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In the Hudson Valley, the average seven-day positivity rate rose again, from 4.62 percent on Monday, March 22, to 4.69 percent the following day, to 4.76 on Tuesday, March 23, the highest in the state.
Only Long Island (4.38 percent) and New York City (4.14 percent) have positive infection rates above 4 percent among regions in New York.
"Long Island and the Hudson Valley have been problematic," Cuomo said during a COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday, March 24. "Long Island has had a high positivity rate for a long time now and so has the Hudson Valley. So we're seeing that it's the actions and behavior of those communities that are impacting the numbers."
Seven new virus-related deaths were reported in the Hudson Valley, bringing the total to 4,368, while 1,088 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases brought that total above 300,000, to 300,742 since the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago.
As of March 24, there were 551 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the Hudson Valley, representing 0.02 percent of the region's population and leaving 44 percent of the region's hospital beds still available.
The state was also reporting 415 of the region's 680 ICU beds as occupied by COVID-19 patients, leaving 41 percent available in case of another surge of the virus.
A breakdown of new cases in each of the Hudson Valley's seven counties is as follows:
- Westchester: 375 new (116,664 total);
- Orange County: 257 (41,627);
- Dutchess: 155 (25,132);
- Rockland: 134 (42,384);
- Ulster County: 91 (11,445);
- Putnam: 40 (8,186);
- Sullivan: 36 (5,304);
- Total: 1,088 (300,742).
New deaths were also reported in:
- Westchester: 5 (2,181 total);
- Rockland: 1 (712);
- Dutchess: 1 (422);
- Orange: 0 (664);
- Sullivan: 0 (64).
- Ulster: 0 (236);
- Putnam: 0 (89);
- Total: 7 (4,368).
There were 207,496 COVID-19 tests administered in New York on March 23, according to Cuomo, resulting in 7,278 new cases for a 3.34 percent positive infection rate, up slightly from the previous day.
Seven more COVID-19 patients were discharged from New York hospitals, leaving 4,641 still being treated statewide. There are 918 in ICU and 596 intubated.
There were 71 new COVID-19-related deaths reported in the past 24 hours.
"We are making good progress getting vaccines into arms and keeping our COVID numbers in check, but this war is not over and the new variants demand continued vigilance by all of us," Cuomo said.
"We're working 24/7 to vaccinate more New Yorkers every single day and we have established the capacity to do even more. We will get through this pandemic safely and make it to the light at the end of the tunnel as long as everyone continues being smart."
Statewide, a total of 1,801,756 positive COVID-19 cases have been confirmed out of more than 43.4 million tests that have been administered. There have been a total of 40,096 virus-related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
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