After northern and western parts of the New York State suffered a surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations, the wave appears to have moved downstate, hitting the Hudson Valley and increasingly also New York City and Long Island. Most of the infections stem from the Omicron variant of the virus, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The number of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 has jumped from about 2,000 in mid-November to more than 6,000 on Dec. 27, according to data published by the state’s health department. The state’s numbers started to gradually go up already in the summer. The western and northern regions peaked in early to mid-December with Western New York and Finger Lakes recording about 40 people hospitalized per 100,000. Some hospital systems in the north paused elective surgeries for several weeks in December to conserve capacity. Then the wave shifted downstate to …