience treating Ebola patients in West Africa and testing positive for the virus after coming back to the city in 2014.

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NEW YORK — The MTA says service on the B and Z lines, express service on the J, 6 and 7 lines, and the rush-hour Rockaway Park branch of the A have been restored as of Wednesday.

Service on those routes had been suspended amid staffing shortages starting on Jan. 5 due to the surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant.

Nurses in the city and across the country stood united Thursday, speaking out to make sure that their demands and concerns for a safe work place are heard.

“We’re tired of being put in situations where we have to make terrible choices because we don’t have resources,” said Kelley Cabrera, a registered nurse who works in the emergency room at Jacobi Medical Center. “We don’t have enough people, we don’t have enough equipment, we don’t have staff. That is not appropriate.”

This past September marked a historic moment for the Broadway community. After more than a year and a half of being shut down due to COVID, Broadway shows like “Waitress,” “Hamilton,” “Wicked" and more started to reopen weekly in September.

“On Stage” host Frank DiLella documented this exact moment and he’s about to present it next week on PBS with his new film, "Reopening: The Broadway Revival," featuring an all-star cast.

This week, the Biden administration announced a policy requiring health plans to cover the cost of over-the-counter COVID-19 tests.

For people with private health insurance, which is about 45% of the U.S. population, those costs will be covered starting Saturday, January 15.

How long should you wait to get a booster shot if you’ve recently had COVID? What qualifies as a “high quality” mask? And how do parents with children under the age of five best protect their kids from COVID?

In a one-on-one interview on “Inside City Hall” with NY1 political anchor Errol Louis, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi answers these questions and others, as the five boroughs continue to grapple with the latest surge of omicron cases.

Hundreds of students walked out Brooklyn Technical High School Tuesday — a show of frustration at current coronavirus policies and of support for a remote option at the nation’s largest high school.

Students walked out of the school, which serves 6,000 students from around the five boroughs and is among the city’s most prestigious, at 11:52 a.m., as part of what was planned as a citywide walkout amid a massive surge of omicron cases among students and staff in public schools.

WASHINGTON (AP) — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has tested positive for COVID-19 and “is experiencing symptoms and recovering at home,” her office said in a statement Sunday evening.

The Democratic congresswoman’s office said Ocasio-Cortez received a booster shot last fall, adding that she “encourages everyone to get their booster” and follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Throughout the pandemic, employers from large corporations to small businesses have been struggling to fill open positions. Employers are concerned about how long these staffing issues could last.

NY1’s Ruschell Boone sat down with a labor market analyst and trend spotter, Jared Coseglia. The CEO and owner of Tru Staffing Partners, Inc. talked about what both employers and employees can expect from the future of the workforce.

Health care workers in New York state will now be required to get a COVID-19 vaccination booster, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday.

The new mandate, the first of its kind in the country, will not have a testing option, and will allow medical exemptions, but not religious exemptions. Health care workers will be required to get a booster shot within two weeks of becoming eligible for it.

Mount Sinai Hospital is trying to prevent crowding in its emergency rooms, where doctors estimate seeing at least one in five patients who are experiencing mild sickness, including COVID-19 symptoms, making them candidates for a virtual doctor visit.

"We're definitely seeing a lot of people right now who are having mild symptoms,” Dr. Erick Eiting, an emergency medicine physician at mount Sinai Beth Israel, said. “Some of them may be the flu, some of them may be a variety of viruses, and some of those are indeed turning out to be COVID patients.”

Starting Monday, the city doubled the number of students it is randomly testing for COVID-19 in schools.

But at many schools, it still doesn’t amount to much.

It’s a trend sweeping across social media, #SwabYourThroat.

It’s based off an anecdotal experiment: swabbing the nose and then separately the throat with an at-home rapid COVID-19 antigen test kit.

Elmhurst Hospital in Queens was battered in the early days of the pandemic, overwhelmed by a crush of COVID-19 patients. Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams paid a visit there to announce a different sort of surge: an influx of funding.

