The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today, and the news is unrelentingly bad. Since yesterday, there have been nine new cases of COVID-19 and seven recoveries, increasing the number of active cases by two to 75. Two more people are hospitalized with the virus today than yesterday, but one fewer is in the ICU. Nine more county residents are in mandatory quarantine today than yesterday, increasing the number to 265, but no one is in precautionary quarantine. The good news is there has not been another death since yesterday.
Tomorrow, the CCDOH publishes its breakdown of positive cases by municipality and nursing home. Perhaps those numbers will provide some insight into where in the county the new cases are occurring.
Many of us would like to know if there is ever a point when we end up back in mandatory self-quarantine. The county really needs to step up now and ensure we don't have 40 people in the hospital by mid-November. I don't think CMH can handle the load as it is. The moment feels very precarious.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious how many beds CMH has to treat Covid patients and when we might be looking at reduced service levels for non-essential medical procedures.
DeleteOne thing I learned at the beginning of the summer is that not all of the hospitalizations reported by CCDOH are in CMH. Some are at St. Peter's and Albany Med. I'm told that people living in the northern part of the county are more likely to go to an Albany hospital than to come to Hudson.
DeleteWhat is a bit scary is the number of cases that are NOT in nursing homes and NOT reported by the Health Department. The continued failure of the CCDOH to report infection rate data undermines CCDOH's credibility even as it prevents the public from having information that would allow it to take helpful precautions.
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