New York reaches new low for COVID-19 hospitalizations, WNY has highest COVID-19 test positivity rate in state

(WIVB) – New York State has reached a new low for COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU patients, and intubations.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday that coronavirus hospitalizations have dropped to 472 across the state- a new low since March 16.

ICU patients with COVID-19 are down to 110, a new low since March 15, and intubations are down to 50- a new low for the state since mid-March.

Today's update on the numbers:

Of the 74,043 tests reported yesterday, 572 were positive (0.77% of total).

Total hospitalizations fell to 472.

Sadly, there were 5 COVID fatalities yesterday. pic.twitter.com/7pI7K1xZo4
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 23, 2020

There were five COVID-19 deaths in New York State on Saturday.

Saturday was also the 16th straight day with a positivity rate below one percent- 0.77 percent of Saturday’s tests were positive.

However, the Western New York region has had the highest percentage of positive COVID-19 tests in the state for three straight days.

On Saturday, 1.8 percent of COVID-19 tests in the WNY region were positive.

REGION	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
Capital Region	0.7%	0.5%	0.5%
Central New York	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%
Finger Lakes	0.3%	0.6%	0.5%
Long Island	0.7%	0.7%	0.8%
Mid-Hudson	0.9%	0.7%	0.8%
Mohawk Valley	0.8	0.4%	0.2%
New York City	0.7%	0.7%	0.8%
North Country	0.2%	0.8%	0.3%
Southern Tier	0.5%	0.5%	0.6%
Western New York	1.6%	1.4%	1.8%

There were 572 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed across the state on Saturday. Here’s a breakdown by county:

County	Total Positive	New Positive
Albany	2,699	6
Allegany	85	1
Broome	1,239	12
Cattaraugus	180	2
Cayuga	167	1
Chautauqua	289	2
Chemung	194	0
Chenango	223	0
Clinton	141	0
Columbia	562	1
Cortland	98	0
Delaware	109	0
Dutchess	4,767	14
Erie	9,465	52
Essex	100	2
Franklin	56	0
Fulton	309	1
Genesee	290	0
Greene	305	0
Hamilton	12	0
Herkimer	289	0
Jefferson	145	1
Lewis	47	0
Livingston	180	1
Madison	432	0
Monroe	5,317	20
Montgomery	194	1
Nassau	44,245	40
Niagara	1,575	9
NYC	232,120	279
Oneida	2,244	2
Onondaga	3,758	2
Ontario	381	3
Orange	11,334	6
Orleans	304	0
Oswego	282	1
Otsego	124	0
Putnam	1,473	0
Rensselaer	817	4
Rockland	14,129	11
Saratoga	815	2
Schenectady	1,179	7
Schoharie	69	0
Schuyler	24	0
Seneca	95	0
St. Lawrence	267	2
Steuben	310	1
Suffolk	44,498	42
Sullivan	1,495	0
Tioga	206	2
Tompkins	244	0
Ulster	2,127	1
Warren	315	0
Washington	266	0
Wayne	275	0
Westchester	36,689	38
Wyoming	123	2
Yates	60	1

Yesterday, there were 5 deaths due to COVID-19 in New York State, bringing the total to 25,288. A geographic breakdown is as follows, by county of residence: