Saturday, December 26, 2020

COVID and the County

Given that yesterday was Christmas, the Columbia County Department of Health did not publish the COVID-19 numbers for the day or the weekly breakdown of cases by municipality and nursing home. Today, however, on its Facebook page, the CCDOH issued this statement.

The hyperlink to the New York Forward dashboard is in the right column. Yesterday, the NYSDOH reported for Columbia County 35 positives out of 681 test results for a positivity rate for the previous 24 hours of 5.1 percent. The seven day average for Columbia County is 4.5 percent.

The state is now focusing on hospital capacity rather than just COVID-19 infection rates, which were initially used to define micro-cluster zones. Of New York's 10 regions, the Capital Region currently has the lowest percentage of hospital beds--24 percent--and of intensive-care-unit beds--18 percent--available.
According to data released by the governor's office on Friday morning, the Capital Region . . . currently has 375 residents hospitalized with COVID-19, which is 0.03 percent of the region's population and leaves 24 percent of its hospital beds available. . . .
Statewide, 0.04 percent of New Yorkers are hospitalized with the virus, leaving 30 percent of hospital beds available.
The Capital Region has a total of 211 ICU beds of which 168 are currently occupied, leaving 18 percent available as a seven-day average.
Columbia County is part of the Capital Region. On Thursday, the CCDOH reported there were eleven county residents hospitalized with COVID-19, and none was in the ICU. In the summer, Gossips learned that CCDOH was reporting county residents hospitalized not the number of COVID patients hospitalized at Columbia Memorial Hospital. At that time, the number of hospitalized being reported by CCDOH was significantly higher than the number hospitalized at CMH. We don't know if this is still the case.
COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK

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