ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo provided an update on the state's progress on the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday during a conference call.
Of the 135,000 tests reported for Wednesday, October 21, 1.2% of them were positive. That number includes the testing done in the micro-clusters downstate.
The positive rate in New York State for Wednesday, without the micro-clusters, was 0.96%.
The numbers are something Governor Cuomo said are "very good."
The positive rate in the micro-cluster areas downstate was 3.2% for Wednesday, that rate is "very low comparatively" the Governor said. "We over sample the micro-clusters because we are trying to do a lot of tests, a lot of contact tracing because we are trying to bring the number down."
Governor Cuomo said the positive rate in the Western New York Region for Wednesday was 1.5%.
Cuomo said the issue with that number for the region is due to an increase in cases in counties along the Pennsylvania border.
"The issue of counties along Pennsylvania border is where we are seeing an uptick, less of the Buffalo area, more along counties with the Pennsylvania border," Cuomo said during the conference call on Thursday.
Those counties in the region that are along the PA border are: Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.
The entire Western New York Region includes Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.