BUFFALO, N.Y. — COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and patients in intensive care units and on ventilators in New York State continue to rise.
Locally, the Western New York region had the highest daily percent of positive tests on Saturday of any region in the state. Additionally, according to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, this week's cases in Erie County amounted to 16 percent of all cases reported throughout the pandemic.
Western New York's daily rate of positive coronavirus tests on Thursday was 3.9 percent, then 4.6 percent on Friday, then to 5.6 percent on Saturday. This rate gives insight into the percentage of people who tested positive for the virus on a given day.
Erie County's Yellow Zone continues to have the third highest seven-day rolling-average of positive tests of all the cluster action initiative zones at 7.3 percent, according to data from the Governor's office.
Saturday showed a slightly lower daily rate than Friday for the Yellow Zone, with 6.62 percent of tests coming back positive compared to the 8.17 percent on Friday.
Statewide, hospital statistics continue to rise. Patients hospitalized in New York State rose by 57 to 1,845, with 266 patients newly admitted and 203 people discharged. Eleven more people have been admitted to intensive care units, for a total of 378 people currently in ICUs statewide, including 158 people who are intubated. Intubations are also up by 12.
New York State has now seen 26,133 people die from the virus, including 30 people Saturday. Five of the people who died Saturday were from Erie County.
"These next few weeks will be challenging as the holidays arrive. We all want to be with our loved ones, especially after this hard year, but we must remain vigilant. We all have COVID fatigue, but we simply don't have the luxury of letting our guard down. COVID isn't tired," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a press release.