NEW YORK - New York City's COVID-19 test positivity rate on a seven-day average went up to 8.53 percent, compared with 8.39 percent one day earlier, Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted on Thursday.

Meanwhile, de Blasio said that there were 253 new hospital admissions and 3,527 new cases of the coronavirus, adding that "Keep up the fight. Wear your mask, practice social distancing and get tested."

"We have administered 303,671 doses of the #COVID19 vaccine -- with 35,748 doses reported yesterday alone," he said in a separate tweet.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the coronavirus deaths added up to 25,741 and confirmed cases to 495,273 in NYC, according to The City, a project that tracks the spread of confirmed COVID-19 infections and fatalities in New York City, based on information provided by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the governor's office, The COVID Tracking Project and the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.