WPCNR COUNTY EXECUTIVE COVID REPORT TODAY. By John F. Bailey. August 2, 2021:
In his news conference ended at 3 PM, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, acknowledged the last week’s “steady rise” in coronavirus positive cases.
In the last eight days in analysis of New York State Covid 19- Tracker stats, WPCNR determined the previous 8 days produced an average 2.4% infection rate among an average 5,000 tested a day in 8 days of testing (which continued Sunday with 98 new persons testing positive of 4,024 tested–issued at 2 PM today),. The total of new covid cases for the 8 days : 884.
The County Executive doubled down on his announcement Friday afternoon of the effort to get all County Department workers vaccinated. He said he would be conducting person to person department by department talks to listen to and attempt to talk employees into agreeing to the vaccinations.
He explained details on his requirement for mask-wearing at pools, beaches, and parks. (where masked entering the beaches until you set up your beach location, then you can unmask, but if you leave the blanket for snack bar or facilities, mask-up) He has not issued mask rules for Playland yet.
He said at this time, despite the covid third wave that has reared up in one week with infection rates approaching the April 24 150 cases of 10,000 tested when the infection was just 1.5% on that date (on much smaller testing universes the last week), “We are not going down the rabbit hole.”
He said vaccines have limited the spread of the disease, and the spread was primarily the result of the Covid Delta deviant,(without specififying the percentage. Now he said the task is to overcome residents’ resistance to taking the vaccine. He reported the county now is one of the first counties, Manhattan and Nassau being the others to have 80% of population with one vaccine shot and the county has 62% of those 18 or older with both shots.
He said “We are not at the point of crisis where we need (further) mandatory measures.”
In a news conference question, Mr. Latimer said only the Governor could reinstall those previous emergency measures, closing establishments, mandatory masking, shutting schools. Mr. Latimer said he could not by law make decisions on privately owned businesses to restrict distancing, number of patrons, masks or any other restrictions;
He highlighted that Westchester crime was significantly down with 7 major categories of crime: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle thefts were brought down 11% between 2017 and 2020 and continued down in the first six months of 2021. The Westchester County Police Pistol License Authority secured a 370% increase in weapons secured after permits had expired, cutting down significantly on weapons reaching the street.
Bridget Gibbons, Director of Economic Development announced a Construction Career Fair in White Plains at the New York Power Authority to acquire construction tradesmen and women for two White Plains projects, getting under way: The Mitchell which has hired a new contractor, and the Gateway II project.
Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins, provided more revenue happy news about parks and recreation facilities. Playland to date has attracted 171,000 persons this summer. Beaches and pools have attracted 42,000 up from 9,744 last summer (a very rainy summer); and 172,000 rounds of golf have been played on county-owned courses.
County Executive Latimer finished with an outreach message calling on all Westchester residents to cooperate together for the common good of all to push the covid third wave back.
Earlier in the news conference he said the covid increase meant the “celebratory moment (the last two months) ” is now behind us. “