“Finding the dollars and the money to ensure that we maintain proper staffing in our hospitals, this is crucial,” Mayor Adams said at a news conference.

Service on several subway lines was suspended Wednesday. The MTA stopped running the W, B and Z lines, and express service on multiple lines went local.

"We're running as much service as we can with the train crews we have available,” the MTA said on its website.

For the second year in a row, New York City schools are back in session after the winter break amid a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases — this time caused by the highly contagious omicron variant. Keeping schools open for in-person learning is a controversial move, but the new mayor, Eric Adams, and his schools chancellor are sticking to it. Brooklyn College and CUNY Grad Center education professor David Bloomfield joined Errol to weigh in on the debate over school closures and talk about the many other deep-rooted problems the city’s Department of Education still needs to confront. Bloomfield argues that Chancellor David Banks needs to focus on tackling school segregation, but is he willing to take on that fight?

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According to the latest data from the Department of Health, Staten Island has the highest number of positive COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, making it the borough with the highest rate of transmission.

Staten Island has the most city-run sites per capita in New York City, but residents say it's not enough, based on the amount of cases the borough is seeing.

This first week in January was supposed to be the week many New Yorkers returned to the office. But with the surge in COVID-19 cases, many of those returns have been pushed back, yet again.

It’s just one more blow to restaurants and small businesses who rely on those employees for the business.

Eric Adams may have been elected to take charge of a municipal workforce that numbers 300,000. But as he stepped into the role of mayor last weekend, he confronted a crisis: that workforce has been depleted by the COVID-19 surge currently sweeping the city.

With the number of students and staff contracting coronavirus on the rise, the number of them attending school the first day back from winter break was down.

On Monday, citywide, just 67% of students attended class.

With luggage in hand, Joel Wilson waited on a long line at LaGuardia Airport Tuesday, but not to board his plane. He waited in line to get his COVID-19 test, a requirement to board his flight back to Jamaica.

“I’m still at the back of the line and I still have another 45 minutes left,” Wilson said. “I got tested two days ago, CVS, and still haven’t received my result. This is my backup."

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday called on businesses across the city to bring office workers back sooner than a spring timeline, calling the delay “devastating for our economy.”

With the spread of the omicron variant across the city, Adams said many businesses told him that their employees do not want to return to the office.

Nearly 14,000 cases of coronavirus in students and staff have been reported to the city’s situation room since Dec. 23, a period of time that falls mainly during the system’s winter break when students were at home.

The situation room logged 13,963 reports from principals of positive cases over the course of 12 days, a significant surge in cases compared to earlier in the year. In the three months between Sept. 13 and Dec. 22, there had been just 21,828 cases reported.

Despite a 67% attendance rate on the first day back after winter break, Schools Chancellor David Banks said Monday’s return to classrooms went “extremely well” and that he’s confident in the city’s expanded COVID-19 testing program at public schools.

Speaking with NY1 political anchor and host of “Inside City Hall” Errol Louis, Banks said city schools had “over 600,000 young people who came to school today,” and added that he expects attendance numbers to rise in the coming days.

The Department of Education said 67% of public school students attended class Monday, the first day back from winter break. That's much lower than the pre-pandemic average attendance of 91%.

Adaptability has been central to Eric Adams’ life, career and first days as mayor. And it’s the mindset he’s asking New Yorkers to adopt amid the omicron surge.

“We’re going to pivot, we’re going to shift, we’re going to adjust,” he told reporters Monday after visiting a school in the Bronx. “We’re going to get it done. That’s the bottom line.”

NEW YORK — An airline worker who spoke to NY1 on the condition of anonymity out of fear of repercussions says staffing shortages caused by an uptick in COVID cases in the city are causing dangerous work conditions.

“The staff shortages are forcing them to do crazy things right now,” the airline worker said. He has been working at JFK Airport for six years.

