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WPCNR COVID DAILY. Statistics from the NY Covid Tracker. Observations & Analysis by John F. Bailey. May 4, 2022:

Sunday and Monday produced 251 and 281 new covid cases of 6,218 tests conducted in Westchester County (266 NEW CASES A day) indicating a pattern of increasingly growing infections now at the beginning of weeks.

The infections then as the pattern of the WPCNR COVID LOG BOOK FOR APRIL shows over the last three weeks grow  swiftly Wednesday Thursday and Friday as more persons test and discover they have covid.

Why the public choosees to self-test, or come in for a test is unclear.

Do they have symptoms? Are they going to travel? Go to a party? Why test? Are they unvaccinated? Are they vaccinated with one dose? Or if you are fully vaccinated plus a booster, why test at all? When I felt I was exposed to persons who got covid,  I got tested and crossed our fingers.

The assumption I make, and it is strictly my opinion is those who have symptoms from activity on weekends with persons , perhaps this means a fast fast fast ability of covid variants to spread and infect.

But let us not kid ourselves. I am not a doctor and I do not have the statistics that should be being kept on every positive-reported person daily. The question is does the medical leaders in counties across NY really want to know what can shed light on this spread. Privacy laws applying to health matters cannot take precedence, here. Information must be gathered to see if the incubation period of the posse of covid variants is the same (10 to 14 days) or is faster.

Where are the answers to the obvious questions we need to know about persons testing positive.

Those questions are, in my opinion, and I am not a doctor,  just a reporter trying to help.

The only way to fight the obviously growing spread is to know how people are getting infected, why people think they might be positive, what their activities were, their ages, especially school children 5 to 18, and we know the infections in the schools are growing rapidly the last two weeks, and how sick did all persons get. In the matter of growing hospitalizations, obviously the covid infections for those hospitalized were serious. I would say the public needs to know who is getting really sick from this disease now being touted by officials as “people are not getting as sick from it.”

Questions we need to know about the new positives, I believe should be:

1. What were your activities the last few days?
2. When did you first experience symptoms, if you did ?
3. Why did you think you needed to be tested?
4. How many people did you encounter and where did you encounter them? (So contact tracing can be resumed, if no longer being done, in fact we do not know if contract tracing of the new positives the last 5 weeks of which there have been 9,632 in Westchester County alone.
5. Were you vaccinated? How many doses? Fully vaccinated? Fully vaccinated with one booster? No vaccinations? If child were they fully vaccinated, one shot, or no vaccinations at all.
6. Hospitalized, how serious and why?
7. Is this the second time you have caught covid?

That way you can establish a pattern of what is causing this spread. We the public need to told the truth about what is happening to cause 2,000 new infections a week in this county.

 Since most persons testing are doing it at home with a more reliable test,  or at a pharmacy or pop-up spot should be being closely monitored to answer questions like the ones that come to my mind as a rational reporter, if these questions are asked and info being collected we should be told the patterns.

If this information is known and is being collected and analyzed the intelligence and patterns that can be determined from these infections should not be suppressed. Medical experts  information to public officials on the state of the disease effects on various segments and demographics of the now 5^th Wave rolling in for a month should not be held back.

Let us assume that it is not being held back.

That would mean these questions I as a complete amateur are not being asked.

If this pandemic is now being judged over and we are opening up everything: restaurants, concerts, parades, beaches, and promoting and this is the effort of political leaders to promote that it is safe out there, let us hope 10,000 in a month in this county alone is just due persons refusing to vaccinate.

But if the leaders and health officials are wrong.

So far the laissez faire approach to socializing, masking mingling and staging giant events is not working. 10,000 cases in 5 weeks tells you that.

Through yesterday 19 Westchester Towns and Cities has over 100 cases the last two weeks and averaged 398 new cases daily, roughly paralleling the 4,615 new cases in Westchester the last two weeks. The spread of the infections are in the North, South East and West sections of the county. The highest infections are in the cities, but Peekskill and Port Chester each have less than 100 cases, 80 each while White Plains has  312 cases, Mount Vernon, 287, New Rochelle 399 and Yonkers, 692.

AROUND THE COUNTY, TOWN BY TOWN, CITY BY CITY  TWO WEEKS  OF OVER 100 ACTIVE CASES RANKED MAY 2, 2022

1. YONKERS  692 ACTIVE CASES  43 DAILY CASES

• NEW ROCHELLE  399

• GREENBURGH 318 ACTIVE CASES 26 DAILY CASES

• WHITE PLAINS  312 ACTIVE CASES  24 NEW A DAY

• MOUNT VERNON  287 ACTIVE CASES  12 NEW A DAY

• NORTH CASTLE & NEW CASTLE  249 ACTIVE CASES   24 NEW CASES DAILY

• YORKTOWN  241 ACTIVE CASES   12 NEW CASES A DAY

• MOUNT PLEASANT  211 ACTIVE CASES,  23 NEW CASES DAILY

• CORTLANDT  203 ACTIVE CASES, 27 NEW DAILY CASES

1. MAMARONECK TOWN, VILLAGE, LARCHMONT   197 ACTIVE CASES   11 NEW DAILY

1. HARRISON   149  ACTIVE CASES, 6 DAILY

1. SCARSDALE 134 ACTIVE CASES   15 DAILY NEW CASES

1. SLEEPY HOLLOW AND TARRYTOWN   138 ACTIVE CASES   10 DAILY

1. SOMERS   120 ACTIVE CASES, 10  A DAY

1. BEDFORD   129 ACTIVE CASES   11 NEW CASES DAILY

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Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that she is appointing Representative Antonio Delgado to serve as Lieutenant Governor of New York.

