More than half of the thousands of people hospitalized in New York with COVID-19 were admitted because of the virus, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office on Friday said. 

New York for the first time released more specific data on COVID hospitalizations, drawing a distinction between people who entered the hospital because of being ill from the virus and those who later tested positive but are being hospitalized for other reasons. 

All told, 58% of the 10,867 people hospitalized as of Wednesday in New York were there because of COVID, while 42% have been hospitalized due to other reasons. 

Overall, COVID patients make up about 39% of the number of people who have been hospitalized in the state. Prior to the spread of the omicron variant, COVID patients composed about 16% of those hospitalized in New York, Hochul's office said. 

New York is dealing with a staffed bed capacity crunch as the omicron variant has spread rapidly through the state over the last six weeks. As a result, New York has limited elective surgeries and procedures at 21 health care facilities as of this week.