Steady Decline Continues in Active COVID-19 Cases; Tuesday Vaccine Appointments Cancelled

As the coronavirus infection and hospitalization rate continues to fall across the state, Westchester County Executive George Latimer expressed some concern that daily cases are still being reported in the high hundreds.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that New York’s COVID-19 positivity rate has declined for 23 straight days, but Latimer on Monday said that while the area is headed in the right direction, he’s hesitant to predict any trends. Latimer did note Westchester has seen a downturn in recent active cases.

“There are still a lot of new infection cases,” Latimer said. “So, it’s still a significant percentage, but nonetheless, the numbers are heading in the right direction.”

Coronavirus cases in Westchester increased by 484 on Monday, bringing the total number of positive cases to 94,968 since the start of the pandemic. There are now 10,278 active cases, a decrease of 1,217 since last week.

The county’s daily positivity rate is 4.94 percent with 9,801 tests administered Saturday. Overall, nearly 1.8 million COVID-19 tests have been dispensed in Westchester since March.

The county reported 11 more deaths on Monday, bringing the COVID-19-related death toll to 1,917. Over the last week, 71 people have died from the virus in Westchester, with 242 fatalities since Jan. 1.

“That represents about a 2 percent fatality rate of all the people that contract the disease, so as a fatality rate that number has dropped because we’ve had more people test positive and a lesser percentage of them suffer fatality,” Latimer said. “But it is still a large number of absolute deaths.”

As of Wednesday, there are 571 virus patients in Westchester hospitals, a number that has remained steady over the last three weeks.

Putnam County’s total caseload reached 7,384, with 46 additional positive cases recorded on Monday. The county’s daily positivity rate is 5.23 percent, with 880 tests administered on Saturday.

Putnam currently has 937 active cases, a decrease of 223 since last week.

There have been 81 coronavirus-related deaths in Putnam since the start of the pandemic. Five people died from the virus last week, with 14 overall fatalities since the start of 2021.

No new deaths were reported on Monday.

Statewide there were 8,508 new positive cases on Monday, with the daily positivity rate clocking in at 4.86 percent. There were 141 additional COVID-19-related fatalities, bringing the death toll to 35,319.

Statewide hospitalizations stand at 8,003, an increase of 27 over the previous day. Across New York there have been 1,419,164 positive coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

“We’re locked in a footrace between the spread of COVID and the vaccine’s quick distribution, and New Yorkers should stay vigilant as we work to get more shots,” Cuomo said. “The good news is the holiday spike is over and the experts say that we’re on a downward trajectory. We just need to put in the work to keep it that way.”

Vaccine Appointments Cancelled on Feb. 2

Due to inclement weather stemming from the current nor’easter, New York officials will once again postpone COVID-19 vaccine appointments at various state-run distribution sites on Tuesday.

All appointments on Tuesday at the Westchester County Center, SUNY Stony Brook, Jones Beach, Aqueduct Racetrack and the Javits Center are canceled. New Yorkers with appointments at these sites will receive an email or text message rescheduling their vaccination for later this week.

Upstate state-run sites in Binghamton, Albany, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Utica, Syracuse, and Rochester will open with a delayed start at 10 a.m. Appointments previously scheduled before 10 a.m. at these sites will be rescheduled for later in the day, state official said.

The Buffalo University state vaccination site will be open regular hours with no change to scheduled appointments.

“This winter storm is already producing large amounts of snow and creating dangerous travel conditions, and it is expected to continue into tomorrow,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “For the safety of both workers and individuals scheduled to receive a vaccination, we will be postponing appointments for tomorrow at several vaccination sites that are being impacted by this storm. To be clear – no one is losing an appointment — they will all be rescheduled when conditions are safer.”

As part of the rescheduling process and to the extent possible, timing of new appointments will be scheduled in alignment with the original appointment’s time. If that new appointment time does not work for an individual given the change in day, they will be provided with a contact number to identify a different time that may work better for the individual.

Vaccine Numbers Update

As of Monday, New York’s health care distribution sites have received 1,554,450 first doses and administered 90 percent of those. Seventy-five percent of first and second doses have been administered.

On Sunday, the county government has directly administered 23,351 vaccines to eligible residents, Latimer said, with 18,584 individuals inoculated since the County Center became a distribution site on Jan. 13. The county health department has immunized 4,767 people, he said.

Both locations were closed Monday and Tuesday due to the snowstorm. Officials said those with appointments would be rescheduled later in the week.

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 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 – 36
• Bedford – 146
• Briarcliff Manor – 54
• Bronxville – 55
• Buchanan – 22
• Cortlandt – 308
• Croton-on-Hudson – 49
• Dobbs Ferry – 95
• Eastchester – 179
• Elmsford – 45
• Greenburgh – 390
• Harrison – 174
• Hastings-on-Hudson – 59
• Irvington – 49
• Larchmont – 56
• Lewisboro – 63
• Mamaroneck Town – 92
• Mamaroneck Village – 176
• Mount Kisco – 101
• Mount Pleasant – 211
• Mount Vernon – 801
• New Castle – 68
• New Rochelle – 908
• North Castle – 95
• North Salem – 31
• Ossining Town – 77
• Ossining Village – 349
• Peekskill – 309
• Pelham – 71
• Pelham Manor – 35
• Pleasantville – 64
• Port Chester – 303
• Pound Ridge – 19
• Rye Brook – 68
• Rye City – 108
• Scarsdale – 77
• Sleepy Hollow – 191
• Somers – 171
• Tarrytown – 150
• Tuckahoe – 74
• White Plains – 569
• Yonkers – 2,679
• Yorktown – 371