Representative Delgado currently represents New York’s 19th Congressional District, which includes the Hudson Valley and Catskills. Delgado is Afro-Latino, the first person of color to represent Upstate New York in Congress and a member of both the Black and Hispanic Congressional Caucuses.   

EDITOR’S NOTE: THE WAY TO THE NEW NOMINATION WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE VOTING 34-29 AND THE NY ASSEMBLY FOLLOWING SUIT VOTING 82-57 TO PASS GOVERNOR HOCHUL-REQUESTED NEW LEGISLATION TO ALLOW REMOVAL OF A CANDIDATE FROM THE BALLOT. BRIAN BENJAMIN, THE ERSTWHILE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR CANDIDATE RUNNING WITH GOVERNOR HOCHUL FOR THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR GOVERNOR RESIGNED WHEN ARRESTED ON BRIBERY CHARGES. ON TWITTER LAST NIGHT BENJAMIN SAID HE WOULD SIGN FORMS REMOVING HIS NAME FROM THE BALLOT. THE QUOTE FROM TWITTER: “I WOULD BE UNABLE TO SERVE UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES.”

“I am proud to appoint Antonio Delgado, an outstanding leader and public servant, as Lieutenant Governor of New York, and I look forward to working with him to usher in a new era of fairness, equity, and prosperity for communities across the State,” Governor Hochul said. “We share a belief in working together to get things done for New Yorkers, and Representative Delgado has an incredible record of doing just that in Congress. With Antonio Delgado by my side serving as Lieutenant Governor, we will both make history – and make a difference.” 

“New Yorkers deserve a Lieutenant Governor who’s working day and night to make lives better for working people and their families,” Representative Delgado said. “Upstate, downstate, doesn’t matter. We all want the same things, security, family, and opportunity. The key is to listen to New Yorkers from all walks of life and then be their voice to get the job done.”  

A native of Upstate New York, Representative Delgado grew up in Schenectady and lives in Rhinebeck with his wife, Lacey, and their twin eight-year-old sons, Maxwell and Coltrane. He attended Colgate University and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. Then, he received a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he met Lacey. He lived in New York City for several years as a young lawyer.

In Congress he has led the fight to deliver for his constituents – providing relief for family farms, helping small businesses rebuild and thrive, creating clean energy jobs, increasing access to broadband, and supporting our veterans.

In Congress, he’s worked with both parties to get things done for New Yorkers. He’s had 18 bills signed into law by Presidents of both parties. He passed critical reforms including the  Strengthening Financial Aid for Students Act, and the Improving Benefits for Underserved Veterans Act, Direct Support for Communities Act and the Small Business Relief Accessibility Act. 

Representative Delgado has held more than 65 town halls over his two terms in office across all 11 counties in the 19th District. Representative Delgado is also committed to ensuring transparency and accessibility, and he created four bipartisan, locally-based advisory committees on the priorities important to NY-19, including Small Business, Agriculture, Health Care and Veterans.  

He was first elected to Congress in 2018. Representative Delgado is the Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit, and he serves on the House Small Business and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees. 

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WPCNR FBI WIRE. From the Federal Bureau of Investigation. April 28, 2022:

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the unsealing of an Indictment in White Plains federal court charging ADAM BELARDINO, the Chief Executive Officer of the Maddox Group, a financial advisory firm in New York City and elsewhere, with wire fraud in connection with his embezzlement of more than $313,000 from a Maddox client, a 64 year old New Rochelle resident. 

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said:  “Adam Belardino abused the trust his client placed in him by stealing more than $313,000 the client gave him to be invested.  Clients like the victim in this case need to be able to entrust their money to financial advisors with confidence that the money will be invested in a manner that is appropriate for them.  This Office will aggressively pursue financial advisors and others who steal money entrusted to them by clients.”

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll said:  “Belardino is charged today for allegedly stealing several hundred thousand dollars from a client in an illegal investment fraud scheme. Financial crimes of this nature can cause significant disruptions to the lives of those who are victimized. We urge everyone to exercise their due diligence when investing their money and to report suspicious activity to authorities as soon as possible.”

According to the Indictment unsealed today in White Plains federal court[1]:

BELARDINO had managed the victim’s investments at another firm before he founded Maddox in July 2019.  In August 2019, BELARDINO convinced the victim to liquidate some of her portfolio and to transfer the liquidated funds to Maddox for investment.  The victim then transferred more than $313,000 to Maddox in eight separate transactions between August 2019 and October 2020.  Instead of investing the victim’s money as he had promised, BELARDINO used the victim’s money to pay the operating expenses of Maddox, including payroll and office rent; to pay down prior debt; to pay credit card charges, which consisted primarily of personal items; and to pay for personal travel. 

In September 2021, the victim directed BELARDINO to transfer her portfolio at Maddox to her brokerage account at another firm.  From September 2021 to February 2022, BELARDINO sent the victim and members of her family emails and texts in which he said he was liquidating the portfolio and would return the funds shortly.  BELARDINO also provided the victim’s family with documents suggesting that a wire transfer of the funds to the victim’s bank account was imminent or pending.  BELARDINO also deposited checks drawn on a checking account held by Maddox into the victim’s bank account for what he claimed was the full value of the victim’s portfolio. 

The victim never received any funds by wire and the checks BELARDINO deposited into her bank account were returned because the Maddox account did not have sufficient funds to cover the checks.  BELARDINO sent members of the victim’s family emails and texts in which he said in substance and in part that he was working with bank officials to resolve the problem and that his family would repay the victim if he was unable to do so.  BELARDINO also sent members of the victim’s family a document that falsely stated that the Maddox bank account had sufficient funds to repay the victim.

BELARDINO, 37, of New York City, is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. 

The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.