New York, Nov 27 (IANS): New York reported a record high 217,721 Covid-19 test results, as the state government's winter plan against the pandemic was underway, according to an official statement.

"We know what's going on with the numbers because we've seen the movie in New York, we've seen the movie across the country. The positivity goes up, more people get sick, more people go into the hospital, more people go into the ICU, more people get intubated, and the death number goes up. Relative to the rest of the country, New York state is still doing phenomenally well and that's thanks to the good actions of New Yorkers," Xinhua news agency quoted Governor Andrew Cuomo as saying in the statement released on Thursday.

Experts have recommended the same thing to New York which starts to develop what they call a winter plan, said Cuomo.

"In the winter plan, we're going to stay with the micro-cluster approach because that targets the spread, minimizes economic impact and stresses individual and community accountability.

"So that's working very well, and all the experts think that is state-of-the-art," he added.

The winter plan will include three elements: first, adding more factors to the micro-clusters; second, the schools and the testing of the schools to keep them open at a rate that's sustainable; third, a vaccine distribution plan, according to the statement.

"Happy Thanksgiving. Celebrate, please just do it safely. Let's not create more of an issue. Again, people have to appreciate the dichotomy here. The spread is going to be from pre-symptomatic people who don't even know they have the viru.

"It's not that they're going to be malicious. It's going to be accidental and involuntary. So what appears safe is no longer safe in this crazy world," he added.

Also on Thursday, Cuomo tweeted that the Covid-19 test positivity rate in the focus areas under the state's micro-cluster strategy, where the outbreaks are targeted for their severity and potential of spread, was 4.9 per cent on Wednesday, down from 5.28 per cent a day earlier.

Tuesday marked the first time that the key coronavirus rate had surpassed 5 per cent since mid-October, according to the statistics released by the state government.

Meanwhile, the statewide positivity rate excluding these focus areas was 2.68 per cent, down from 3.04 per cent on Tuesday.

The overall statewide positivity rate with all the focus areas was 3.18 per cent on Wednesday, down from 3.62 per cent one day earlier, said Cuomo.

Total hospitalizations were at 3,056 on Wednesday, up from 2,982 on Tuesday, said the Governor, who has predicted that the state's Covid-19 hospitalizations could reach 6,000 in three weeks based on the current trends.