COVID-19 cases will increase through the holiday season, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned on Sunday in a conference call as New York recorded its highest daily positive rate since May. 

Meanwhile, Cuomo cheered the announcement from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio some schools would reopen by Dec. 7 after they closed last week. 

The results of 157,000 coronavirus tests in the last day found a positive rate of 4.27% while 55 people were confirmed to have died of COVID-19. About 3,000 people are hospitalized, Cuomo announced. 

Cuomo said he expects cases will rise through the holiday season. Health officials had urged people to not travel this Thanksgiving in order to avoid further spread of the virus.

"You're going to see the rate going up through the holiday season which ends after the New Year," Cuomo said, adding it would hopefully level off after Christmas and New Year's Day. 

Cuomo, meanwhile, said he supported the decision to reopen schools in New York City, saying it was safe to keep schools open. Cuomo plans this week to lay out a winter COVID-19 plan that would include a focus on keeping schools open, especially for grades K through 8. 

"We have done testing in schools and we now know what we're looking in schools and the positivity rate is much, much lower," Cuomo said.