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Area nursing homes in Chautauqua and western Cattaraugus counties have confirmed 11 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic through the end of November, federal data shows.
A study by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that 377,510 nursing home residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through Nov. 29. Area nursing homes in Jamestown, Greenhurst, Gerry, Westfield, Gowanda and Dunkirk were listed.
Since March, four residents at Absolut Care of Westfield have tested positive for COVID-19, while Gowanda Rehabilitation and Nursing Center has had three residents test positive. Two residents at Lutheran Social Services and one resident at Heritage Park in Jamestown have received positive test results. One resident at Chautauqua Rehabilitation and Nursing Center has also tested positive.
Other facilities listed -- Heritage Green in Greenhurst, Heritage Village in Gerry and Dunkirk Rehabilitation and Nursing Center -- had not yet seen a positive case through the end of November. The data did not include an October outbreak at Tanglewood Group properties, Tanglewood Manor and Memory Garden, as those are independent living facilities.
Meanwhile, after hitting a high on Thursday, the Western New York region -- made up of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Niagara and Erie counties -- saw a slight decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations over the weekend.
According to New York Forward, the state's all-encompassing information website, Western New York had 548 persons hospitalized on Thursday. That number was 535 on Saturday and had decreased to 520 by Sunday night, during which 97 persons were listed as being in intensive care.
Hospitalizations had steadily increased in the region since Nov. 10. and had crossed the 500-threshold on Dec. 7.
The Chautauqua County Health Department does not release COVID-19 statistics over the weekend, but New York Forward reported that the county added 51 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday and 52 on Saturday. The county's positivity rate over the last seven days was listed as being 7.9%.
Those numbers, throughout the pandemic, have differed slightly from the county's daily total. Numbers released on Monday will be a lump sum of new cases confirmed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Cattaraugus County Health Department, which does release numbers over the weekend, noted 33 were hospitalized as of Sunday with 25 new cases announced on Saturday and another 22 on Sunday. The county has 1,754 total cases with 586 active. There have been 1,135 recoveries.
The department also announced a 33rd death. A 24-year-old male experienced a cardiac event and was unable to overcome his illness despite aggressive medical treatment.
To help fend against the current surge, more restrictions from Albany could also loom to start the week as well. Gov. Andrew Cuomo released new standards for new metrics for micro-cluster zones on Friday and said that state officials would calculate the data over the weekend and announce new yellow, orange and red zones during the first of thrice-weekly press conferences on Monday.
To enter a red zone, a region has to have its data trend toward 90% capacity in the next 21 days. An orange zone has to see a 4% positivity over the last 10 days or hit 85% hospital capacity in the next three weeks. A yellow zone threshold is reached when a region has a 3% infection rate over 10 days and the cluster is in the top 10% for hospital admissions per capita.
City editor Eric Tichy and regional editor John D'Agostino contributed to this report.