COVID-19 Hospitalization Rates Higher In Orange, Rockland

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Seven out of 10 of the people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Hudson region are residents of Orange or Rockland, where coronavirus positivity rates continue to far outpace New York state.

As of Oct. 6, in Orange County there were 52 people hospitalized for confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19. In Rockland County, there were 18.

In the whole seven-county Hudson region, there were 101 COVID-19 patients hospitalized Oct. 6, according to the NY Health Department. That's up from 39 a month ago.

In a briefing Wednesday morning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted that in Brooklyn, Queens, Orange and Rockland counties, coronavirus hot spots that represent just 6.7 percent of the state's population have accounted for 20 percent of the New York total for new hospital admissions over the past two weeks for COVID-19.

"We've seen time and time again throughout this pandemic—mass gatherings become a cluster, which can spread and become an outbreak if we don't stop the cluster early," Cuomo said.

Statewide, the coronavirus positivity rate is at 1 percent, he said. The combined infection rate in the 20 hot spots is five times that rate, he said. Orange and Rockland county coronavirus clusters continue to lead the list.

Cuomo defended the new initiative imposing restrictions on six hot spots: Rockland, Orange and Broome counties plus Brooklyn and Queens.

"The focus is on the hot spots," he said. "Why? Number one, we want to save lives in the hot spots. Number two, we want to make sure the infection rate in the hot spots does not spread. The spread is inevitable if we do not control the hot spot. There are facts, even if they're unpleasant. And we know because we have lived it, and every expert will tell you, and our experience shows it, if you do not control the infection rate it will spread."

He argued that the rules shutting down schools and non-essential businesses and forbidding mass gatherings for 14 days in the neighborhoods where coronavirus cases are densest are better than shutting down whole regions again, as other states have had to do when their outbreaks re-intensified.

"Some people are unhappy. I understand it," he said. "These limitations are better than going back to closedown which is what happens when the infection increases. We have been more phased and more calibrated in our response."

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