ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now listing Monroe County among several New York counties with “high” COVID-19 transmission.

According to the CDC, high transmission means over 100 cases per 100,000 residents on a 7-day average. In Monroe County, we are seeing 104.21 cases per 100,000 residents on a 7-day average.

Earlier this month, the county was listed as having “substantial” COVID-19 transmission. With that announcement, came the county encouraging residents to mask up indoors, regardless of vaccination.

In Wednesday’s update, officials from the Monroe County Department of Public Health reported 168 new COVID-19 cases.

Monroe County COVID-19 update (8/11/21)

  • 4.5% average positivity rate Wednesday was county’s highest January 27
  • 168 new cases yesterday was the highest single-day increase since May 27 (169)
  • 78 regional COVID-19 hospitalizations, we were at 15 on July 24 (19 days, a 420% increase in less than three weeks)
  • 23 regional COVID-19 patients in ICU, up from 1 on July 24 (19 days, 2,200% increase in less than three weeks)

The county is now averaging 118 new cases per day over the past week, escalating from a “substantial” to a “high” risk zone according to standards set by the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC considers anything over 100 cases per 100,000 people on a 7-day average to be “high” risk.

“My team has seen a few trends lately,” Dr. Mendoza said in a COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday. “First, a significant percentage of the new cases — 10% or more — can be connected to travel to Florida, or to visitors who have come here from Florida to say with family or friends in Rochester.

“We’re also seeing a lot of transmission in small workplaces,” Dr. Mendoza. “People are coming to work with symptoms and spreading it among their coworkers. And much of the transmission is happening in households. A child may be exposed to COVID at camp, and then we see that child’s whole family tests positive a few days later. We’ve seen these patterns before and we need to think back to what we’ve learned before in order to get through this new phase of the pandemic.”

This is a developing story. News 8 WROC will provide updates as they become available.