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COVID-19 percent positive rate continues to drop in WNY region

The Western New York region's percent positive rate dropped to 2.54 percent on Friday.

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo provided an update Saturday regarding the state's progress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the governor's office, the Western New York region's percent positive rate continues to drop. 

The region's percent positive rate decreased from 2.57 percent on Thursday to 2.54 percent on Friday. Western New York has the second highest percent positive rate in the state. The Finger Lakes region currently has the highest percent positive rate in New York State at 2.67 percent, while the Southern Tier has the lowest percent positive rate of .66 percent.

The number of people hospitalized in the Western New York region also decreased on Friday. The state reports that 244 people were hospitalized on Friday, which equates to .02 percent of the region's population. At this time, 33 percent of hospital beds would be available within seven days under a surge plan.

"New Yorkers have been tough and resilient throughout this entire pandemic, and this attitude has helped to drive our state's COVID-19 numbers down," Governor Cuomo said. "Even with this tremendous progress in our numbers, we still need everyone to continue practicing safe behaviors like wearing masks and social distancing to slow the spread. And most importantly, we need every single New Yorker to get vaccinated so we can defeat COVID once and for all and begin our return to a new normal."  

Statewide, 248,572 tests were reported to New York State on Friday. Of those tests, 3,195 came back positive for a percent positive rate of 1.29 percent.

Meanwhile, the statewide seven-day average percent positive rate dropped to 1.47 percent, which is the lowest this number has been since October 28.

The number of hospitalizations also decreased Friday to 2,178, which is the lowest this number has been since November 16. The number of statewide hospitalizations decreased 551 over the past week.

Of those hospitalized, 544 people were in the ICU, with 344 of which requiring intubations. The number of ICUs hit the lowest point since November 21, while the number of intubations hit the lowest number since November 29.

Thirty-two more New Yorkers died Friday from COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the state to 42,244.

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