Holiday weekend will test health guidelines

FINGER LAKES--With New York's regions slowly beginning to open in phase one after the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pause, many in the state and throughout the country are ready to get back to typical springtime activities. However, health experts are cautioning the public the virus still spreads quickly so continuing to clean hands, social distance, wear a face covering and disinfect surfaces frequently are extremely important.
As testing continues to increase so will the number of positive COVID results.
"You start to increase economic activity, you have more people coming out of their homes, more people contacting other people and then you measure the impact of that increase with numbers," said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Monday, May 18. "You have 30 tracers ready for every 100,000 residents. That comes from the experts, and then you watch the infection rate and you make sure that you don't get near 1.1."
According to Dr. Samir Bhatt, an advisor brought on by New York state, "If R [the reproduction number of the virus] goes above 1, this means the virus is no longer contained, and we need to track." He stated the large amount of data collected by New York will allow trends to be discovered faster and changes implemented quickly.
Schuyler County now has 12 total positives, with 10 recovered and 45 in isolation or quarantine.
In Yates County, the number of total positive cases has increased to 37, with 25 recovered, five deaths and 42 in isolation or quarantine.
Steuben County moves to 251 confirmed cases, 157 recovered, six hospitalized, 41 deaths and 174 in isolation or quarantine.
Steuben County Public Health stated in their most recent update, "A good number of our recent cases have been asymptomatic."