Latimer Says Continued Decline in COVID Infections, Hospitalizations is ‘Encouraging’

Westchester County Executive George Latimer called the roughly six week diminution in COVID-19 data encouraging, but is still cautious to label the activity a trend with a high number of infections still being recorded daily. 

While the active cases, fatalities, and hospitalizations are much lower compared to what they were during the holiday season, Latimer during a press briefing on Thursday said that the county isn’t out of the woods just yet. He reminded folks that the area has seen cases decline significantly only for infections to ramp back up. 

“The number of fatalities, the number of hospitalizations and the number of total active cases have continued in the downward direction, good news, but it is a slow and steady reduction,” Latimer said. “It is not a dramatic reduction and we’re not at the point yet where we can any way assume that we are out of this.” 

Cases of COVID-19 increased by 579 in Westchester County on Thursday, bringing the total number of positive cases to 106,129 since the start of the pandemic.

There are now 6,145 active cases, state data shows, a decline of 885 over last week. 

The daily positivity rate is 4.07 percent, with 14,231 tests administered Tuesday, according to the state tracker. Overall, more than 2 million COVID-19 tests have been dispensed in Westchester since March.

“The testing number really shows that we’re committed to trying to identify exactly how many people have COVID,” Latimer said. “We know that there are people who have not been tested over the course of the year and also had the disease but we know that we can track 106,129, which represents 10 percent of the population of Westchester County who have had this disease at one time or another.”

Three more deaths were reported on Thursday, bringing the COVID-19-related death toll to 2,081. There have been 27 virus deaths this week, with 405 since Jan. 1.

There are 383 virus patients in Westchester hospitals, a significant decline compared to the start of the month when hospitalizations neared 600. 

“Three hundred and eighty three people is still a large number of people but is nowhere near the capacity of our hospital system,” Latimer said, noting that the county can hospitalize up to 3,000 individuals. “We are not in any jeopardy of our system being over taxed with the downward slope in infection, all of which is good, where still at a stable point.”

Putnam County’s total caseload reached 8,244, with 40 additional positive cases recorded on Thursday. The daily positivity rate is 4.16 percent, with 962 tests administered on Tuesday.

Active cases have reached 498, state data shows. 

There have been a total of 86 coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, state data shows, with 18 fatalities in 2021. 

Statewide there were 8,746 new positive cases on Thursday, with the daily positivity rate clocking in at 3.14 percent. The 7-day average positivity is 3.34 percent, the lowest since Nov. 27.  

There were 89 additional COVID-19-related fatalities, bringing the death toll to 38,227.

Statewide hospitalizations stand at 5,703, a decrease of 173 over the previous day. Across New York there have been 1,606,520 positive coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

Vaccine Update 

New York’s health care distribution sites have received 2,812,900 first doses and administered 91 percent of those or 2,562,274. Eighty-eight percent of first and second doses have been dispensed. 

The Westchester County government has directly administered 65,757 vaccines to eligible residents since the County Center became a distribution site on Jan. 13. The county health department and Westchester Community College sites have inoculated about 10,867 individuals, as of Thursday. 

Click HERE to see if you’re eligible to make an appointment. 

Westchester Active Coronavirus Cases by Municipality 

Here are the active cases by municipality in Westchester as of Thursday. With a lag between the total number of cases confirmed by the state and the tally of cases by town, the total number of municipal cases might be slightly different than what the county’s active cases reflects.

• Ardsley – 25
• Bedford – 81
• Briarcliff Manor – 28
• Bronxville – 21
• Buchanan – 7
• Cortlandt – 137
• Croton-on-Hudson – 28
• Dobbs Ferry – 65
• Eastchester – 152
• Elmsford – 32
• Greenburgh – 200
• Harrison – 182
• Hastings-on-Hudson – 28
• Irvington – 21
• Larchmont – 50
• Lewisboro – 44
• Mamaroneck Town – 49
• Mamaroneck Village – 82
• Mount Kisco – 42
• Mount Pleasant – 122
• Mount Vernon – 503
• New Castle – 59
• New Rochelle – 529
• North Castle – 63
• North Salem – 19
• Ossining Town – 16
• Ossining Village – 176
• Peekskill – 127
• Pelham – 33
• Pelham Manor – 37
• Pleasantville – 28
• Port Chester – 248
• Pound Ridge – 8
• Rye Brook – 45
• Rye City – 83
• Scarsdale – 64
• Sleepy Hollow – 68
• Somers – 100
• Tarrytown – 91
• Tuckahoe – 47
• White Plains – 357
• Yonkers – 1,621
• Yorktown – 233