Chautauqua County is now on the radar of the Centers of Disease Control for the recent increase in COVID-19 cases. On Friday, the county Health Department reported an additional 33 cases Thursday — with 213 being active — as the seven-day positivity rate was reported at 2.1%.

It has been a far from stellar week when it comes to COVID numbers for the county or Western New York. While hospitalization rates are at the lowest levels in New York since late November, hospitalizations are at 13 here — an increase from seven earlier this week. Additionally, from April 9 to Thursday, there have been 220 new COVID cases reported in the county with Wednesday’s number of 49 being the highest reported daily total since Feb. 24.

On a scale of low to high, the Centers for Disease Control considered almost all of New York state as a location for a “high” level of community transmission. Fridays figures back this up. While the seven-day state positivity rate is 3.01%, it is almost 5 — 4.93% — in the Western region.

State Gov. Andrew Cuomo took notice. “There is a reason why Western New York is higher than the rest of the state, and that reason is communal behavior,” he said. “We got the number down once because Western New York was at a high point once before. We got the number down once, we can get the number down again. We just have to choose to do it.”

To date there have been 8,654 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 8,299 recoveries and 142 virus-related deaths.

As of Thursday, 48,115 residents within Chautauqua County have received at least one dose, while 33,272 have completed their vaccine series. In Cattaraugus County, 23,936 have received at least one shot, while 17,296 have completed their series.