BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo provided an update Monday into the state's battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the briefing, Governor Cuomo said that, "Western New York is a hotspot," despite the regions numbers remaining steady.
The COVID-19 positive infection rate for the WNY region was 1.2%.
The Western New York Region includes Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.
Cuomo added that the WNY region is among four other hotspots across the state: Broome, Orange, Rockland, and Brooklyn.
As for attacking clusters across the state, Cuomo said the weapons the state has to rely on are testing, data analysis, and enforcement.
On Sunday, Cuomo said that local governments are not enforcing the guidelines and that some schools are not properly reporting COVID data.
"Local governments have not done an effective job of enforcement in these hot spot ZIP codes. The State will be doing aggressive enforcement starting tomorrow. As we saw with bars and restaurants, when the State initiated enforcement actions compliance greatly increased. However, the State cannot take over effective enforcement for every jurisdiction and if a local jurisdiction cannot or will not perform effective enforcement of violating entities, notify the State and we will close all business activity in the hot spots where the local governments cannot do compliance," said the Governor in a released statement on Sunday.
"I'm concerned about the lack of testing in the schools. If the localities do not do testing immediately in the schools in those areas, the State will close them immediately. We all want schools to reopen IF they can reopen safely. I have assured the parents of this State that I would not send my child to a school that I didn't know was safe. Without testing we can't assure parents and teachers of the safety of that school."
Cuomo says the state will now oversee enforcement in hot spot clusters. That could mean that businesses and religious organizations could be closed if guidelines aren't followed.