Coronavirus Updates for Dec. 1: Hospitalizations Balloon as Cases Steadily Increase in Westchester County

Westchester County Executive George Latimer said that while progress has been made to curve the spread of coronavirus since June, the county is now reporting numbers that reflect a period early in the pandemic.

“The numbers in Westchester continue to rise and continue to be alarming numbers,” Latimer said during his briefing on Monday. “COVID infections are rising dramatically.”

Cases of the coronavirus increased by 583 on Monday, bringing the total number of positive cases to 50,693 since the start of the pandemic. Westchester’s daily positive infection rate is 5.84 percent, according to the state tracker, with the area reporting 6,117 active cases, a number that has more than quadrupled over the last month.

On Halloween, the county reported 1,193 active cases, Latimer said.

“The last time we had these many active cases it was May 3,” Latimer said. “Whatever progress we made in June, July, August, September, even October, we are now back to May level numbers of infections, of active number of cases and hospitalizations.”

During the last week, 15 people died of the virus, placing the county death toll since the start of the pandemic at 1,515. For the month of November there were 42 COVID-19-related deaths in Westchester.

While cases continue to explode in Westchester, Latimer said that COVID-19-related hospitalizations are currently manageable. He spoke with hospital administrators throughout the county on Monday, and they were confident that COVID-19 hospitalizations at this point were under control.

On Saturday, there were 244 virus patients in Westchester hospitals. While that number has doubled in the past two weeks, it represents less than 10 percent of the roughly 3,000 hospital beds within the county, Latimer said.

Putnam County’s total caseload has reached 2,844, according to the state, with 55 additional positive cases accounted for on Monday. The county’s daily positivity rate is 6.72 percent, state data shows, with 631 active cases recorded.

There have been 64 coronavirus-related deaths in Putnam. No new deaths were reported on Monday.

Statewide there were 6,819 new positive cases on Monday, with the daily positivity rate now 4.57 percent. The state recorded 54 additional COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the death toll to 26,734 since March, state data shows.

Total hospitalizations are at 3,532, an increase of 160 over the previous day, according to state data. Across the state there has been a total of 64,980 positive coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

Here are the latest updates on Dec. 1

The spiraling number of COVID-19 cases in New York State prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday to announce strategies focused on ensuring adequate hospital capacity, staff and testing while keeping schools open as much as possible.

On Sunday, the state reported 3,532 positive COVID-19 case statewide, a nearly 250 percent increase from Oct. 29 and up from 429 on Aug. 29. Health officials expect an even greater post-Thanksgiving and holiday season virus surge that may last into mid-January.

“We are now worried about overwhelming the hospital system, and if these numbers continue to increase, which we expect they will, you will see serious stress on the hospital system,” Cuomo said.

The governor said the state will extend its yellow, orange and red zone designations to include hospital rates, death rates, ICU capacity and personal protection equipment.

Other specific steps outlined by Cuomo calls for hospital systems, such as Northwell, Montefiore and others around the state, to shift patients to its other locations to avoid overwhelming a single facility. He warned that if a hospital gets overwhelmed, there will be a state investigation, and if it is found a hospital system failed to redistribute patients, it will be cited for malpractice.

Additional steps call for health care systems to prepare emergency field hospitals and be prepared to staff them, plan to increase bed capacity by 50 percent and confirm personal protection equipment stockpiles.

This Friday, the state will stop all elective surgery in Erie County because of a surge in cases in western New York State. The halt in elective surgeries will be considered elsewhere throughout the state should that become necessary.

Hospital systems are also being asked to identify retired doctors and nurses to have on standby to supplement current staff. Cuomo said the state must make these preparations to avoid the acute overload the health care system experienced in the spring.

“In the new battlefield, hospital capacity is the top concern – period” he said. “It’s about hospital beds, it’s about ICUs and it’s about having enough staff and enough equipment. That is the effect and that is what we’re going to have to deal with.”

In addition to the state’s strategies to manage hospitalizations, Cuomo also disclosed other measures to try and limit the spread of the disease. He said the state continue to look to increase overall testing, and target it more effectively to health care workers, nursing homes, schools and essential workers. The key is to have it targeted to the proper populations but also have a fair distribution of tests so it is most effective.

School News & Business Closures 

School

• Peekskill City School District will close and shift to virtual learning through Jan. 4.
• Primrose Elementary School will move Grade 2 to remote instruction through Dec. 2
• Ossining Union Free School District will be fully remote Tuesday, with Ossining High School and Anne M. Dorner Middle School remote on Wednesday.
• Somers Intermediate School will provide remote learning for Grade 5 through Dec. 7 due to a number of teachers and staff in quarantine.
• Kent Primary School will be fully remote through Dec. 8.
• Lakeland High School will be fully remote through Dec. 4.
• Yonkers Public Schools will be fully remote through Dec. 2.
• The City School District of New Rochelle is going all-virtual, except for a cohort of special education students, until Dec. 3

Business

• Mt. Kisco Seafood will remain closed through Thanksgiving with plans to reopen in December.

Westchester Active Coronavirus Cases by Municipality 

Here are the active cases by municipality in Westchester as of Monday. 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 – 22
• Bedford – 111
• Briarcliff Manor – 42
• Bronxville – 144
• Buchanan – 13
• Cortlandt – 137
• Croton-on-Hudson – 30
• Dobbs Ferry – 33
• Eastchester – 121
• Elmsford – 39
• Greenburgh – 191
• Harrison – 142
• Hastings-on-Hudson – 20
• Irvington – 21
• Larchmont – 18
• Lewisboro – 70
• Mamaroneck Town – 32
• Mamaroneck Village – 137
• Mount Kisco – 109
• Mount Pleasant – 84
• Mount Vernon – 317
• New Castle – 45
• New Rochelle – 462
• North Castle – 49
• North Salem – 38
• Ossining Town – 23
• Ossining Village – 270
• Peekskill – 156
• Pelham – 32
• Pelham Manor – 19
• Pleasantville – 40
• Port Chester – 228
• Pound Ridge – 17
• Rye Brook – 60
• Rye City – 77
• Scarsdale – 39
• Sleepy Hollow – 101
• Somers – 96
• Tarrytown – 58
• Tuckahoe – 26
• White Plains – 254
• Yonkers – 965
• Yorktown – 158

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