Monroe County reports 315 new COVID-19 cases

Rochester, N.Y. – Officials from the Monroe County Department of Public Health reported 315 new COVID-19 cases Monday, bringing the seven-day rolling average to 262 new cases per day.

The county’s seven-day rolling positivity rate is 4.67%, according to health officials.

Officials say there were no new virus deaths in Monroe County, leaving the to-date total at 309.

The health department updated reported that 184 people in the Finger Lakes region are hospitalized with the virus, including 33 in an ICU.

The highest number of reported hospitalizations since the pandemic began was May 30 when 195 people in Monroe County were hospitalized with the virus, but that was before the daily update included regional totals from the Finger Lakes, and was just representative of Monroe County data.

There are currently 1,786 active cases in Monroe County, down slightly from Friday’s figure of 1,887 — which was Monroe County’s all-time high since March.

Officials say there are currently 3,469 Monroe County residents under mandatory quarantine and 2,126 in isolation.

Ages of the new cases are as follows:

Health officials also announced upcoming changes to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard, effective Tuesday:

Upcoming Changes to the Monroe County COVID-19 Dashboard:

1)  COVID Tests and % of COVID Tests that were positive (7 day average)

At the start of the pandemic, the Monroe County Department of Public Health used a system called CDESS to track individuals tested for COVID-19 to determine the percentage of County residents tested. The CDESS system only counts individuals, not the number of tests they have undergone.

As the pandemic has continued, it has become common for many people to undergo multiple tests, especially individuals who work in a health care setting. CDESS does not count these additional tests, so it does not accurately reflect the percentage of tests that are positive in Monroe County.

Since New York State uses the percentage of tests that are positive to determine Monroe County’s positivity rate, we are changing our dashboard to reflect that percentage. Using a system called ECLRS, we will now count tests taken rather than using CDESS to count individuals.

This will eliminate the ongoing discrepancy between the New York State and Monroe County dashboards and provide information that is more useful during this stage of the pandemic.

2) People Released from Isolation

At the start of the pandemic, the Monroe County Department of Public Health used the term “recovered” to describe people who have completed their isolation period and are no longer considered infectious.

As the pandemic has continued, it has become evident that many people have mild to severe symptoms that continue beyond their isolation period. Therefore, we feel that “released” is a more appropriate term than “recovered” to describe these individuals.

3) 7-Day Average of New COVID-19 Positive Cases

We are adding this to the dashboard since it is a key metric as we track the prevalence of the disease in our community.

4) Maps

Our maps showing Cases by Zip Code and Zip Code Case Rate per 100K have been cumulative, showing the cases recorded since March.  We are now going to report the Cases and Case Rate by Zip Code for the Last 4 Weeks instead,to better reflect the current state of the pandemic and its impact on our neighborhoods.