(WENY)-- Steuben County has seen a rise in COVID cases over the last few weeks, with 588 new cases reported on Monday.

While the positive numbers are increasing, and numbers of positive cases most likely higher due to unreported positive at home tests, Steuben County's Public Health Director Darlene Smith says that hospitalizations and deaths are very low.

"Yes, we would like to know about all of them for data purposes, and tracking and trending (referring to unreported at-home positive COVID tests)," Smith said, "but you know as long as the variant and the sub-variant are not producing the severe illness that we saw with the Delta variant, , the number of positive cases is not quite as important at this point in time, as whether or not its producing severe illness which will lead to hospitalizations and perhaps even death."

Smith says that there are multiple factors that are causing the rise in cases across the County. She cites the weather, as until recently, it has been damp and cool, which means that more people are staying inside and being close together which increases the risk of catching the disease. Another factor is that immunity naturally wanes, even with the vaccines and booster. 

But Smith says that the main factor for the increase is the fact the sub-variant of the Omicron virus is much more contagious than previous variants.

"Primarily, the sub-variant of omicron is highly contagious, as we have heard in the news." Smith explained. "The omicron variant itself now has sub-variants to it, and currently the BA2.12.1 is the most prevalent sub-variant not only here but really across the state."

Smith said that currently only four Steuben County residents are in the hospital for COVID, with two of those being admitted due to COVID, while the other two are hospitalized with COVID.

She added that with the weather finally starting warm, the expectation is that the cases will drop as more people spend more time outside and not indoors.