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The county Department of Health reported that there were 933 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Westchester over the weekend as concerns begin mounting for some elected officials.
"We're seeing an increase in coronavirus in Westchester as we're seeing an increase across the state and nation, and that's very concerning to us," Westchester County Executive George Latimer said during a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Nov. 16.
Due to the sharp spike in cases and an increase in the infection rising, Latimer said he would be hosting COVID-19 briefings twice a week, not once, on Mondays and Thursdays.
"Things are happening, and they're happening at a very fast speed," he said. "We're going to have to move quickly to respond to these things and want to keep you informed about what's happening.
There have now been 44,576 COVID-19 cases reported in Westchester out of 867,509 tested.
The overall 4.6 positivity rate has steadily been rising following the start of fall.
There were several new COVID-19 fatalities, bringing the death total to 1,490.
In the past week, the average positive infection rate has risen from 2.7 percent on Sunday, Nov. 8 to 3.6 percent on Sunday, Nov. 15.
In that span, the seven-day rolling infection rate in Westchester rose from 2.8 percent to 4 percent, while the 14-day average rose from 2.4 percent to 3.4 percent in the past five days.
Latimer called the recent COVID-19 surge "clearly the second wave that we're facing."
"We've said it all along, we're not going to fear monger and we're not going to sugarcoat things," he said. "We're all proud of what we did from May through most of September, but we knew we'd see a second wave, and clearly we're seeing it now in the number of infections and the rate of the spread of the infection."
A breakdown of total, active, and new COVID-19 cases in Westchester on Nov. 16, according to the Department of Health:
- Yonkers: 8,956 (113 active, 43 new);
- New Rochelle: 4,060 (309, 97 new);
- Mount Vernon: 3,245 (173, 63 new);
- White Plains: 2,281 (157, 54 new);
- Port Chester: 1,737 (227, 69 new);
- Greenburgh: 1,467 (81, 22 new);
- Ossining Village: 1,326 (119, 45 new);
- Peekskill: 1,302 (133, 48 new);
- Cortlandt: 1,146 (73, 27 new);
- Yorktown: 1,029 (113, 43 new);
- Mount Pleasant: 766 (56, 14 new);
- Mamaroneck Village: 633 (53, 23 new);
- Eastchester: 558 (50, 16 new);
- Sleepy Hollow: 583 (58, 25 new);
- Harrison: 617 (80, 24 new);
- Somers: 544 (42, 17 new);
- Scarsdale: 440 (25, 13 new);
- Dobbs Ferry: 412 (37, 16 new);
- Tarrytown: 377 (22, 6 new);
- Mount Kisco: 405 (59, 17 new);
- Bedford: 386 (42, 17 new);
- New Castle: 330 (50, 12 new);
- Rye City: 327 (41, 16 new);
- North Castle: 311 (44, 12 new);
- Elmsford: 244 (16, 1 new)
- Croton-on-Hudson: 241 (13, 5 new);
- Rye Brook: 269 (34, 11 new);
- Mamaroneck Town: 238 (22, 8 new);
- Pelham: 209 (12, 2 new);
- North Salem: 205 (13, 6 new);
- Ossining Town: 190 (12, 6 new);
- Pleasantville: 194 (20, 6 new);
- Tuckahoe: 174 (16, 6 new);
- Hastings-on-Hudson: 173 (16, 6 new);
- Lewisboro: 180 (21, 6 new);
- Pelham Manor: 209 (12, 2 new);
- Briarcliff Manor: 157 (15, 5 new);
- Ardsley: 132 (9, 1 new);
- Irvington: 117 (10, 2 new);
- Bronxville: 118 (15, 5 new);
- Larchmont: 114 (16, 1 new);
- Buchanan: 62 (8, 1 new);
- Pound Ridge: 52 (7, 2 new).
In the past 24 hours, there were 124,565 COVID-19 tests administered statewide, resulting in 3,490 positive cases for a 2.80 percent total infection rate. The total number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized rose to 1,968, up from 1,737 last week, and there were 25 new virus-related deaths.
Since the pandemic began in March, there have been 16,876,843 New Yorkers tested for the virus, with 563,690 testing positive. The Department of Health has confirmed 26,159 COVID-19 fatalities.
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