NEW YORK (WKBW) — During a COVID-19 briefing Monday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the Finger Lakes region has become a problem in regards to the spread of COVID-19 and hospitalizations.
"They have done a reversal with Western New York," said Cuomo. "WNY was a real problem and now Finger Lakes are a worse problem."
The WNY region consists of five counties - Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties. The Finger Lakes region consists of nine counties and includes Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties.
The data provided by the state on Monday said the WNY region had 474 COVID patients hospitalized (0.03% of its population) and the Finger Lakes region had 735 COVID patients hospitalized (0.06% of its population). The COVID positivity rate was 6.42% in the WNY region and 8.28% in the Finger Lakes region.
Cuomo said the WNY region has flattened for the time being and that's good news but the Finger Lakes region is a problem because of its proximity to the WNY region.
"You cant have two contiguous areas where one has a low infection rate and one has a high infection rate, because the high infection rate winds up infecting the lower infection rate," said Cuomo. "So the Finger Lakes are a problem in and of themselves, they're also a problem for WNY."
