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According to the state Department of Health, the seven-day rolling positivity average dropped from 4.43 percent on Friday, March 19 to 4.37 percent on Monday, March 22, and then back up to 4.38 percent on Tuesday, March 23.
Only the Hudson Valley's 4.76 percent is higher than Long Island. New York City (4.14 percent) is the only other region above 4 percent.
"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."
Both Suffolk (665) and Nassau (603) reported more than 600 new COVID-19 cases in the latest data released by the state, bringing the total to 177,334 and 163,084 respectively since the pandemic began more than a year ago.
Five new COVID-19 fatalities in Suffolk brought the death toll to 3,214, while there were five reported in Nassau, for a total of 3,026.
As of March 24, there were 814 COVID-19 patients hospitalized on Long Island, representing 0.03 percent of the region's population and leaving 33 percent of hospital beds still available.
The latest breakdown of the communities with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nassau, according to the most recent data provided by the county Department of Health on March 24:
- Levittown: 4,664;
- Hicksville: 3,804;
- Hempstead: 3,676;
- Freeport: 3,625;
- East Meadow: 3,368;
- Valley Stream: 3,304;
- Elmont: 2,859;
- Oceanside: 2,819;
- Long Beach: 2,796;
- Franklin Square: 2,756;
- Glen Cove: 2,581;
- Uniondale: 2,384;
- Massapequa: 2,048;
- Rockville Centre: 1,986;
- Baldwin: 1,867;
- Woodmere: 1,826;
- North Bellmore: 1,763;
- Plainview: 1,740;
- Wantagh: 1,741;
- West Hempstead: 1,711
- North Massapequa: 1,710;
- Mineola: 1,645;
- Lynbrook: 1,632;
- Merrick: 1,627;
- Garden City: 1,619;
- East Massapequa: 1,570;
- Massapequa Park: 1,554;
- Seaford: 1,537;
- Bethpage: 1,507.
The breakdown of cases reported in Suffolk County, according to the Department of Health:
- Brookhaven: 50,000;
- Islip: 43,710;
- Babylon: 24,761;
- Huntington: 20,284;
- Smithtown: 12,508;
- Southampton: 5,179;
- Riverhead: 3,293;
- Southold: 1,553;
- East Hampton: 1,534;
- Shelter Island: 50.
There were 207,496 COVID-19 tests administered in New York on March 23, according to New York Gov. Andrew 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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