Wearing masks, voters line up with social distance to vote during the in-person early voting outside a polling station in Madison Square Garden in New York, the United States, Oct. 24, 2020. Early voting began across New York State on Saturday, offering voters nine days to cast their ballots prior to Election Day. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)NEW YORK, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 test positivity rates trended slightly higher on Friday in New York State, with the rate in the "micro-cluster" focus areas, where the pandemic has been the most severe, reaching 2.58 percent, compared with 2.31 percent one day earlier, Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted on Saturday.
The statewide positivity rate excluding the "micro-cluster" areas was 1.13 percent, up from 0.98 percent on Thursday, said Cuomo.
Of the 156,940 tests reported on Friday, 2,061 were positive, or 1.31 percent of the total, over the 1.15 percent one day earlier, he added.
As of Saturday afternoon, the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University reported 33,418 coronavirus deaths in New York State for the past seven months, the worst among all the states of the country.
However, New York State had the third lowest positivity rate of COVID-19 test among all U.S. states, according to the seven-day rolling average updated on Oct. 19 by Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.