New York looking into COVID-19 hospitalizations that began for other reasons
New York's hospitals will be required to report a breakdown of how many COVID-19 patients were admitted due to the coronavirus and how many were admitted for other needs and only discovered they were infected during their stays.
During a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul cited anecdotal reports of as many as 50% of patients at some hospitals testing positive for the virus who were actually admitted for other reasons, such as car accidents.
![PHOTO: Governor Kathy Hochul speaks about upcoming plans to assist keeping students in school and other COVID prevention measures during a press conference at Rochester Educational Opportunity Center at SUNY Brockport in Rochester, N.Y., Jan. 3, 2022.](https://s.abcnews.com/images/General/covid-blog-new-york-governor-kathy-hochul-03-usa-llr-220103_1641242752187_hpEmbed_3x2_992.jpg)
"I just want to always be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is," Hochul said. "Yes, the sheer number of people infected are high, but I want to see whether or not the hospitalizations correlate with that."
She continued, "And I'm anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not being treated for COVID."
Hospitals will begin reporting their breakdowns Tuesday, but it's unclear how soon the data will be publicly available.
-ABC News' Joshua Hoyos and Will McDuffie