NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Schools in New York's precautionary "yellow zones" will receive rapid COVID-19 test kits as part of a rollout aimed at ramping up testing in every county in the state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.
The state will send thousands of 15-minute testing kits to health departments, hospitals, pharmacies and other health care facilities in its 62 counties, starting with an initial batch of 400,000 kits, Cuomo said in a release Friday afternoon.
Local governments will be able to provide schools in areas that the state's new "Cluster Action Initiative" has deemed "yellow zones" with free kits "on an as-needed basis," the release noted.
NOT SURE IF YOU'RE IN ONE OF THE ZONES? Plug your address into the city's new "Find Your Zone" map.
Schools in "yellow zones" are allowed to remain open — unlike schools in "orange zone" and "red zones" — but will be required to test 20 percent of their students, staff members and teachers on a weekly basis starting Oct. 16.
"These rapid test kits will allow health care institutions throughout the state to quickly and accurately determine COVID-19's spread, control outbreaks and keep families and communities safe," Cuomo said in a statement.
"We will provide rapid test kits, as needed, free of charge to all localities to help them meet this new requirement, giving parents, teachers and students confidence in the safety of their educational experiences," he added.
New York's high-risk "red zones" reported 19.7 percent of the state's new COVID-19 cases over the past three weeks, despite representing less than three percent of its population, Cuomo said earlier in the day on Friday.
The state's three-week average infection rate, excluding the red zones, was 0.91 percent, he said. The red zones themselves reported a three-week infection rate of 6.4 percent.
Of the 139,300 COVID-19 test results that came back in New York state on Thursday, 1,592, or 1.14 percent, were positive.
The state also reported six new deaths: one in Brooklyn, one in Oneida County, two in Queens, one in Steuben County and one in Westchester County, Cuomo said.
"Our numbers statewide remain positive, but we must work together to protect our progress: it is going to take all of us to keep washing our hands, wearing our masks, remaining socially distant, getting our flu shots and staying New York Tough," he said in a statement.
Breakdowns of infection rates by region, as well as by New York City borough, are below:
The state also released a breakdown of the 20 ZIP codes with the highest infection rates:
