New York test positivity rate spikes to 8.33% - the highest since May - but Gov. Cuomo insists it is because of a drastic drop in testing and the number of cases hasn't increased

New York's test positivity rate climbed to 8.33 percent on Monday - it's highest point since early May. 

Governor Andrew Cuomo described the alarming increase at his daily coronavirus briefing and said officials are working to uncover the cause of the spike. 

'This is a jump from Friday, Saturday to Sunday,' Cuomo said. 'We have been talking about the potential for spread during Christmas. For it to go up in two days is dramatic and very, very fast. We're studying what the uptick actually means.' 

He said one leading theory hinged on the fact that far fewer tests were performed after the holiday.  

A total of 452,856 tests were performed across the state on the 23rd and 24th, compared with only 255,165 on the 26th and 27th.  

Cuomo explained that it's possible more people who were not showing symptoms got tested as a precaution prior to Christmas travel and gatherings, while the smaller group who got tested after were more likely to do so because they showed symptoms rather than as a precaution.   

'The sample is artificially skewed,' the governor argued. 'Fewer people got tested and more of those people are showing symptoms, that's why they went and got tested.

'The number of positive cases didn't go up, and the number of people getting tested dropped by half.'

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday said officials are working to determine what could have caused New York's positivity rate to climb to 8.33 percent 

Cuomo said a potential explanation for the weekend spike hinged on the fact that far fewer tests were performed after Christmas. A total of 452,856 tests were performed across the state on the 23rd and 24th, compared with only 255,165 on the 26th and 27th

Cuomo cautioned that it is too soon to tell whether the spike could have been fueled by holiday festivities, the effects of which could take up to two weeks to materialize.  

The latest increase in positivity rate was driven in part by more than two dozen microclusters around the state, which together have an average positivity rate of 9.66 percent as of Monday.  

Without those clusters, the statewide rate is 7.83 percent, Cuomo said.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide currently stands at 5.9 percent and is expected to climb through the week, given the weekend trend. 

Hospitalizations have also seen a troubling surge in recent days, climbing to 7,559 on Monday - the highest number since May 8. Of those hospitalized, 1,222 are in the intensive care unit. 

In New York City, new hospital admissions topped Mayor Bill de Blasio's threshold of 200 yet again on Monday as the city's seven-day positivity rate surpassed seven percent for the first time in months.   

Staten Island has borne the brunt of the blame for the Big Apple's recent surge, as Cuomo called out an ongoing lack of public adherence to safety precautions there.  

New York is set to surpass 30,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths this week, after seeing 11 consecutive days with over 100 fatalities reported.  

In his first coronavirus briefing since Christmas, Cuomo on Monday renewed his calls for residents to stay vigilant in the fight against the virus through the New Year.  

'There is nothing pre-ordained here,' he said. 'What will happen will be a consequence of our actions - a year where we felt out of control we're actually in ultimate control because we control the spread of the virus.'

The latest increase in positivity rate was driven in part by 28 microclusters around the state, which together have an average positivity rate of 9.66 percent as of Monday

Monday's positivity rate of 8.33 percent marks the highest its been since May 8

Cuomo cautioned that it is too soon to tell whether the spike could have been fueled by holiday gatherings, the effects of which could take up to two weeks to materialize

At the same press conference Cuomo revealed that more than 140,000 New Yorkers have already received their first of two doses of the coronavirus vaccines. 

He said the state is preparing to expand the list of people eligible to receive the vaccine this week to include urgent care center employees, health care workers administering the doses and residents of OASAS facilities. 

An additional 259,000 will become eligible for vaccination under the expansion, he said.  

Cuomo also announced plans to crack down on fraud related to vaccine distribution. Under a forthcoming executive order, health care providers found to be engaging in fraudulent activity could be punished with fines of up to $1million or see their state-issued licenses revoked.  

'Vaccines are valuable and there will be people who break the law, and we’re looking at one health care provider who may have done that,' the governor said. 

'We want to send a clear signal to the providers that if you violate the law on these vaccinations, we will find out and you will be prosecuted.' 

