NY Positivity Rate Flattens as 3.2 Million Become Eligible for Vaccine

NY Positivity Rate Flattens as 3.2 Million Become Eligible for Vaccine: New York State’s 7-day rolling average COVID-19 Positivity Rate ebbed from 7.94% to 7.56% last week, as New York enters Phase 1b of the Department of Health’s vaccine plan. Phase 1b, which begins today, Monday, January 11 opens up the vaccine pipeline to non-health workers for the first time. Groups that are newly eligible for the vaccine include people over the age of 75, and essential workers, education workers, first responders, EMS workers, public transit workers, and public safety workers.

New York Positivity Rate – the curve flattens

New York’s positive test rate is still up from 5.8% three weeks ago and 3.52% since before Thanksgiving and 111,289 New Yorkers had positive tests from 1,471,898 test. The state’s Mid-Hudson Region, that includes Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster, Dutchess, Sullivan and Orange counties also experienced a slight drop to 7.9% from 8.3% the previous week, compared to 6.3% three weeks ago. Long Island moved up to one of the state’s top three hardest hit regions with a positivity rate of 9.6%. The Finger Lakes’ rate was also 9.6% and the Mohawk Valley remains the only region with a double digit positive test rate at 10%. New York State’s positivity rate peaked at 49.9% on March 30 and was as low as .09% on September 18. It wasn’t until November 5th that it returned to 2%.

Westchester Drops to 7.2%

Westchester County’s positive test rate dropped from 7.8% to 7.2% last week. The County still has seven Micro-Cluster Focus Zones: New Rochelle, Ossining, Peekskill, Tarrytown, Port Chester and Yonkers. Nationally, the 7-day rolling average positive test rate dropped from 13.6% to 13.2% – it was 11.2% three weeks ago, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The US positive test rate peaked at 21.9% in the spring and bottomed at 4.1% in June and 4% in October.