New York state has once again set a record for new daily COVID-19 cases, now passing the 85,000 mark as the omicron variant continues to spread.

The state reported 85,476 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Saturday, Jan. 1. The previous record, set the day prior, was 76,555.

Days after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that community-based organizations would get at-home COVID tests to hand out, Michelle sabatino, the head of the Staten Island Center for Independent Living got an email from an official with the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities.

The Dec. 21 email said the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities would “most likely receive a shipment of COVID-19 Self-Test kits later this week or early next week,” and wanted to know what groups wanted to request them.

NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Eric Adams will continue a vaccine mandate for private sector employees that went into effect Monday under Mayor Bill de Blasio, the incoming administration announced at a Thursday news conference.

The mandate requires all employees of private businesses to be vaccinated and that employers keep a full record of their workers’ vaccination statuses.

NEW YORK — New York state opened one COVID-19 testing site in each of the five boroughs on Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

State-run testing sites are up and running at the following five sites, Hochul said in a press release:

NEW YORK — The rise in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant has caused staffing shortages across multiple city agencies.

The NYPD Tuesday night announced they will be cancelling regularly scheduled days off for uniformed members on both Friday, Dec. 31 and Saturday, Jan. 1.

The rising number of kids hospitalized with COVID-19 has parents, understandably, concerned.

“This is actually our second year being quarantined over Christmas,” said Juliet Davis, a Brooklyn mother of four.

NEW YORK — Citing staffing issues amid a surge in demand, CityMD will temporarily close an additional seven locations in the city after originally closing 13 outlets early last week, the company said Tuesday evening.

Below, you’ll find an updated list of locations closed or set to be closed come Wednesday:

New York City’s hospitalization rate continued ticking upwards Tuesday, as the omicron COVID-19 variant spreads across the five boroughs.

The latest numbers from the mayor's office show the city’s seven-day average hospitalization rate is now at 4.76 per 100,000 people, with 332 new patients admitted to city hospitals for coronavirus on Monday.

An increasing number of young children are being hospitalized with COVID-19 across the United States, thanks in part to the omicron variant sweeping the nation.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19 increased by 30% between Dec. 18 and Dec. 25, the most recent date for which data is available. That’s an average of about 260 children being admitted to the hospital each day.

More pop-up COVID-19 testing sites opened across the city Monday, with two of them appearing at major transit hubs: one at the 42nd Street-Times Square subway station and the other at Grand Central Terminal.

Winnifred Lee was one of the first people to get swabbed at Grand Central. She lives in Washington Heights, but says the accessibility, plus the fact this location was indoors, was incentive enough for her to make the trip.

Local airports saw more than 200 delays and about 100 cancellations Monday due to the latest COVID-19 surge.

Litsung Lim, who was planning to travel home to Detroit today, was among those whose flights were cancelled. He was on the shuttle bus at LaGuardia Airport when he got the news.

MILWAUKEE — Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world looks a lot different than it used to. And so does the coronavirus itself.

As it’s infected hundreds of millions of people around the globe, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been in a state of constant change, making small tweaks to its genetic code as it goes along.

NEW YORK — The city is set to open seven of its own COVID-19 testing sites next week, including two newly announced sites in Queens.

Starting Monday, a site at Culture Lab in Long Island City will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., and a site at Beach Channel Education Campus in Far Rockaway will be open 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Queens Borough President Donovan Richards announced Friday night. Both sites will offer free PCR tests.

NEW YORK — Rev. Al Sharpton helped serve up holiday cheer on Christmas Day.

"Christmas is not about what you get; it's about what you give," Sharpton said. He was joined by Mayor-elect Eric Adams and Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who volunteered to feed the hungry in Harlem on Saturday.

NEW YORK — Thousands returned to the pews of St. Patrick's Cathedral for the midnight Christmas Mass.

