ALBANY, N.Y. — On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state has updated COVID-19 cluster zone areas.
The Yellow Zone in Niagara County has now expanded to cover Niagara Falls, Lockport, Sanborn, Wheatfield and other portions of the county. There are also new Yellow Zones in Batavia and other portions of Genesee County.
As of right now, no areas are being moved into a Red Zone locally.
In Niagara County, the Yellow Zone was expanded to cover Niagara Falls, Lockport, Lewiston, Sanborn, Wheatfield and other portions of the county.
"Not a big surprise, we've dealt with North Tonawanda being in a Yellow Cluster for about a month now," said Niagara County Public Health Director Dan Stapleton. "We have seen our numbers have been increasing. Not surprisingly, we've seen an increase along the border that we share with Erie County."
Stapleton said Niagara County surpassed 6,000 cases since the pandemic began and 37 people are currently in the hospital with COVID-19.
Cuomo also shared in the announcement that the state is focusing on hospital capacities and warning that if the state doesn't change the COVID-19 trajectory, things will get worse and the state may go into a shutdown.
A shutdown would close all non-essential businesses, like in the spring.
The governor emphasized that the problem with the spread of the virus right now "is people staying home and inviting people over."
Small gatherings, aka "living room spread," has accounted for 74 percent of COVID-19 cases that have been contact-traced.
Cuomo reminded residents that COVID-19 spreaders aren't malicious. Anyone can be infected by COVID-19, and some people are asymptomatic and don't know that they are spreading the virus.
Additionally, a major part of increasing hospital capacities will include improving management of hospitals and hospital systems.
Cuomo says this will ensure, that unlike in the spring, there is a network so that when a hospital is struggling, it can reach out to other hospitals for support or to transfer patients.
The hospital management should also contact the Department of Health before they get overwhelmed.
