With a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases and the increasing prevalence of the omicron variant, New York is starting to see long lines at COVID-19 testing centers. While very few cases of the omicron variant have been confirmed so far in the city, federal health officials are estimating that it already accounts for around 13% of virus cases in the region that includes New York and New Jersey. New York state reported nearly 18,300 new cases of the virus Wednesday, the third highest total for any single day since COVID-19 tests became widely available to the public in the spring of 2020. Nearly 83,000 people have tested positive in the seven-day period that ended Wednesday, the most for any such period since last January.