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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS MONITOR. By John F. Bailey. April 12, 2021:

Westchester vaccinations of the covid vaccine may be having a impact on number of new Covid cases per day in Westchester County.

As more vaccinations are given every day, new covid infections in the county through Saturday are down a full percentage from the close-to-over 4% infection rate averaged the last two months.

Westchester’s consistently close to 4% Covid has lowered five straight days pending reconciled Saturday and Sunday figures by both the New York State Covid Tracker Workbook and the Westchester County County Covid-19 Tracker.

The state Saturday figures comparison of positive cases to number tested has the Westchester infection rate lowering to .02 % (2/10ths of 1% — of those tested, 123,838.) The Westchester chart reported only 10,200 tested with 290 testing positive or 2.8% Today the state corrected the number of tests its Covid Tracker reported Saturday (128,838) to reflect the Westchester numbers of 10,200 tested with 290 testing positive, 2.8%. The original Westchester County computer-linked Covid Tracker was correct.

This is still big time turnaround despite Sunday Westchester tests showing 3.7% infections (on 6,944 tests administered, 254 infections.

The dramatic sustained decline in infection rate is significant.

Westchester had 4 straight days of 3% on the nose infection rates going into Saturday.

The county infection is now averaging under 3% through Saturday sitting on 2.8%. If the state really did 123,838 tests Saturday bravo because the 290 infections in Westchester Saturday that the state reported lowers the county infection rate to just about zero. But that would mean the state did ten times the usual number of tests (12,000) the are the average number of high end testing figures when tests are ramped up. But the trend is still down.

In today’s Covid briefing by County Executive George Latimer, said hospitalizations were dropping.

In a week the hospitalizations dropped from 230 2 weeks ago to 209 and now are at 192 hospitalized, down 28 in 2 weeks .

WPCNR thinks that new infections numbers that could (with a 4.3% hospitalization rate) be averaging close to a hundred hospitalizations or more a week, are not being hospitalized near that 4.3% rate or suffering as seriously from Covid to require hospitalization.

Mr. Latimer said the vaccinations records from the state show 280,207 Westchester citizens have had both shots and 418,642 (43%) have yet to get their second. (The vaccination figures updated from the state vaccine tracker.)

Mr. Latimer said “We are closing in on 50% of the county population being fully vaccinated.”

WPCNR estimates that the county could hit that number by the first week in May and be 75% vaccinated by the middle of May, or possibly sooner.

If the county facilitiees continued to vaccinate the 418, 642 who had already had one shot at 13,000 a day rate over the next 33 days that would get all 418,642 with one shot fully vaccinated. The bottom line at that pace is 698,849 completely vaccinated by May 15, working out to 72% of the county population (967,912).

The greater number of people vaccinated is having the expected effect of protecting more of Westchester from the disease and the new variant B-1-1-1-7.