Orange County Is Now The Biggest COVID-19 ‘Hot Spot’ in New York
Parts of Orange County are reporting significantly more new COVID-19 cases than anywhere else in New York.
On Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in the "Red Zone" focus areas included as part of the Governor's Cluster Action Initiative, the positivity rate for test results reported yesterday is 4.13 percent, up from the 3.70 percent the day before. The "Red Zone" focus areas include parts of Orange and Rockland counties, as well as Brooklyn, Queens and parts of Broome County.
The "Red Zone" focus areas are home to 2.8 percent of the state's population, yet had 12.3 percent of all positive cases reported Monday to New York State, officials say.
"Our numbers overall continue to remain steady, despite the micro-clusters that have popped up in certain pockets of the state. Our strategy is to continue to identify these clusters if and when they pop up, get even more refined in our targeting and attack them as needed," Cuomo said. "As we go into the fall, and the numbers nationwide are going up, we must work to keep our numbers down - and that's going to take every New Yorker wearing their masks, socially distancing and being New York Tough to maintain our progress."
The "Red Zone" part of Orange County saw a significant increase in positive tests. On Monday, Cuomo reported 3.51 percent of COVID-19 tests came back positive in the "Red Zone" part of Orange County. On Tuesday, the Governor confirmed 14.38 percent of tests in the "Red Zone" part of Orange County came back positive.
The "Red Zone" part of Orange County reported the highest number of positive cases, no other "The "Red Zone" focus area was close to Orange County's numbers. Brooklyn placed second with 5.94 percent positive, according to the Governor's Office.
The "Red Zone" part of Orange County also has the highest positivity rate over the past two days, past week and past two weeks, according to the Governor's Office.
"Red Zone" part of Orange County:
- 9/27-10/3 % Positive: 24.64%
- 10/4- 10/10 % Positive: 12.41%
- Week to Date (10/11 - 10/12) % Positive: 9.85%
- (10/11) % Positive: 3.51%
- (10/12) % Positive: 14.38%