ALBANY – Time to mask up in more than one third of New York counties, according to new federal guidelines and data.
Daily figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Sunday showed 23 of New York’s 62 counties met the COVID-19 spread threshold where the CDC recommends people should mask up indoors — even those who are vaccinated.
On Sunday, New York’s COVID positivity rate hit a seven-day average of 2.5%, its highest since mid-April and more than double what it was a year ago, when the rolling average was a mere 1%, state records show.
“This virus has always been unpredictable, and in the face of the Delta variant, our hard-won progress is only as good as our determination to build on it,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement Sunday.
The CDC added its new daily tracker last week to highlight COVID hot spots amid a surge in the more contagious Delta variant.
The mask guidance separates COVID transmission risks into four color-coded categories: low, moderate, substantial and high.
Indoor mask-wearing in public is recommended by the CDC in counties with substantial or high COVID transmission or test positivity rates. That means counties with at least 50 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population over the past seven days, or a COVID test positivity rate of 8% and above.
Initially, only New York City, Long Island and Greene County, which is south of Albany, had met the threshold.
But by Sunday, the mask recommendations in New York had spread further upstate to include Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties in the Hudson Valley; a cluster of counties in the Capital Region and the three largest upstate counties: Erie, Monroe and Onondaga.
As of Sunday night, Nassau, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island had reached the “high” transmission rate, which is at least 100 new cases per 100,000 people.
Almost all of the rest of New York’s counties were at “moderate” transmission, which the CDC is not recommending masks indoors.
Three rural upstate counties were deemed at low transmission, which is colored blue on the CDC map: Allegany, Genesee and Yates.
More:CDC says wear masks where COVID is spreading fast. Here’s where in NY.
Which New York counties are in the public mask zones?
Here is where the CDC recommends masks due to “substantial” or “high” spread. All counties below are in the “substantial” zone except for Nassau, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, which had hit the “high” zone.
- Albany
- Bronx
- Chenango
- Columbia
- Erie
- Kings
- Monroe
- Nassau
- New York
- Onondaga
- Orange
- Putnam
- Queens
- Rensselaer
- Richmond
- Saratoga
- Schenectady
- Schoharie
- Seneca
- Suffolk
- Sullivan
- Tompkins
- Westchester
Joseph Spector is the Government and Politics Editor for the USA TODAY Network’s Atlantic Group, overseeing coverage in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. He can be reached at JSPECTOR@Gannett.com or followed on Twitter: @GannettAlbany
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