752 new COVID-19 cases reported in Monroe County

Rochester, New York — According to officials from the Monroe County Department of Public Health, 752 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Tuesday.

Over the last week, the county is now averaging 591 new COVID-19 cases per day, up from 455 last Monday.

On Monday, Monroe County officials also reported six new COVID-19 deaths, bringing the county’s to-date total to 1,829.

Officials also reported 183 regional COVID-19 hospitalizations Monday, including 17 in an ICU. Regional hospitalizations are up from 166 last Monday and 122 two weeks ago on April 4.

The recent rise in cases has been attributed to the presence of the highly contagious omicron BA.2 variant, first detected locally on March 24.

Despite the rise in cases, Monroe County Public Health Commissioner Dr. Michael Mendoza told News 8 earlier this month that this variant is “not as serious,” but he added that does not mean that individual people might not be at risk.”

“Well, we’re at a point in the pandemic where, as you said, people are very tired of having to hear about COVID, hear the numbers and cases and surges and all of that but the reality is we don’t have the luxury of yet saying that COVID is gone,” Dr. Mendoza said. “COVID is still with us — in fact this week I’m in the hospital taking care of people who have long-COVID and for those individuals, COVID is very much a very real thing.”