Saratoga County records 12 more COVID deaths

Reporting issues causing delays in dashboard updates

A dozen more Saratoga County residents have died due to complications from COVID-19, county data show.

The county posted an update to its COVID-19 dashboard Wednesday night that showed the additional 12 deaths — which raised its known death toll from the disease to 65.

County officials, in a statement provided through a spokesperson, said the deaths occurred from late December to mid-january.

“We are updating our statistics on deaths as they are reported to us,” officials said in the statement.

A similar update was made earlier in the week.

On Monday, the county’s death toll showed an unusual spike of 17 new deaths over the weekend. County officials said the deaths occurred in nursing homes and were discovered during a “yearend data reconciliation” process.

Private nursing homes are only required to report COVID-19 deaths to the state Department of Health and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Local health departments have complained that this is leading to delays in their ability to coordinate real-time pandemic response.

According to the state Health Department’s data on COVID-19 fatalities in nursing homes — which notoriously leaves out nursing home residents who were transferred to hospitals just before they died — Saratoga County has lost at least 20 nursing home residents and three adult care facility residents since the pandemic began.

The nursing home deaths occurred at the Wesley Health Care Center in Saratoga Springs.

Meanwhile Albany County confirmed three more deaths overnight, and two more Schenectady County residents also died due to complications from COVID-19. All five victims were in their 80s.

Warren County also confirmed two nursing home residents died overnight. Officials did not identify what nursing home the residents lived in.

Across the eight-county Capital Region, at least 688 residents have died from confirmed COVID -19.