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Hospitalizations tick up as Monroe County approaches 200 COVID-19 deaths

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Monroe County public health department reported Tuesday that 186 people were in hospitals for COVID-19 treatment in the county -- up five since Monday.

The trend has been upward since May 10, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office began requiring hospitals to receive a negative test for COVID-19 patients before discharging them to nursing homes.

Monroe County Public Health Commissioner Dr. Michael Mendoza said that rule was keeping patients in hospitals longer, driving up the total number of people hospitalized, even though the severity of their illnesses was not worsening.

The health department said Tuesday that four more people had died of COVID-19 in the county, bringing the death toll to 198.

Testing capacity has increased in Monroe County, and the guidelines for who should be tested for the virus that causes COVID-19 have expanded, too. The county’s numbers showed 926 new test results on Tuesday. Of those, 26 were positive, the health department said.

The new cases included a person younger than 20 and two people in their 90s.

A previous version of this story described a dip in COVID-19 hospitalizations based on data from the Monroe County Department of Public Health released Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday evening, the health department issued a correction. The revised data showed hospitalizations continuing to climb.

Brett was the health reporter and a producer at WXXI News. He has a master’s degree from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
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