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In the past four days, the positive infection rate in the Hudson Valley rose from 7.86 percent on Monday, Jan. 11 to 7.95 percent the following day, then down to 7.81 percent on Wednesday, Jan. 13 before hitting 7.67 percent on Thursday, Jan. 14.
Hospitalizations are up slightly, to 997 in the Hudson Valley, after hitting 955 earlier this week. The number represents 0.04 percent of the region's population.
As of Friday, Jan. 15, there are 442 COVID-19 patients in ICU, filling approximately 60 percent of the region's designated beds, while the number of intubations continues to rise.
A breakdown of new cases in each of the Hudson Valley's seven counties is as follows:
- Westchester: 1,113 (81,982 total);
- Orange: 390 (27,862);
- Dutchess: 284 (15,873);
- Rockland: 291 (31,061);
- Ulster: 156 (7,337);
- Putnam: 136 (6,203);
- Sullivan: 59 (3,713).
- Total: 2,429 new (174,031 total).
New deaths were also reported in:
- Westchester: 11 (1,774 total);
- Dutchess: 4 (290);
- Ulster: 4 (183);
- Orange: 4 (562);
- Rockland: 2 (615);
- Putnam: 0 (70);
- Sullivan: 0 (48).
"The positivity rate will change when communities decide it will change. It's still purely a function of how a community acts and there's still personal responsibility. We talked about what would happen with COVID spread through the holiday season, and much of the diagnosis came true," Cuomo said.
"We said that you were going to see the holiday season increase social activity, and I reminded New Yorkers every day to celebrate smart," he added. "People said that it was the holiday season and they wanted to celebrate, but if you don't celebrate smart, we'll see an increase in the COVID transmission rate.
There were 324,671 COVID-19 tests - a new record - administered in New York on Jan. 14, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, resulting in nearly 20,000 positive cases for a 6.14 percent positive infection rate, down dramatically from earlier in the week.
There are now 8,808 COVID-19 patients hospitalized across the state, down 34, while more than 1,500 are in ICU and 962 are intubated with the virus. There were 183 new COVID-19-related deaths reported in the past 24 hours.
Statewide, a total of 1,183,608 positive COVID-19 cases have been confirmed out of 28.13 million tests that have been administered. There have been a total of 32,379 virus-related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
"We saw an increase in the COVID transmission rate ... over Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa, we shot up like a rocket. After New Year's Day, it started to flatten because the increase in social activity started to flatten," Cuomo added. "And now, we're starting to see a drop post-New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. And that is good news.
"We'd rather not have seen the increase, but I believe the increase would have been worse if we weren't smart and disciplined during the holidays."
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