204 COVID-19 Positives in Rye; 1,416 Westchester Resident Deaths – Wednesday, June 24, 2020

(PHOTO: Rye guy and Westchester County boss George Latimer during his June 24, 2020 press briefing.)

For Wednesday, Westchester reported the following City of Rye numbers:

204 total COVID-19 cases since inception;
2 active COVID-19 cases (this assumes the remaining 202 have run the average two week contagion cycle and are no longer active);
0 new COVID-19 cases

Rye guy and Westchester County boss George Latimer held his COVID-19 briefing from the Michaelian Office Building in White Plains.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer called on the County of Westchester Industrial Development Agency (IDA) to launch the IDA Emergency Loan Program. The program, recently approved by New York State, would provide temporary authority to the IDA to issue grants and loans to businesses and small not-for-profit corporations negatively impacted by COVID-19. The Program allows the IDA to provide financial assistance through the State Disaster and Emergency Loan and Grant Program.

Under the program, the IDA would provide grants to small businesses and small not-for-profit corporations up to $10,000. The proceeds must be used for acquiring personal protective equipment, or installing equipment necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The IDA would also make no interest loans, through the administration of the State Disaster Emergency Loan Program, available to small businesses and small not-for-profit corporations in an amount up to $25,000. The full loan amount being considered is $500,000.

County of Westchester IDA Chair Joan McDonald said: “This new program is another example of the IDA’s important role in fostering economic development in Westchester County. It is crucial that our small business and not-for-profit sectors receive help during this unprecedented economic downturn.”

To qualify for either a grant or loan, an eligible entity must establish that it was a financially viable entity prior to March 7, 2020, the date on which Governor Andrew Cuomo signed Executive Order 202 declaring a disaster emergency. Eligible entities must also conduct business in the area served by the IDA, been negatively impacted by COVID-19, and have less than 51 employees.

Latimer also addressed the reports of issues around voting Tuesday. “It is not lost on us that there were some great difficulties in voting,” said Latimer. He explained that the Westchester Board of Elections is overseen by the State election authority and not the county government. Regardless, Latimer said the county government would look into the situation and see that it is “corrected” prior to the presidential election.

Just like everyone else, Latimer is looking at the NY State COVID-19 tracker for county and state level statistics on the pandemic and at the NY State regional  monitoring dashboard to see our progress towards continued reopening.

Important to note expanded reporting now shows fatality data from all nursing homes in the State, including The Osborn in Rye.

The COVID-19 numbers:

Fatalities of Westchester residents:1,416
Fatalities at Westchester nursing homes – The Osborn Home in Rye is reporting six (6) confirmed COVID-19 deaths and six (6) presumed COVID-19 deaths thru June 22nd (that’s no new confirmed deaths since the prior update). There is no data from Rye Manor or Vienna Senior Housing.)
Fatalities in Westchester: 1,548
Numbers of persons tested: 244,355
Tested positive: 34,597
% Positive results: 14.2%
Persons tested today: 2,320
New positives today: 16