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Chautauqua County is hoping it is "beyond our peak of cases" regarding COVID-19 Breeanne Agett, epidemiologist with the county Health Department, said what happened here was consistent with trends across the state and country as COVID-19 cases surged in December 2020 and January 2021. “With vaccinations on the rise and winter holidays in the books, we are hopeful that our county is now beyond our peak of cases,” commented Agett. “Our highest reported number of daily cases was 265 on January 9.” In December, 2,008 cases of COVID were reported in the county with January having ...

COVID positivity rate continues fall in county

The slowing rate of new COVID-19 cases in Chautauqua County continued over the weekend, with 51 new cases reported between Friday and Sunday. There have been 7,441 total confirmed cases to date, with 141 currently active, along with 13 people with the virus in the hospital, 136 ...

State GOP support bill to end Cuomo’s executive powers

New York's Republicans are trying to get state Democrats to take action to strip Gov. Andrew Cuomo of his emergency powers. Republicans in the Senate and Assembly plan to introduce hostile amendments on the Senate and Assembly floor to end Cuomo's emergency authority. Republicans have said ...

Report: state quashed plan to put vaccination center in Chautauqua County

New York state reportedly quashed a federal plan to put a vaccination center in Chautauqua County. NBC News reported early Monday morning that the Biden Administration had begun looking for sites for four small vaccination centers in New York state. Federal officials ranked the best spots ...

SUNY Fredonia enhances COVID tracker

As return to campus for the spring semester, Jim Malatras, State University of New York chancellor, has launched enhancements to the COVID-19 Tracker dashboard. The upgrades allow additional transparency on SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities, so campuses have the most information to isolate and respond to emerging cases on campuses. The enhanced dashboard includes: ¯ Testing data broken down by faculty/staff and students; including total tests, positives, and positivity rates ¯ Quarantine/Isolation space capacity calculator system-wide and by campus ¯ ...

Wendel: ‘Hats off’ to residents as COVID stats trend down

Chautauqua County arguably had one of its best weeks statistically this year when it comes to new COVID cases, hospitalizations and active cases over a seven-day span. County Executive PJ Wendel attributed the ongoing downward trend in those crucial categories to residents complying with facial covering mandates and social distancing; the passing of the year-end holidays and its gatherings that caused a spike in new cases; and the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to a significant portion of the eligible population. “It’s the residents,” Wendel said. “The residents are ...