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Western New York daily COVID-19 positive rate rises to 4.8% on Saturday

Data coming in from the Governor's Office on Sunday night shows the daily percent positive rate in the region increasing. Local elected officials are concerned.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York State Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz both talked Sunday morning about the uptick in COVID-19 cases in Western New York during a news conference.

Data coming in from the Governor's Office on Sunday night shows that the daily percent of positive tests in Western New York has increased during the past three days, and Western New York had the highest rate of any region over those three days.

From Thursday to Friday, Western New York's daily percent-positive rate increased an entire percentage point, from 3.3 percent to 4.3 percent. On Saturday, the rate was again higher, at 4.8 percent. 

Hochul said on Sunday that Western New York as a whole has an "unacceptably high" COVID-19 rate. 

You can read more about Hochul and Poloncarz's remarks here.

"We're seeing exponential growth across the entire county, even some of the smaller areas," Poloncarz said about Erie County on Sunday.

Indeed, on Saturday, Erie County reported a daily positive rate of 6.3 percent, with 259 new cases being confirmed out of 4,128 diagnostic tests. On Friday, the rate for Erie County was 4.8 percent, with 385 new positives out of 7,995 tests completed. 

According to the Governor's office, for a second day in a row, 18 people statewide have died from the virus. This includes four Erie County residents and 1 Allegany County resident. So far, 25,947 people have died from the virus in New York State.

Statewide, hospitalizations have increased by 15, to 1,396 patients. There have been 185 new patients admitted and 152 discharged. There are currently 295 people in the ICU statewide with COVID-19, and of those patients, 131 are intubated. 

Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to provide a full update on the state's response to COVID-19 in Western New York on Monday.

   

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