Suffolk County's Covid-19 positive rate has been creeping upward in recent weeks, and on Sunday hit 3.8 percent, the highest seen in months, with 324 people testing positive for the virus.
Suffolk reported more positive cases than any county outside of New York City on Sunday. For the same 24-hour period Nassau County reported 213 new cases. Island-wide, the positive rate was 3.4 percent, while the statewide positive rate was 2.8 percent.
"We expect the rates will continue to go up through the fall and into the winter," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said during a press briefing on Monday. "The long-term prognosis is get to a vaccine as quickly as possible, administer the vaccine as quickly as possible, administer the vaccine fairly and equitably but in the meantime we're going to see the rate going up. The best you can do is manage the increase."
With a few daily exceptions, Suffolk County's positive rate hovered around 1 percent until late October, with a spike to 1.7 percent on Oct. 23 and Oct. 26 and a jump to 1.9 percent on Oct. 27. The positive rate dipped to 1.2 percent on Nov. 2 and 1 percent on Nov. 3, but otherwise rates have been on an upward trend. On Nov. 4 there were 179 new cases reported in the county, for a positive rate of 1.7 percent. That rate held steady on Nov. 5, when 177 new cases were reported, but jumped on Friday to 2.5 percent when 259 of the tests reported were positive. Results reported on Saturday showed 259 new cases in the county for a positive rate of 2.7 percent.
Long Island's positive rate has exceeded that of New York City for the past three days for which data was available.
"I know people are tired. The virus isn't tired and that's all that matters," the governor said, urging people not to give in to "Covid fatigue" and to continue taking measures to reduce the spread of the virus.