NEW YORK — New York State Governor Kathy Hochul on Friday declared a disaster emergency for the entire state through Jan. 15, 2022 amid a new wave of COVID-19 infections.

New York State is now experiencing COVID-19 transmission at rates unseen since April 2020, Hochul said in an executive order.

The state had 6,295 new cases on Thursday with a test positive rate of 3.45 percent and 28 new related deaths, according to official data released Friday.

The rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions has been increasing over the past month to over 300 per day, the executive order added.

Hochul said the state must pursue a coordinated approach to ensure hospital capacity statewide.

She also directed the implementation of state comprehensive emergency plan and authorized state agencies to assist local governments and individuals in containing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from this state disaster emergency, to protect state and local property, and to provide other assistance necessary to protect public health, welfare and safety.

Daily new COVID-19 cases in New York State once dropped to less than 500 in the middle of this year before climbing up to over 4,000 in August.

New York State firstly declared a state disaster emergency from COVID-19 in March 2020 and ended the state of emergency in late June of 2021.

"While we have not yet identified any Omicron cases, we are not surprised that new variants are emerging and may likely end up in New York," Hochul said in a separate statement on Friday.

Hochul suggested New Yorkers to receive inoculation and taking precautionary measures to curb emission. — Agencies