The Mass in Midtown was held at full capacity despite the recent COVID-19 surge. Parishioners were required to wear masks, and some traditions, including the sign of peace handshake and sacramental wine distribution, were omitted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW YORK — Joy and togetherness were in the air on Christmas Eve as the faithful gathered for Friday night Mass.

"You do get a special feeling, having the community around you and being able to celebrate with family and actually being able to participate," said Bobby Shoule, who attended services with his family.

NEW YORK — Several new COVID-19 testing sites, including three administered by the federal government, have opened across the city, as many New Yorkers are struggling to secure a test before they travel or gather with loved ones for the holiday season.

Dr. Sanjiv Shah, the chief medical officer of MetroPlus Health, joined Bobby Cuza on “Inside City Hall” on Thursday evening to explain what we can all do to minimize risks.

New York state has once again set a record for new daily COVID-19 cases, now passing the 40,000 mark as the omicron variant spreads.

The state reported 44,431 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office announced Friday. The previous record, set on Thursday, was 38,835, which was substantially higher than the previous record of 28,942 that was set Wednesday.

Sheila Connors-Cardinale has been a registered nurse for 42 years.

“I love helping people. I love what I do. I love the people I work with, to me, there’s nothing more rewarding than helping someone and letting them know that I’m going to take good care of them,” said Connors-Cardinale.

NEW YORK — Times Square will host approximately 43,000 fewer people than normal and require revelers to be fully vaccinated and masked as part of a “scaled back” New Year’s Eve celebration, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

Around 15,000 people will be allowed to attend this year’s celebration at the Crossroads of the World, down from the usual 58,000, de Blasio said in a press release.

NEW YORK — Alison Gibney says she and others who are currently being housed at group setting shelters in the city are growing more nervous as COVID-19 cases increase.

“We have followed all of their guidelines, got their vaccinations, got our boosters, we’re wearing our masks, we're washing our hands, we’re trying to maintain distance, but that is simply impossible in a room with 15 women at night,” Gibney said.

NEW YORK — Already, there have been 16 deaths on Rikers Island this year. Experts say a staffing shortage due to the COVID-19 pandemic made already challenging conditions at the jail even worse.

Now the omicron variant of the coronavirus is threatening to overtake the notorious jail.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — and the most infectious.

As COVID-19 cases surge across the New York City area, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, families and friends are debating whether and how to gather for Christmas and New Year's Eve.

NEW YORK — As Christmas gets closer, more people are traveling during a time when COVID-19 cases are surging locally and nationally. The spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus has led to many questions, including whether it is more transmissible and deadlier than previous variants, and whether it is safe at this time to travel.

Dr. Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Harvard Belfer Center and senior director of the special pathogens program at New York City Health + Hospitals, joined Bobby Cuza on “Inside City Hall” on Wednesday evening to answer these questions and more.

New York City will get several new testing sites in the coming days in a joint effort by the city, state and federal governments to decrease wait times for COVID-19 tests as the latest surge in infections, powered by the omicron variant, continues to grow.

The new sites are coming online just as the Christmas travel period begins, and as the city breaks new records for infections counted in a single day, even as hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively low.

NEW YORK — "The Nutcracker" is among several shows in the city canceled this week due to positive coronavirus cases, productions announced Wednesday as the omicron variant spreads through New York.

New York City Ballet announced Wednesday evening that it canceled performances of George Balanchine’s "The Nutcracker" through Monday due to several breakthrough COVID-19 cases of people in the production over the last few days.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has reduced capacity in the wake of the surge of the omicron COVID-19 variant, the museum announced Tuesday.

In a tweet, the Met Museum said the capacity reductions went into effect Tuesday.

Mayor-elect Eric Adams announced Wednesday that city Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi will remain in his post until March 15 of next year.

Dr. Ashwin Vasan will then take over as health commissioner, said Adams, who added that Vasan will serve as senior adviser for public health "in the interim."

