BUFFALO, N.Y. — During a virtual news conference Wednesday morning, Governor Andrew Cuomo provided the latest COVID-19 data from the New York State Department of Health.
While the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Western New York region remains low, the region saw a two-day increase of those hospitalized with the virus.
As of Tuesday, 426 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Western New York region; an increase from 414 the day prior. This equates to .03 percent of the region's population. At this time, 35 percent of hospital beds are available in the region within seven days under a "surge plan."
Despite this slight increase, the governor says the state as a whole is in a good place in terms of hospital capacity. He added that if any hospital gets to a point where it is under 15 percent availability, then that area would go to a Red Zone and close down.
"Availability meaning beds and staff. Beds and staff. What hospitals will tell you is they always have enough beds — because we increased them by 50 percent. The red line is really about staff shortages — and that's a function of staff getting sick," he said.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 percent positive rate for the Western New York region also increased, going from 5.47 percent on Monday to 5.54 percent on Tuesday.
The current rolling average of percent positive rates in the eight counties in our area are ranked below:
- Wyoming, 8.2 percent
- Chautauqua, 7.6 percent
- Niagara, 7.0 percent
- Cattaraugus, 5.9 percent
- Orleans, 5.8 percent
- Genesee, 5.7 percent
- Allegany, 5.4 percent
- Erie, 5.2 percent
Despite this slight fluctuation, the governor says the percent positive rate in micro cluster zones across the state continue to decrease, and in result dropped the Orange and Yellow Zones in Western New York. However, a few Yellow Zones still remain downstate.
Statewide, 202,661 tests were reported on Tuesday with 11,028 coming back positive for a percent positive rate of 5.44 percent.
At this time, 8,771 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state. Of those hospitalized, 1588 are in the ICU, 1,027 of which requiring intubation.
In terms of the COVID-19 vaccine, Cuomo says 96 percent of allocated first doses of the vaccine have been administered at New York State sites. Now the state is waiting for more doses to arrive from the federal government.
As for the federal program of vaccinating those at long term care facilities, the governor reports that all residents at nursing homes in the program have been offered the vaccine. Cuomo reports 72 percent have elected to receive the vaccine.
Meanwhile, 44 percent of staff members at those nursing homes have been vaccinated. Cuomo says all staff members will have been offered the opportunity to receive the vaccine by February 7.