Coronavirus Infections Rise 'Dramatically' In Westchester

WHITE PLAINS, NY — Coronavirus infections continue to rise dramatically in Westchester County, according to Executive George Latimer.

During the first of his two weekly news conference on the coronavirus, he called the latest numbers "alarming."

As of Monday, there were 6,117 active cases of the virus in the county. Active cases are those individuals who have not recovered from being infected.

Latimer said that one week ago there were 4,808 actives cases. Two weeks ago there were 3,515; a month ago, 1,393.

He said the current infection rate was 5.6 percent, up from Sunday's 4.7 percent.

The number of people in the hospital for COVID-19-related illnesses is also on the rise, Latimer said.

The last number of reported hospitalizations was 244 for Saturday. That number has doubled in two weeks, he said, and increased by almost 200 over the past month.

Latimer said the number of fatalities in the county had grown to 1,515. There were 42 additional deaths since the beginning of November.

He said that the county is now back to the level of numbers as it saw in May.

"It's worse each Monday over the prior Monday," Latimer said.

While the number and zone-color designations of the six micro-clusters in the county have not changed, he said the county is keeping an eye on urban centers such as White Plains and Mount Vernon and other communities that have concentrated populations.

Latimer mentioned that the county has had preliminary calls with Mount Kisco about possibly becoming a yellow zone and what the town could expect in assistance and advice.

Port Chester remains the only orange zone, with Peekskill, Ossining, Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow, Yonkers and New Rochelle as yellow zones.

Yellow-zone rules include a 25-person maximum for mass gatherings, no more than four people to a table while dining, and 20 percent weekly testing of in-person students and faculty in schools.

Orange-zone rules include a 10-person max for mass gatherings, takeout or outdoor dining only with a four-person max at each table, the closing of high-risk nonessential businesses and schools having remote-only learning.

Here is the county-provided map of total and active cases of the new coronavirus broken down by community.

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