NEW YORK — Adrienne Adams is set to break barriers as the first Black speaker of the City Council and a woman leading a legislative body that will be predominantly women.

“I think of my daughters, I think of my granddaughters,” she told me. “They know that their nonna has done something and has blazed a trail that has left footsteps for them to follow.”

NEW YORK — The city's public hospital system is suspending most hospital visits as coronavirus cases spike amid the spread of the omicron variant.

The ban will go into effect starting Wednesday, NYC Health + Hospitals said in the announcement issued Tuesday evening.

The federal government is opening a new COVID-19 testing facility in New York City before the end of the week, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday.

The announcement did not give details for exactly when the site would open, its location or its testing capacity. The site is the first in a series of new testing facilities to be opened by the federal government around the country.

NEW YORK — Success Academy announced Tuesday that middle school students will be required to have at least one vaccine dose by Jan. 31 or get tested weekly, and all eligible staff members must receive their booster shot by Jan. 3.

In addition, all students aged 5 to 11 will have to be vaccinated to participate in clubs and sports.

NEW YORK — The winter wave of new COVID-19 cases, predominantly the omicron variant, is gripping New York.

"Omicron is a real challenge," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his news briefing Monday. "It's going to be a very challenging few weeks."

NEW YORK — In his final "Mondays with the Mayor" interview on "Inside City Hall," Mayor Bill de Blasio joins NY1 political anchor Errol Louis to discuss:

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The Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes on Friday evening announced it was canceling the remainder of its performances throughout the holiday season, citing challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The news comes after the Christmas Spectacular announced it had canceled its four shows scheduled to run Friday due to breakthrough COVID-19 cases in the production.

NEW YORK — New York state health officials on Friday announced a record-high number of new COVID-19 cases. This exponential spike has led to the temporary closure of some restaurants and Broadway shows, and the Radio City Rockettes also canceled the remainder of its Christmas shows.

Now Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Bill de Blasio are taking swift measures to get the spread under control ahead of the holidays, but they are also telling New Yorkers they are not planning on implementing lockdowns like the ones we experienced last year.

Kyrie Irving is rejoining the Brooklyn Nets, who need help and will settle for it on a part-time basis.

The Nets decided Friday that Irving would come back to practice and play in road games, even though he remains unable to play at home because he doesn't meet New York City's vaccine mandate.

The omicron variant of the coronavirus may be as transmissible as diseases like the measles, a health expert warned Friday.

Speaking with NY1 "News All Day" anchor Ruschell Boone, Dr. David Reich, president of Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens, said colleagues who conduct research on infectious diseases are ringing the alarm bells over the new variant.

With COVID-19 cases increasing quickly and testing lines moving slow, the situation inside Staten Island University Hospital has been stable, doctors from the hospital say.

"They are testing positive in the community, but less of them are ending up in the hospital,” explained Dr. Theodore Maniatis, the medical director at SIUH.

An additional 40 pop-up COVID-19 vaccination sites will be deployed across the state, with some set to open as soon as as Saturday, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office announced Friday.

The new sites are aimed to fight the winter surge of COVID-19. The state recorded a record number of new cases in a single day on Friday.

NEW YORK — Public Advocate and Democratic candidate for governor Jumaane Williams said Thursday night that he tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Tonight I tested positive for COVID-19, along with thousands of other New Yorkers as the next wave of the virus rises in our city and state,” Williams said on Twitter.

NEW YORK — COVID-19 cases — and resulting classroom closures and quarantines — have spiked in public schools, as cases are on the rise throughout the city.

The city on Wednesday reported 546 positive cases among students and staff — up nearly 150% from the daily number reported a month prior, which was 220.

NEW YORK — Four Broadway shows canceled performances on Thursday after members of their productions tested positive for COVID-19.

“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” canceled its 7 p.m. show, “MJ the Musical” canceled its matinee and 8 p.m. show, "Hamilton" canceled its Thursday and Friday shows and “Mrs. Doubtfire” canceled all of its shows through Sunday, Dec. 19 after receiving positive COVID-19 test results within their companies, the four productions announced.

