Good News, Bad News: COVID Surge Slows, New Strain Concerns Rise

The post-holiday surge seems to be slowing as concerns are heightened for the UK strain of COVID-19.

It is not quite a case of one step forward, two steps back, but good news/bad news definitely applies here. Earlier this week Governor Cuomo shared the encouraging news on Twitter that "New York's test positivity rate has gone down from the post-holiday high." However, in the same tweet the Governor expressed concern regarding the very contagious UK strain of the virus which recently popped up in Saratoga County. Cuomo says this new strain could present a whole new set of challenges for the public and our hospitals.

As we reported earlier this month, the UK strain of coronavirus is more contagious than what we have been dealing with for most of the pandemic. Even though this new strain is here right now, it is still encouraging that we have passed the apex of the holiday surge and infection rates are heading in the right direction. Now that the season for family gatherings has passed and we settle in for the winter months ahead, even with the new strain, one can hope the built in social distancing of the winter months will help the downward infection trend to continue.

Amidst both of these developments, the Governor also announced that 5 more vaccination sites (All outside of the Capital Region) throughout the state are now up and running.

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