NYS COVID-19 test positivity rate, hospitalizations trend up: governor

NEW YORK- Of the 152,287 COVID-19 tests reported on Sunday in New York State, 7,302 were positive, or 4.79 percent of the total, up from 4.71 percent one day earlier, tweeted Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday.

The total hospitalizations were 4,602 on Sunday, up from 4,442 on Saturday, added Cuomo, who once warned that the state's COVID-19 hospitalizations could reach 6,000 in weeks based on the current trends.

"If after 5 days a region's hospital rate has not stabilized, indoor dining will close or be reduced. In NYC, indoor dining would close entirely. In rest of the state, indoor dining would be reduced to 25% capacity," the governor tweeted before releasing the figures.

As of Monday afternoon, the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University reported 34,980 coronavirus deaths in New York State, the worst in the country.

Also on Monday, the number of confirmed cases of the pandemic was 713,129 in the state, according to New York State Department of Health COVID-19 Tracker, which had the state's lastest fatalities as 27,232, nearly 8,000 short of Johns Hopkins' figures.