The threat came as the state conducts an investigation into allegations that Parcare Community Health in Orange County fraudulently obtained and distributed doses of the vaccine. 

Gary Schlesinger, the CEO and President of ParCare Healthcare Network based in Brooklyn, New York, pictured above receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The healthcare network is under investigation for allegedly improperly obtaining the vaccines and distributing them to the public

ParCare shared this photo on December 21 showing refrigerated doses of the vaccine

Cuomo said he is planning to sign two other executive orders this week - one extending the state's moratorium on evictions and another withholding pay increases for all commissioner and statewide elected officials, including himself. 

'This is the right thing to do, I think,' he said. 'It's no reflection on what these commissioners have done; they've probably worked harder than anyone in their position in decades, there can be no test like this one.'

Cuomo's own salary had been set to rise by $25,000 to $250,000 on January 1 - making him the highest-paid governor in the US.   

New York is set to surpass 30,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths this week, after seeing 11 consecutive days with over 100 fatalities reported

During his Monday press conference Cuomo pointed out that similar spikes in test positivity have been seen around the country over the past few days, as the total number of cases nationwide topped 19 million. 

And officials say the numbers will only get worse in the coming weeks as the effects of Christmas travel and gatherings come to fruition. 

US air travel hit a pandemic-high on Sunday, with at least 1.28 million Americans taking to the skies, according to Transportation Security Administration data. 

It was the sixth day in a row that nearly or more than one million people crisscrossed the country on airplanes despite warnings from public health officials like Dr Anthony Fauci to avoid travel and gatherings during the holidays to slow that rampant spread of COVID-19. 

Dr Fauci echoed President-elect Joe Biden's concern that the 'darkest days' may be yet to come for the US on Monday. 

'The reason I'm concerned and my colleagues in public health are concerned also is that we very well might see a post-seasonal, in the sense of Christmas, New Year's, surge, and, as I have described it, as a surge upon a surge, because, if you look at the slope, the incline of cases that we have experienced as we have gone into the late fall and soon-to-be-early winter, it is really quite troubling,' he said on CNN. 

'We are really at a very critical point.

'So I share the concern of President-elect Biden that as we get into the next few weeks, it might actually get worse.' 

Over the past 10 days, more than 10.2 million Americans have been screened by TSA, compared to more than 24 million in the same time period last year.  

On Sunday, TSA screened at least 1.28 million American travelers whose flight crisscrossed the country despite US health officials warnings against Christmas travel. It was the greatest number of travelers seen since March 15 

About a million people a day have been screened for the past six days, according to TSA data. Pictured: Masked, but tightly packed travelers at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Sunday 

More than 184,000 new infections are being recorded a day on average, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. 

Another 1,209 COVID-19 deaths were reported on Sunday, and the total death toll had reached well over 333,000 by Monday morning. 

One in every 1,000 Americans has died of the virus in just 11 months since the first case was identified in Washington state. 

With well over 19 million total coronavirus cases recorded in the US, one in every 17 Americans has been infected.  

While new daily cases and deaths are down from the mid-December peaks, hospitals across much of the country are running out of room to care for severely ill COVID-19 patients. 

More than 100,000 people have now been hospitalized for coronavirus in the US for 26 days in a row - nearly every day this month. 

California has once again emerged as a top hotspot in the country. Nearly 96 out of every 100,000 people diagnosed a day and there were no ICU beds left available in the Southern or Central regions as of Sunday, according to the state health department. 

Federal and state officials are scrambling to rollout vaccines, but so far only two million vaccinations have been confirmed - a number US testing czar Admiral Brett Giroir says is 'probably an underestimate.'   

More than 100,000 Americans have been in US hospitals for COVID-19 for the past 26 days in a row , as daily average daily infections remain about 170,000 and average daily fatalities exceed 2,000 

California has again become a top hotspot for COVID-19 with more than 260,000 new cases reported in the past week - including more than 50,000 on Sunday - while Tennessee is seeing the highest infection rate per capita at nearly 120 per 100,000 residents