NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Another case of the highly contagious COVID variant was found in New York state, this time in Westchester County, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
The new case in Westchester brings the total number of COVID variant cases in the state to 18. Cuomo didn’t say where in Westchester the case was identified.
On Saturday, the governor announced that a 17th case had been found upstate in Tompkins County.
Two cases of the variant have been reported in New York City. Two cases were also found in both Nassau and Suffolk counties, respectively. The first case in the state was found in Saratoga Springs earlier this month; two more cases have been linked to that case.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Friday that the variant could become the dominant strain in the United States by March.
While the mutant strain isn’t believed to be more deadly, it is more transmissible, which could lead to more cases and, thus, more deaths, officials have warned.
Cuomo said Sunday that there were 13,842 more COVID cases statewide out of 246,507 tests conducted on Saturday. The state’s positivity rate declined from 5.77% to 5.61%.
There were 5,751 new cases in New York City.
Hospitalizations dropped by 117 patients to 8,771; that includes 1,012 newly admitted patients.
The number of patients in intensive care also declined by 30 to 1,550, while the number of intubated patients increased by 21 to 1,004.
The state reported another 172 deaths, bringing the death toll to 32,897.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, there were 4,686 new cases and another 26 deaths, Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Twitter.
The largest share of new cases were in Middlesex County, where 492 were reported. There were 440 new cases in Bergen County and 439 in Monmouth County.
Hospitalizations in the Garden State increased by 134 to 3,677 patients. There were 651 people in intensive care and 427 on ventilators.