The COVID situation here in Columbia County made Channel 10 news yesterday, in a telephone interview with Jack Mabb, director of the Columbia County Department of Health: "Columbia County cases linked to community spread as record number hospitalized since outbreak."
Yesterday's numbers from the CCDOH indicated there were thirty county residents hospitalized with the virus. In the interview, Mabb says there were twenty-nine hospitalized but reveals only seventeen of those hospitalized were at Columbia Memorial. Useful information for anyone concerned about exceeding capacity at our local hospital.
Are there any vaccinations yet in Columbia County? Wouldn't that be a helpful number to watch each day? Is there even a plan for vaccinations? The CCDOH site has nothing.
ReplyDeleteYou can sign up for vaccine updates from the NYS Department of Health here: https://now.ny.gov/page/s/coronavirus-updates.
DeleteNursing homes (residents and staff) and hospital workers were the first to get the vaccine in New York State. I've been told they are now vaccinating staff at CMH, but the vaccine is not yet available to the general public. When it is, people with underlying health conditions (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.) and people 75 and older will be the first the qualify.
DeleteTo get more people vaccinated quickly in Columbia County, the state should designate the Columbia-Greene Community College campus as a drive-through vaccination site. Vaccines could be administered by medics called up from the National Guard and by students in the community college nursing program. Otherwise, it will take forever to vaccinate large numbers of people.
ReplyDeleteI think the issue might be the number of available vaccines, not a bottleneck in processing.
DeleteToday, not enough vaccine is available to vaccinate everyone. The problem is that the state and county have not devised and implemented a way to vaccinate thousands of people rapidly when an ample supply becomes available. Doctors and nurses are so busy caring for patients that they won't be available to give shots, and pharmacies cannot vaccinate large numbers of people quickly. A plan is needed to rapidly vaccinate the entire population.
DeleteAnd vaccinations should be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ReplyDeleteCuomo said yesterday that that Tier 1A started Monday getting vaccinations, that's nurses and 1st responder type people, next week police, bus drivers, train drivers etc., and after that 75 year olds and up. That's in NY State of course, not sure the counties toe the line, but he says they will be fined if they don't use up their allotted amounts of vaccines (hospitals that is). Some hospitals in NYState have used up to 93% and some have only used 15%. He think he had a graph up but I heard it on the radio.
ReplyDeleteWhat about testing -- where does one go?
ReplyDeleteThere was a walk-up clinic this morning at the former John L. Edwards School. I'm not sure when the next one there will occur, but there are lots of sites, all listed in this document: https://www.columbiacountynyhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/COVID-19-Testing-sites-11-20-20.pdf.
DeleteI was just told by someone at the county health dept that they stopped the JLE testing site weeks ago. Now they are concentrating on vaccinations, which seems kinda weird since the vaccines are only going to a select few right now.
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