Photo by Catherine D’Agostino Numerous area residents made their way to the Dunkirk testing site from Saturday through Wednesday on Brigham Road.

Rapid testing for COVID-19 is here to stay in Chautauqua County.

On Thursday afternoon, County Executive PJ Wendel announced four new machines are coming and will be stationed in pairs at a north county and south county location that will soon be announced. He also said 1,000 test kits are being provided for the equipment.

“In case of another outbreak like we had at Fieldbrook Foods, we can get testing done immediately,” he said.

Wendel also highlighted the need for the rapid-result machines due to the opening of schools in some areas of the county next week.

In addition to the county’s four, Cattaraugus County will receive three; Allegany will receive two; Niagara County will receive five; and Erie County will receive six.

Wendel’s announcement came shortly after state Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday released the results of COVID-19 testing that took place at eight sites, including Dunkirk, following a recent surge in the number of positive cases.

The governor said the five-day “SWAT testing” resulted in 6,385 tests being administered, with 266 in total coming back positive. Specifically, Cuomo said Chautauqua County had a 4.5% positivity rate in the testing, with the city of Buffalo at 5.9%, Niagara County at 2.8% and Erie County (not including the city) at 2.3%. Overall, the positivity rate was 4.1%.

Contact tracing efforts in partnership with local health departments are ongoing, the governor said.

The overall positivity rate in the Western New York region, which includes Chautauqua and Cattaraugus county, went up for the third straight day, to 1.8%. Cuomo, along with local health officials, have warned of the increasing rate.

Of the 88,981 test results reported to New York state on Wednesday, 889, or 0.99%, were positive.

Meanwhile, the Chautauqua County Department of Health announced 37 new cases of COVID-19, of which 23 are students at the State University of New York at Fredonia.

The cases involve three people under the age of 18, two young adult men and four young adult women, nine men and nine women in their 20s, two men in their 30s, two men and three women in their 40s, a man in his 60s and a man and woman in their 70s.

As of Thursday, there remains 166 active cases, 595 people under quarantine/isolation, 670 people under domestic traveler quarantine, five people hospitalized, 303 recoveries, 10 deaths, 479 total confirmed cases and 35,095 negative test results.