This was a portion of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s update Monday to New Yorkers (at least to downstate New Yorkers) on the status of the Covid-19 pandemic. What’s missing? No reference to upstate; no shoutout to the eight county Southern Tier region, including Tioga, Broome and Chemung counties, which boasts the lowest positivity Covid test rate in the entire state … 0.82 percent in Monday’s report; no mention of the 1.67 percent positivity rate in neighboring Central New York.
Here’s what Cuomo said about downstate:
“Good news overall. The positivity post-holiday increase has continued to decrease. Congratulations to New Yorkers. We went from 7.9 down to 3.7. That is very good news.
“Positivity, Long Island, 4.6, second, Mid-Hudson, 4.5. Long Island has been a problem for a number of weeks. It continues to be a problem. And in New York City it’s the Bronx, 6.1. That is a continuation. We opened Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, but that is a problem. Manhattan is down to 2.7. Queens, Brooklyn, 4.6, 4.5.
“We have new FEMA sites in Queens and Brooklyn that we’re doing jointly with the federal government, state FEMA sites. Those are going to be very large mass vaccination sites. And Staten Island is below Queens and Brooklyn, so that’s good news.”
And that’s it.
