COVID-19 Update

In his COVID-19 briefing today, Governor Andrew Cuomo suggested that New York may have passed the plateau and be on the way down. That may be true for the state as a whole, but it doesn't seem to be true for Columbia County. The numbers from the Columbia County Department of Health today indicate there have been, since yesterday, three new cases of COVID-19, two more recoveries from the coronavirus, and one more death. Disturbingly, the death rate from the virus in Columbia County appears to be 10 percent, much higher than that for the state as a whole, which using the numbers provided by the New York State Department of Health, works out to a little more than .05 percent.

As of 2:30 p.m. on April 18, 2020:

• Columbia County has had 11 community members that have passed away from COVID-19
• 111 positive cases of COVID-19
• 53 of the 111 cases have recovered from COVID-19
• 9 of the positive cases are hospitalized, 2 of those are in the ICU
• We have received 852 test results completed for Columbia County residents
• 86 residents are under mandatory quarantine and 12 under precautionary quarantine
• There are 2 residents with suspected, not tested cases    

The following chart shows the pattern of new cases over the past two weeks.