As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise, parts of Oneida County have now entered the yellow zone, according to Gov.
Andrew Cuomo.
County are now under yellow zone restrictions.
Governor cuomo made the announcement during his briefing today... and oneida county executive anthony picente addressed it in his briefing this afternoon.
News channel 2's caitlin irla joins us live here in the studio to tell us what the zone covers and what it means for oneida county.
Good evening jason, the yellow zone designation was assigned to a number of local areas today that have the highest concentration of covid-19 cases.
Now -- new restrictions are in place to help slow the spread of the virus.
These are the areas now labeled "yellow zone" by the governor.
Utica, rome, new hartford, whitestown, marcy, verona, westmoreland and parts of deerfield.
A yellow zone designation is triggered when an area has a three percent positivity rate over ten days.
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None .
None "that doesn't mean that traveling into these areas are unsafe, it simply means its where the large number of cases are."
Picente says the yellow zone designation should've been the whole county... because it is so large geographically.
"26 towns, 17 villages, and 3 cities, and they're all interconnected in one way or another and overlap people work in every part of it so while i understand the concentration numbers, and he's basing that on hospitalizations i think more than anything else, and i would caution that that doesn't mean the virus is not anywhere else."
Here are the yellow zone restrictions: -non residential gatherings are limited to a maximum of 25 people, indoors or outdoors.-hot 50% capacity.
-indoor and outdoor dining is still permitted with 50% capacity, but limited to a maximum of four people per table... -businesses can remain open in yellow zones and schools can also stay open if they meet certain testing requirements.
Statewide restrictions continue to apply, including bars, restaurants and gyms closing at 10 p.m.
And limiting gatherings at private homes to 10 people.
Picente says he hopes the new restrictions will help stop the spread of the virus..
But he is concerned that the county could end up in an orange zone if people don't start taking this seriously.
"we don't want to get there, that's the goal of the zone, send the warning flag up, we don't want to get there& smooth that numbers down," > picente also spoke briefly about the vaccine.
He says we can expect to see the county get the first round of vaccines sometime this week.
Jason, back to you.
Today, oneida county rolled out a new mobile texting app to help the health department improve contact tracing efforts.
If you test positive for the virus, you will get a text message that looks like this... when you click on the link... you will receive important follow-up instructions for isolation, notifying close contacts, practicing proper hygiene and what to do if your symptoms get worse.
The oneida county public health director, phyllis ellis says this should help get important information out to more people in less time.
While on the subject....the oneida county executive has name a
With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to cause a variety of challenges for the education sector, several local school districts..
