ALBANY COUNTY — For the third week in a row, Albany County is designated as having a “medium” level of hospitalizations from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Statewide, COVID hospitalizations are far more prevalent than they have been for months.

Albany is one of 20 counties labeled with a “medium” rate and, for the first time, seven of New York’s 62 counties are labeled as having a “high” rate of COVID hospitalizations.

A “low” level means fewer than 10 hospital admissions per 100,000 of population while “medium” is between 10.0 and 19.9, and “high” means there were more than 20 hospital admissions per 100,000 of population.

Last week, Albany County had 11.6 new COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 of population, which jumped by more than 43 percent to 16.6 hospitalizations per 100,000 this week.

For data through Dec. 9, the latest that is posted, Albany County had 83 confirmed COVID hospital admissions.

Neighboring Rensselaer County is also labeled as “medium” while most of the counties labeled “medium” are in central and western New York.

Neighboring Saratoga County is labeled as having a “high” rate of COVID hospitalizations as are the more northern counties of Washington, Warren, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Lewis, and Jefferson.

Nationwide, only about 5 percent of counties have a “high” rate while 24 percent have a “medium” rate, and 71 percent have a “low” rate of COVID hospitalizations.

Data posted by the state’s health department, last updated on Dec. 13, shows a steep increase in COVID-19 cases since early November.

While case counts had remained relatively low statewide during the summer months, they peaked in September as people moved indoors but then fell again during October before the current climb, which is similar to the number of cases last February.

Currently, the sublineage of Omicron that is dominant is HV.1 at 32 percent followed by JN.1 at 17.5 percent. The once-dominant XBB sublineages are now less prevalent.

Nationwide, 2.9 percent of deaths in the last week — based on data through Dec. 9, posted by the CDC on Dec. 18 — were from COVID-19, the same as the week prior.

New York, like 16 other states, had between 2 and 3.9 percent of its deaths in the past week from COVID-19. Most states have a lower rate than that.

However, five states — Maine, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, and Minnesota — have a death rate between 4 and 5.9 percent, and one state, Kentucky, had more than 7 percent of its deaths in a week from COVID-19.