Jobless rates drop dramatically across area

Ulster County’s number of active COVID-19 cases fell slightly while Dutchess County’s rose, according to the latest reported numbers.

Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan said during a Facebook Live briefing Tuesday that the county had 119 active cases of COVID as of Monday, including three in hospitals. The number of active cases was down from the Sunday total of 130.

The number of COVIDrelated deaths in Ulster County remained at 95, where it has been since the middle of last week.

Since the beginning of the local outbreak, in March, Ulster County has had 2,260 confirmed cases the coronavirus and 2,046 recoveries, Ryan said.

There have been 89,774 COVID-19 tests conducted in Ulster County, a number equal to about half the population, Ryan said. He said some people have been tested more than once, but the numbers give a sense of the scale of testing that has been done.

The executive said there were only five positive results among the most recent 1,552 tests, conducted over a 72-hour period — a rate of 0.3%.

“That’s one of the best 72hour periods since the beginning of the pandemic,” Ryan said, adding that more than 300 people were tested Sunday and none was found to have the virus.

SUNY New Paltz reported no new COVID cases Tuesday and said only two active cases remained out of the 16 that been diagnosed since the fall semester began a month ago.

No employees of the college have tested positive this semester.

Dutchess County on Tuesday, citing data last updated Sunday, reported 134 active cases of COVID, up from 123 the day before. Dutchess has had 5,076 cases in all since March, including 4,786 recoveries and 156 deaths. The most recent death was reported last Thursday.

Six Dutchess County residents were hospitalized with the coronavirus as of Sunday.

Greene County on Tuesday reported it has had 322 coronavirus cases to date but that only one was active. Columbia County reported 554 cases to date, with only three active.

There have been 19 COVID-related deaths in Greene County and 37 in Columbia.