3 staff, students exposed in Marlboro
MARLBOROUGH, N.Y. » The Marlboro school district is reporting three separate instances where “staff, students, or both” were exposed to individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a letter addressed to district families and staff.
The letter, dated Thursday, Oct. 1, from Superintendent of Schools Michael Brooks, and posted on the district website, states that both the Ulster and Orange County departments of health are aware of the incidents, which happened “away from school.”
“Currently, we have 11 staff members working from home to self-isolate on a precautionary basis while testing and contact tracing is occurring. We are notifying any students that may also have been exposed,” Brooks wrote.
He said that if the departments of health’s contact-tracing process deems it necessary, some students “may also be expected to remain on remote instruction and not report to in-person learning next week.”
All of the involved individuals could also be directed to self- quarantine for 14 days, according to the letter.
Brooks wrote that anyone identified as a ‘contact of a person who tested positive’ will receive a call from a New York state contact tracer. Caller ID for those calls may read, “NYS Contact Tracing” or simply display a number with a 518 area code, he wrote.
“Your identity and the information you share will remain confidential. Please provide Contact Tracers with the information they need to protect all of us,” Brooks wrote.
Brooks said the district remains on schedule to begin an “in-person hybrid” instruction model beginning Tuesday, Oct. 6.
By the numbers
On its COVID-19 dashboard on Friday, Ulster County reported 10 new positive cases of the virus as of Thursday. The county has a total of 124 active cases. The county’s current rate of infection is 1.09% and 884 residents were tested on Thursday, according to the dashboard. https://covid19.ulstercountyny.gov/dashboard/
Since the pandemic began in March, Ulster County has reported 2,299 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 2,080 recoveries, and 95 fatalities.
Since a brief spike in late July, the Ulster County infection rate has generally been between zero and 1.5%.
At the peak of the local outbreak, in April, the rate of positive tests in Ulster County was 33%, and there were more than 1,000 active cases of COVID-19.
The number of COVID-related deaths in Ulster County has held at 95 since Sept. 16.
The Dutchess County COVID-19 dashboard, which reflects cases and fatalities as they are reported by the state department of health, reports 149 active cases; a total of 5,148 confirmed cases since March; 4,842 recoveries; and 157 deaths.
At a Facebook Live event on Wednesday, however, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro said two residents of the Hedgewood Home for Adults, an assisted-living facility in southern Dutchess County, died of COVID-19 this week.
On Wednesday, Molinaro also said there were 40 active cases of COVID among residents and staff of the 192-bed facility at 355 Fishkill Ave. (Route 52) in Beacon.
He said the state Department of Health had not yet recorded the Hedgewood Home deaths. In an email Friday, Molinaro spokeswoman Colleen Pillus said “the state dashboard, and therefore the county’s dashboard, does not yet include the most recent fatality. Only 2 of the 3 fatalities are currently in the numbers.”
SUNY New Paltz on Friday again reported no new cases of COVID-19 and said it had no remaining active cases.