5,431 new COVID-19 cases, and 30 new deaths reported in Monroe County

Rochester, New York — According to officials from the Monroe County Department of Public Health on Tuesday, 5,799 new COVID-19 cases, and 30 new deaths are reported since the last update Friday. The health department does not report daily COVID-19 updates on weekends or holidays.

Officials also reported 30 new COVID-19 deaths Tuesday for Monroe County, adding that those deaths occurred between December 15 and January 12. The health department reports COVID-19 deaths weekly and to date there have been 1,644 COVID-19 deaths in Monroe County.

County officials say 1,237 new cases were discovered Tuesday (447 lab-confirmed, 790 at-home), 2,024 on Saturday, 1,301 on Sunday, and 869 on Monday.

The county is now averaging 1,724 new cases per day over the past week. Monroe County now has a seven-day rolling average positivity rate of 17.5%.

Officials say 741 people in the Finger Lakes region are hospitalized with the virus, including 125 in an ICU, up 7 and down 4, respectively, since Friday’s update. There has been an increase of 229 regional COVID hospitalizations in the Finger Lakes since December 31.

As of the Monroe County COVID-19 dashboard’s last local vaccination update, 552,604 county residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine — 84.5% of the county’s 18+ population. Additionally, officials say 515,263 residents are fully vaccinated.

While case rates are decreasing, hospitalizations and ICU patients are not.

“As cases peaked beginning of last week, hospitalizations tend to be about a week or so behind when cases peak,” said Dr. Angela Branche with the University of Rochester Medical Center. “So you’d expect hospitalizations to peak this week or next week and hopefully start to go down as well.”

Hospital numbers are not letting up – that’s true of hospitals across the region. Dr. Emil Lesho with Rochester Regional Health says their ICU patients and hospitalizations have ticked up as of late.

Looking past omicron toward the future – and any future variants of concern – timing will play a big role.

“If it comes relatively soon, most of us should have a substantial degree of protection to it,” Lesho explained. “But if it comes a year later, our immunity could wane.

“I think it’s, maybe, at the early stages of the right direction,” Branche added.