Total COVID Deaths in Westchester County Cross 2,000 Mark

As active coronavirus cases continue to drop in Westchester County, the area experienced an unfortunate milestone on Thursday topping 2,000 total virus deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The county reported six more deaths on Thursday, bringing the COVID-19-related death toll to 2,002, according to the state tracker. There have been 31 virus deaths this week, with 327 fatalities since Jan. 1.

County Executive George Latimer said during his Thursday briefing that the loss of any loved one is incalculable.

“Had COVID not been on the scene, that loved one would still be alive. 2,002 other groups of families have gone through that same experience and they know that however ill their loved one might have been, that COVID contributed to their death,” Latimer said. “And in some cases, the stories are tragic with people under the age of 40 dying with their whole life ahead of them.”

Coronavirus cases increased by 675 on Thursday, bringing the total number of positive cases to 99,984 since the start of the pandemic. There are now 7,922 active cases, a decrease of 164 over the previous day.

Active cases haven’t been below 8,000 since Dec. 8.

“We had peaked up through the holiday season that pushed those numbers up very high,” Latimer said. “We almost hit the 12,000-active cases marker and fell just short of that and now we’re on the downslope and we’re happy each passing day if we have less infection than we had two weeks ago.”

The county’s daily positivity rate is 4.65 percent, with 14,518 tests administered Tuesday. Overall, more than 1.88 million COVID-19 tests have been dispensed in Westchester since March.

As of Tuesday, there are 489 virus patients in Westchester hospitals, a nearly 15 percent decrease over the last few weeks. Hospitalizations were approaching 600 earlier this month.  

“The numbers are going down,” Latimer said. “We are encouraged that the infection rate is not as high as it was.”

Putnam County’s total caseload reached 7,746, with 47 additional positive cases recorded on Thursday, state data shows. The county’s daily positivity rate is 4.25 percent, with 1,107 tests administered on Tuesday.

Putnam currently has 575 active cases, a decrease of 12 over the previous day.

There have been 84 coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, state data shows. Two people have died from the virus this week, with 17 fatalities in 2021.

No new deaths were reported in Putnam on Thursday.

Statewide there were 10,099 new positive cases on Thursday, with the daily positivity rate clocking in at 3.54 percent. The statewide 7-day average positivity is 4.16 percent, the lowest since Dec. 1.

There were 122 additional COVID-19-related fatalities, bringing the death toll to 36,743.

Statewide hospitalizations stood at 7,342, a decrease of 251 over the previous day. Across New York there have been 1,504,286 positive coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

Vaccine Update 

New York’s health care distribution sites have received 2,002,055 first doses and administered 89 percent of those or 1,787,189. Overall, the state has administered about 2,341,255 vaccine doses since December. 

The Westchester County government has directly administered 37,670 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 7,000 individuals. 

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 – 33
• Bedford – 106
• Briarcliff Manor – 28
• Bronxville – 33
• Buchanan – 17
• Cortlandt – 187
• Croton-on-Hudson – 46
• Dobbs Ferry – 64
• Eastchester – 152
• Elmsford – 51
• Greenburgh – 287
• Harrison – 154
• Hastings-on-Hudson – 73
• Irvington – 35
• Larchmont – 31
• Lewisboro – 39
• Mamaroneck Town – 49
• Mamaroneck Village – 93
• Mount Kisco – 60
• Mount Pleasant – 203
• Mount Vernon – 655
• New Castle – 71
• New Rochelle – 758
• North Castle – 87
• North Salem – 38
• Ossining Town – 28
• Ossining Village – 183
• Peekskill – 207
• Pelham – 39
• Pelham Manor – 40
• Pleasantville – 37
• Port Chester – 258
• Pound Ridge – 23
• Rye Brook – 50
• Rye City – 70
• Scarsdale – 62
• Sleepy Hollow – 89
• Somers – 139
• Tarrytown – 98
• Tuckahoe – 46
• White Plains – 459
• Yonkers – 2,087
• Yorktown – 302