COVID cases/hospitalization on the rise in Monroe County

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Monroe County is now considered “medium risk” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it comes to COVID-19 transmission.

Over the last week, there were 4,173 new cases of COVID-19 reported bringing the 7-day rolling average to 596 new cases per day and 183 people are hospitalized in the Finger Lakes Region, that’s up 17 since last Monday and we’ve lost six Monroe County residents in the last week.

“Hospitalizations have ticked up recently but so far, we’re not overly alarmed where we think it’s necessary to implement any new restrictions or anything like that,” said Monroe County Executive Adam Bello.

Even if some of the hospitalizations are people who only found out they were COVID-positive when being treated for a different ailment, they’re still a stress on the system.

“Someone goes to the hospital for something else and it turns out they have COVID, they have to be isolated at the hospital, that’s an additional strain on the staff and the beds and everything else,” Bello said, “while you can just dismiss it as someone is in the hospital with COVID instead of because (of COVID) it’s still an added strain on the healthcare system.”

The issue may become worse before it gets better. The combination of Easter weekend and Spring Break for school children has the county bracing for bigger numbers this week and next.

“The prevalence of tests makes me, gives me a sense of reassurance,” Bello said, “the rapid tests, I’m a parent of two kids myself, they both came home with test kits before break and so I know we’ll be testing my kids before they go back to school and I would hope other parents do the same."

If you need testing kits, most of the libraries across Monroe County still have a supply. If you’re high risk or concerned about transmission, wear a mask in public settings, other than that Bello says we’re going to ride out the wave.

"If you look back at the last two Mays and Junes, our numbers have gone way down so, we’ll see what happens, if this remains to be seasonal, we know that while it’s more contagious, it’s also less severe,” Bello said.