Westchester COVID Cases Rise – Concern for Winter Sports

Westchester COVID Cases Rise – Concern for Winter Sports: Four-hundred, fifty-nine new COVID cases over the weekend catapulted Westchester’s infection rate to over 3% for the first time since May 27. That included a 3.42% rate on Saturday. That put the county’s current active case load at 2,048 cases. That number was 442 three months ago. While the rise in the county’s active case load is largely caused by increased testing – the number all eyes are focused on is the positivity rate.

Westchester Health Commissioner Dr. Sherlita Amler suggested on Friday some new cases over the past week can be traced to Halloween parties. Port Chester, which was designated a Yellow Zone on Friday, has been the hardest hit area. It is unclear how much Port Chester is affecting Westchester’s numbers – but it is worth considering that the threshold for Yellow Zone designation is a 7-day rolling average of 2.5% for ten consecutive days.

There are two obvious caveats here. First, the entire county was above the Yellow Zone threshold for two days. Second, that positive rate would have to be maintained, without interruption, for 17 days (a 7-day rolling average for ten consecutive days). This would suggest that the Port Chester numbers could have a significant role in driving Westchester’s rising rate. Also worth noting is that Westchester numbers are outpacing State averages. On Sunday, New York’s positive rate was 3.72% inside the micro-cluster areas (New York City, Hudson Valley, Southern Tier) and 2.23% outside the hardest hit areas.

Although the state’s positive test rate remains one of the lowest in the country, the state’s COVID curve is moving in the wrong direction. With that New York state officials suggested today that indoor winter-youth sports are less likely to be allowed. That includes basketball, ice hockey, wrestling and competitive cheerleading.