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During his bi-weekly COVID-19 briefing on Monday, April 26, Westchester County Executive announced that beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday, April 30, the Department of Health was opening a first-dose Moderna vaccine clinic 134 Court St. in White Plains that will accept walk-ins.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 continue to drop as Westchester continues ramping up its vaccination program, a sign that Latimer called "encouraging."
"It appears the vaccination numbers are impacting hospitalization numbers," he said, noting that people are becoming immunized more and less are being hospitalized with the virus.
Latimer also announced that after suspending the use of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine following several incidences regarding side effects and distribution concerns, it would again be provided in Westchester at certain locations this week.
As of April 26, Latimer said that 352,743 Westchester residents - representing more than a third of the population - have completed the vaccination series, with hundreds of thousands more receiving at least one shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and waiting to finish the process.
There have now been 216,693 vaccinations administered at the Westchester County Center, 53,976 at the Yonkers Armory, and 46,451 at Westchester County Department of Health sites. Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins said that Westchester is also ramping up its homebound vaccination program, to a rate of between 20 and 30 each day with an assist from local ambulance companies.
According to the Department of Health, there are now 2,883 active COVID-19 cases in Westchester, down from 3,463 late last week. Four new virus-related deaths brought the number of fatalities to nearly 2,500 since the pandemic began last year.
Latimer also announced that Bicycle Sundays will return this summer through October with the exception of Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day weekends. However, all heritage festivals scheduled this summer at the Kensico Dam Plaza will be canceled, and the annual fireworks festivities will be called off for the second year in a row.
"Even as the variants are out there, we've seen a drop in cases," Latimer said. "We have gone through a long period of time changing our lifestyle, what we do, to be safe."
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Westchester, by municipality, according to the Department of Health on April 26:
- Yonkers: 701;
- New Rochelle: 268;
- Mount Vernon: 265;
- White Plains: 202;
- Yorktown: 147;
- Port Chester: 141;
- Greenburgh: 117;
- Cortlandt: 101;
- Ossining Village: 86;
- Harrison: 67;
- Mamaroneck Village: 65;
- Somers: 61;
- Peekskill: 54;
- Dobbs Ferry: 53;
- Mount Pleasant: 49;
- Bedford: 43;
- Mamaroneck Town: 38;
- Rye City: 34;
- Scarsdale: 27;
- North Castle: 27;
- Lewisboro: 26;
- Eastchester: 26;
- Sleepy Hollow: 26;
- Tuckahoe: 25;
- Elmsford: 25;
- Tarrytown: 25;
- Pleasantville: 18;
- Mount Kisco: 18;
- Pound Ridge: 16;
- Briarcliff Manor: 15;
- Hastings-on-Hudson: 14;
- New Castle: 13;
- Rye Brook: 13;
- North Salem: 11;
- Pelham Manor: 11;
- Bronxville: 10;
- Pelham: 9;
- Ossining Town: 9;
- Ardsley: 9;
- Irvington: 8;
- Croton-on-Hudson: 7;
- Larchmont: 7;
- Buchanan: 3.
Statewide, the one-day positive infection rate, seven-day average positivity rate, and the hospitalizations rate are down to the lowest since before Thanksgiving in early November.
There were 126,953 COVID-19 tests administered in New York on April 25, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, resulting in 2,`74 newly confirmed infections for a 2.39 percent positive infection rate, continuing a trend of the numbers declining, though there were 41 new COVID-19-related deaths reported in the past 24 hours.
"(The positivity rate) is great progress on reducing the spread of COVID, but the fact is that 41 New Yorkers passed away, so that also makes the point that we're not out of the woods yet and people are dying, so take this seriously," Cuomo said at a COVID-19 briefing on April 26. "We're back to where we were before Thanksgiving and before the holidays, so that's good news."
A total of more than 44 percent of New Yorkers over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while nearly 32 percent are fully vaccinated.
Across New York, a total of 2,018,703 positive COVID-19 cases have been confirmed out of more than 50 million tests that have been administered. There have been a total of 41,849 virus-related deaths statewide since the beginning of the pandemic.
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