Full Notification

After more than two years of daily COVID-19 newsletters, the County Executive is now shifting, for the immediate future, to twice-a-week updates on Tuesday and Friday, with cumulative amounts for COVID data over a few days.  As you know, the County Executive’s daily news has been mentioned in the opening paragraph and an essential part of my daily updates.  I greatly appreciate the heroic efforts of Mary Rozak, the County’s Director of Communications, in sharing the County’s data and news on a daily basis for more than two years.  We plan to take a similar approach with these updates next week, likely as of next Wednesday, March 16, when the Governor’s State of Emergency is scheduled to end.
 
Based on the County DOH’s COVID dashboard, it appears that there were 30 new positive cases yesterday and that the County’s COVID-19 pandemic total is now at 62,378 positive cases.  The County’s seven-day average of new daily positive cases is now at 38 cases.  The number of hospitalized County residents remained at 22 patients.  The County’s pandemic death toll remained at 533. 
 
State DOH reported that the County’s rate for one vaccine dose as of yesterday was 81.2% of the County’s total population and 89.7% of the adult population, and the County’s rate for full-vaccination was 73.9% for the total population.  The State’s rate for one dose was 89.2% for the total population and 95.0% of adults, and the State’s rate for full-vaccination was 75.8% for the total population.
 
The State’s COVID-19 website reported that yesterday’s results for 134,995 tests Statewide were 1,850 or 1.4% positive, with the seven-day average remaining at 1.5%.  The Capital Region had 5,008 tests of which 85 or 1.7% were positive, with the seven-day average remaining at 2.5%.  The County had 1,148 tests of which 23 or 2.0% were positive, with the seven-day average remaining at 2.6%.

Governor Hochul announced today that the State’s positive rate for tests was 1.37%, and that the daily rate has been below 2% for the past two weeks.   Other COVID-19 data included new hospitalizations (1,279, -115), new admissions (151), ICU patients (213, -21), intubations (134, -9), and deaths (13).

If you are a fan of events at the Lincoln Center in New York City or just like architecture, the Governor announced that the $550 million renovation of the new David Geffen Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic and other classical events, would be completed two years ahead of schedule in October 2022.  Here are renderings of the new space and renovations. 

The CDC and TSA have decided to extend the mandate for facemasks on planes, trains, buses, and associated public spaces for at least another month.  The CDC stated:

At CDC’s recommendation, TSA will extend the security directive for mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs for one month, through April 18th.
 
During that time, CDC will work with government agencies to help inform a revised policy framework for when, and under what circumstances, masks should be required in the public transportation corridor.  This revised framework will be based on the COVID-19 community levels, risk of new variants, national data, and the latest science.  We will communicate any updates publicly if and/or when they change.

Today is the second anniversary of my daily COVID-19 updates.  Back then, I thought that the pandemic still seemed distant, presumably manageable, and would last only for a month or so.  Those thoughts ended a few days later when, at around 3:00am on March 13, 2020, I received a phone call from the Chief of Police asking me to join him at an 8:30am press conference by the County Executive and County DOH Director about the first positive case in the Town, a middle school student.  I soon received dozens of concerned inquiries from residents seeking information, and a few asking for the name of the family involved, the house’s street address, and how the infection would be isolated.

With that backdrop, I decided that sharing COVID data from various government sources could be important in helping fellow residents to make informed decisions about daily life and have continued writing my “staying safe and calm” missives for the past 733 days.  I have long lost track of the thousands of thank-you emails, letters, calls, and interactions over the past two years, and I greatly appreciate your support for not only this effort, but for the dedicated public service of Town employees throughout this stressful pandemic. 

Thank you for staying safe and calm.

Peter G. Barber
Town Supervisor