COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there has been one new case of COVID-19 and two recoveries, reducing the number of active cases in the county by one, to 12. The number of residents in mandatory quarantine has increased by four, and the number in precautionary quarantine has decreased by two. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 remains the same as yesterday, and there have been no new deaths.

As of 3 p.m. on July 23, 2020:

• Columbia County has had 37 residents that have passed away from COVID-19.
• Columbia County has 472 confirmed positive cases.
• There are 12 active cases of COVID-19 in Columbia County. We are monitoring 36 county residents on mandatory quarantine, and there are 11 on precautionary quarantine.
• 423 of the 472 cases have recovered from COVID-19
• 5 of the positive cases are hospitalized, none of those hospitalized are in the ICU
• We have received 16,420 PCR reports. Please note this number may represent duplicate reports, out of county reports, and multiple nursing home testings.

Today in his press briefing, Governor Andrew Cuomo acknowledged that the Capital Region (that's us) was experiencing a "little uptick" in new infections. Much of that can be traced back to one party that took place in Albany on the Fourth of July, which resulted in thirty positive cases.



Cuomo also reported that there is a rising infection rate among 21 to 30 year olds. We don't know if this is true for Columbia County, because the CCDOH releases no information about the age of people contracting the virus. Once a week, on Friday, we get to know where the new cases are, but unless a new case is in a nursing home, where it can be assumed the person is 65 or older, we have no idea of the age of people who are contracting COVID-19 in Columbia County. If that information were available, it could be useful in preventing younger people from dismissing the virus as something that is not a threat to them.
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