NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Westchester County Executive George Latimer on Tuesday reported an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations, but said the number of deaths in the county was below 20 for the fifth straight day.
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Fifteen people died overnight Monday into Tuesday, bringing the county's death toll to 1,116, Latimer said during his daily briefing. He also reported 143 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of positive cases in the county to 30,240.
There are currently 5,584 active cases in the county, compared to around 11,000 three weeks to a month ago, according to Latimer.
"We've cut that number of active cases down in half over the course of the last three weeks to a month," he said. "That is a good sign."
The number of fatalities was also below 20 for the fifth day in a row, he said. The county's fatality rate is currently 3.7 percent.
"Every fatality is a tragedy. No fatality is to be turned into a statistic," he said. "But we've had nights going back to the peak period of time where we lost 40, 50 people a night, so obviously the less that we lose the better off that we feel that we are in protecting that many more lives."
Hospitalizations, on the other hand, were up by more than 50 overnight into Tuesday, Latimer said. As of Tuesday, 716 Westchester were hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment.
"We have been steadily decreasing for three weeks… so there was a spike. It is an unusual spike," he said. "We'll see in the next few days if that continues to be a new trend."
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