As coronavirus cases and test positivity in the city continue to rise rapidly, Mayor Bill de Blasio at a press briefing on Thursday announced a series of measures to expand testing and mask availability, as well as urge residents to get vaccinated and seek booster shots.

Health experts have linked the rising cases, which have led to crushing demand for tests in the five boroughs, to the omicron variant. Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city health commissioner, said that at the beginning of the week, 13% of city cases were caused by omicron, and that the variant will likely take over as the most common variant in a matter of weeks.

Lines for coronavirus tests are growing around the city, accompanying a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations as the weather gets colder and more people attend year-end family, friend and work gatherings.

While health experts say the increasing cases could be blamed on the spread of the omicron virus, the long lines are being driven by a national test shortage and reduced testing hours at some city sites, even as the city expanded its mobile testing fleet last month, according to health experts and elected officials.

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Opera announced Wednesday that all eligible audience members must receive their COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to attend a show.

The mandate is slated to begin Jan. 17. Those who are not yet eligible for the booster shot will be able to continue to enter without it.

New Yorkers are now receiving vaccines against COVID-19, and the state recently expanded eligibility rules for who can receive them. Nearly all New York adults are currently eligible to get vaccinated.

Here are answers to some of the common questions:

Business owners have a lot of questions this week after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced new COVID-19 restrictions in the form of a statewide mask mandate in all indoor public places, unless businesses or venues implement a vaccine requirement.

Tom Grech, president and CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 1,300 companies, expressed both optimism and frustration at the new orders while speaking with NY1 Saturday morning.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that masks will be required in all indoor public places unless businesses or venues implement a COVID-19 vaccine requirement. As the holidays approach, many crowds will gather indoors from shopping to in-person worship services.

On Friday night, many parishioners inside the Immaculate Conception Church in Queens were already wearing masks.

To browse and shop around the Brass Owl on Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens, you need to be masked up, no matter your vaccination status.

“We reopened in July of 2020 and have never stopped requiring masks,” explained boutique owner Nicole Panettieri.

Just weeks away from leaving office, Mayor Bill de Blasio is announcing new vaccine mandates for all private sector employees, in a move that seems to have taken business leaders by surprise. NY1’s Zack Fink, Courtney Gross and Juan Manuel Benítez comment on the new measures and the mayor’s intentions behind them. Is he doing this to reactivate the city’s economy and get employees back to the office? Or is he gearing up for a potential run for governor?

They also weigh in on a controversial proposal approved by the City Council that would allow some noncitizen New Yorkers to vote in local elections. The bill would benefit about 800,000 Green Card holders and other immigrants with work authorization. Even though noncitizen voting already exists in other parts of the country and is not entirely unprecedented here in New York, some questions remain about its legality and implementation.

NEW YORK — Employees and patrons of indoor dining, gyms and entertainment venues who are age 12 or older will have to show proof of two COVID-19 vaccine doses starting on Dec. 27, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday.

In addition, children ages 5 to 11 will be required to show proof of one vaccine dose to be allowed into indoor dining locations, gyms and entertainment venues, starting on Dec. 14.

NEW YORK — About 85% of New Yorkers age 65 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. But officials want that number to rise even higher, and hope a new campaign will drive the message home.

Department for the Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez joins "NY1 Live At Ten" anchor Cheryl Wills on Friday evening to discuss this and more.

Last Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a move to free up hospital beds in the face of the latest COVID-19 surge: Hospitals with 10% available capacity or less could be forced to cancel elective surgeries.

But the executive order will likely apply only to upstate regions, which have seen a surge in hospitalizations. Hospitals in the city have seen a relatively small uptick in admissions.

New York Attorney General and candidate for governor Letitia James joined NY1 political anchor Errol Louis on "Inside City Hall" on Thursday evening to discuss the following:

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