COVID cases have exploded again in New York, residents have been forced to line up for hours for tests and many are planning to spend New Year's Eve at home with restaurants closing and amid fears of the Omicron surge.
Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has fled her virus-ravaged state for Miami Beach, Florida, where she was seen raising a class over dinner with her boyfriend Riley Roberts.
The face of the progressives in her party appeared fine with having a maskless meal, despite staunchly supporting mask and vaccine mandates that the state is known to forego.
The 'Squad' member shared a drink and a laugh with Roberts t at Doraku Sushi and Izakaya, according to photos shared by the National Review.
She unwound in the Sunshine State as New York smashed it's daily COVID case count for the third day in a row with 76,555 new infections, an increase from 67,000 the day before.
Ocasio-Cortez hit back at the photos and criticism online with a tweet on Friday saying: 'Hasn’t Gov. DeSantis been inexplicably missing for like 2 weeks? If he’s around, I would be happy to say hello. His social media team seems to have been posting old photos for weeks. In the meantime, perhaps I could help with local organizing. Folks are quite receptive here.'
She also posted: 'If Republicans are mad they can’t date me they can just say that instead of projecting their sexual frustrations onto my boyfriend’s feet. Ya creepy weirdos.'
Governor Kathy Hochul has also introduced her '2.0 Plan' to fight Omicron by extending her 'vax and mask' mandate until February 1. There are now 7,919 New Yorkers hospitalized, a 7 percent increase in 24 hours, and 4,000 of those cases were in New York City alone.
Ocasio-Cortez was dragged on Twitter by conservatives mocking her strict stance on COVID protocols, including a Twitter account devoted to and endorsed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, which invited her to 'enjoy a taste of freedom' in the Sunshine State.
'Welcome to Florida, AOC! We hope you're enjoying a taste of freedom here in the Sunshine State thanks to @RonDeSantisFL's leadership,' the tweet, by the Team DeSantis account, read.
'P.S. We recommend the Rock Shrimp Roll and the Aoki Tai the next time you decide to dine in Miami. Cheers!,' read a follow up tweet.
GOP Florida Rep. Brian Mast wrote on Twitter: 'Welcome to Florida AOC. Leave your politics in New York and enjoy a taste of freedom in our great state!'
Others branded the hypocrisy in her flouting her own COVID rules. 'You're being played by @AOC dummies,' Kyle Becker, who runs the conservative site Becker News, claimed.
'Hey @AOC tell me you endorse @RonDeSantisFL without telling me you endorse @RonDeSantisFL,' wrote Shawn Farash, who runs the conservative group Long Island Loud Majority.
Ocasio-Cortez voyaged to Florida as her home in New York City struggles with a surge in COVID cases causing a record number of first responders to call in sick. Over 20% of the city's police officers and 30% of paramedics were out sick Thursday, city officials told Fox News.
The city has no plans to drop its COVID protocols as incoming New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who will be sworn in Saturday, announced Thursday his plans to keep in place many of outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio's restrictions, including a vaccination mandate for entering local businesses.
New York has also been smashing COVID records, breaking one for the second day in a row with more than 74,000 new cases Thursday, according to WNBC-TV of New York City.
Hospitalizations also continued to increase in the Empire State, reaching more than 7,300, the report said. The number of ICU patients in New York rose to more than 1,000 on Thursday, breaking that mark for the first time since March, the station added.
In February, Ocasio-Cortez demanded Ted Cruz resign for making a trip to Cancun with his family while Texas was ravaged by a deadly winter storm.
'If Sen. Cruz had resigned back in January after helping gin up a violent insurrection that killed several people, he could've taken his vacation in peace,' she tweeted at the time. 'Texans should continue to demand his resignation.'
In September 2021, in response to a thread on the storms in New York, she tweeted: 'I know Republicans’ idea of “disaster relief” is flying to Cancun while the power’s still out, but unlike that approach I actually give a damn.'
DailyMail.com has reached out to Ocasio-Cortez's office for comment.
The U.S. smashed another global COVID infection record on Thursday when 647,067 new cases were reported, with deaths halving to 1,400, as one expert warned of a 'virtual blizzard' of Omicron he says will lead to shutdowns nationwide.
In total, USA Today reports, the United States recorded 2.49 million cases within the past week, outpacing the country's previous record of 1.7 million new cases recorded in the one-week period from January 3 through January 9.
Experts say the number of cases are rising so rapidly due to the spread of the highly-contagious Omicron variant, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says accounts for anywhere from 40 to 70 percent of the new cases in the US. A UK-based expert says the variant could spread with just a 'whiff of infected breath.'
At the same time, however, the number of daily deaths have halved from 2,800 to 1,400 between Wednesday and Thursday. The drop comes after multiple studies showed that Omicron was likely to cause up to 80 per cent fewer hospitalizations than Delta, although scientists have cautioned that more data is needed, and say the sheer number of infections caused by the new variant could ultimately cause an additional spike in serious illness and death.
Daily life continues to be upended by COVID and Omicron, with 1,198 flights canceled on New Year's Eve, and another 955 already nixed on Saturday, as airlines grapple with staffing shortages. JetBlue - which is headquartered in Omicron-epicenter New York City - was the worst-affected airline, canceling 145 flights, equivalent to 14 per cent of its December 31 schedule.
Fifteen states reported a record-high number of average daily infections, according to the CDC. They include Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
Florida also reported a record 77,848 new cases and 90 more deaths to the Centers for Disease Control on Thursday, following a backlog in reporting, according to an analysis of state data from the Miami Herald.
That represents the largest multi-day increase of newly reported cases since the pandemic began in March 2020. The previous multi-day record was set during the height of the Delta wave this past summer, when 56,036 cases were reported.
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