Central New York Has Highest Jump in Coronavirus Positive Rate in the State

Central New York has the highest jump in coronavirus positive rates in the state, increasing to 2.3% Monday, up from 1.4% the day before.

The Southern Tier is second highest at 2.2%. Good news for the Mohawk Valley, which includes Oneida County, the positive rate is only 0.7%. The North Country has the lowest rate in the state at 0.5%.

"Our numbers overall continue to remain steady, despite the micro-clusters that have popped up in certain pockets of the state. Our strategy is to continue to identify these clusters if and when they pop up, get even more refined in our targeting and attack them as needed," Governor Cuomo said. "As we go into the fall, and the numbers nationwide are going up, we must work to keep our numbers down - and that's going to take every New Yorker wearing their masks, socially distancing and being New York Tough to maintain our progress."

Of the 118 new hospital admissions Monday, 42% were from several counties - Brooklyn, Queens, Rockland, Orange, and Broome - where the state is tracking recent cluster outbreak situations. New York State in June averaged 128 new admissions per day, 94 new admissions per day in July, and 69 new daily admissions in August. The recent increase in daily hospital admissions has been primarily from the cluster areas the state is closely monitoring, which have accounted for approx. 70 percent of the increase in daily hospital admissions between early September and today. New York's peak of total COVID patients in the hospital at one time was 18,825 on April 12.

Governor Cuomo added Ohio, Michigan and Virginia to the travel advisory and warned the state may have to shut down again if rates continue to rise and we see a second wave of COVID-19. "I believe it's possible, I don't believe it's inevitable," Cuomo told Willie Geist on TODAY. "The game isn't over. It is halftime. We didn't lose, it's only halftime. And we had some success. But we also are making a lot of mistakes."

Monday there were 11 deaths due to COVID-19 in New York State, bringing the total to 25,598.