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New York City is nearing a second wave of coronavirus infections, Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Thursday, as new Health Department data showed Gotham’s infection rate and caseload continued to surge higher.

Mounting fears in the five boroughs come as much of upstate New York — including the Buffalo area and the capital, Albany — battles major outbreaks, which have forced Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reimpose public health restrictions in many communities. 

Just one-third of the 6,000 beds in state’s intensive care wards remain available, according to new tallies from the state. Cuomo revealed the startling figures as he beseeched New Yorkers to double down on wearing masks and abiding by social distancing rules even as vaccine distribution begins later this month.

“This is the weapon that is going to win the war — and that is the light at the end of the tunnel,” Cuomo said as he held up a vial similar to the ones that will eventually contain the vaccine.

“It’s not a short tunnel,” he warned. “We just have to get there and we have to get there in as little loss of life as possible.”

Officials believe it will take months and at least $1 billion to distribute the vaccine to the roughly 19 million people who live in the state.

Until then, metrics published by state and city officials continued to show the public health crisis in the Empire State worsens — even though the COVID outbreaks remain better contained here than in other states.

The city’s rolling average for new daily cases soared to 1,962 and hospitals saw another 174 admissions, nearly half of whom tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, the portion of all tests that came back positive over the last seven days leaped to 5.19 percent, up from 4.8 percent reported Wednesday. That’s the highest reading for the metric since May 27, when the pandemic initially began to recede after officials imposed a series of stringent shutdown measures to contain its spread.

“It’s quite clear at this point that this second wave, unfortunately, is right upon us,” Hizzoner told reporters during his daily press briefing Thursday.

Officials reiterated Thursday that doctors have developed far more effective treatments to help patients combating COVID-19, keeping them out of intensive care wards and reducing stress on hospitals.

“We’re extremely concerned and vigilant to make sure that we make sure we protect our hospitals and we can protect people’s lives,” de Blasio added.

The recent dramatic upticks in new cases and positive tests led city Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi to issue a dramatic advisory earlier this week, asking the elderly and infirm to take safety measures that effectively amount to a self-imposed lockdown.