Deaths, active cases rise in Ulster

County reports two more fatalities as it nears 1,500 active cases

Ulster County had two more deaths due to COVID-19 over the last 24 hours and is now nearing 1,500 active cases.

“Unfortunately, things continue to get significantly worse,” Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan said Tuesday during his livestream briefing.

The county had 108 individuals test positive out of 1,651 tests conducted on Monday — a 6.5% positivity rate. The active caseload is now at 1,476. It was at 1,370 on Monday.

In the last 96 hours, Ulster has had 291 new cases out of 5,203 tests (5.6%).

There have now been six deaths from the virus over the last three days, including four from the weekend. That total is now at 107 since the pandemic began.

“Essentially, each day over the last week to 10 days we’ve been setting new records for our total active cases and we’re seeing in our other metrics as well more and more cause for concern,” said Ryan, who also said there were four more hospitalizations in the past day, rising to 15. “We’re concerned that this will continue as we see the total case numbers climb. We know that the more total positive cases we have, the more folks will be hospitalized and that means it flows to where we could suffer more fatalities.

“I think that we all have to recognize we’re at and that this is increasingly becoming back to what it was in the spring — a real lifeor-death situation as we head into the winter and as we head into the holidays,” he remarked.

To date, Ulster County has had 4,114 confirmed COVID cases with 2,531 recoveries.

“It’s also clear that just by the trajectory and the steepness of that climb that the rate of growth of COVID over the last few weeks has really accelerated and is on

par with the rate of growth that we were seeing in the first wave.,” Ryan said. “We anticipate that trend to continue unless and until we figure out how to get folks’ heads in the game in terms of precautions and limiting interactions in social gatherings.

“We are at or near the point of community spread,” he noted. “What we’ve seen now over the last month is a small fire connect to each other and we’re right at that tipping point we believe of reaching community spread, which puts us in a very dangerous place and makes it much harder to really put the genie back in the bottle and get this back under control. When we were at community spread last time during the first wave, that’s where we really started to test all of our systems in terms of testing as well as hospital capacity.”

Ryan said that he would talk next week about adding more testing sites and, in the coming days and weeks, forming a Vaccine Distribution Coalition of healthcare experts and providers, faith and religious leaders, community leaders and elected officials to communicate the benefits and importance of wide- spread vaccination once the vaccines become available.

In the schools

• The Kingston City School District announced that an on-site student and an on-site staff member at J. Watson Bailey Middle School tested positive for the coronavirus.

• Saugerties reported Monday that an on- site teacher and a remote-learning student at the Morse School plus a remote high school student have tested positive. The district also announced that three students and a staff member at Riccardi Elementary were designated positive. An individual who is designated positive has not received a negative result or has not received an alternative diagnosis within 48 hours from onset of COVID-related symptoms. Also, a high school student and a Mount Marion Elementary student have both been removed from designated status.

• Ulster BOCES announced that an on-site teacher at the Phoenix Academy in Ulster Park was positive.

• A remote student and teacher from Onteora High have both tested positive.

• Wallkill reported four new positive cases: three remote students and an off-site teacher at the high school.

• Highland reported a positive case of an on-site high school staffer.

• New Paltz had a positive case regarding an offsite staffer at Duzine Elementary.

• Rondout Valley reported a remote high school student has tested positive.

• Pine Plains had a remote student at the junior-senior high school test positive.

• Rhinebeck was notified that an off-site staff member at Bulkeley Middle School tested positive.

An employee at the Resorts World Catskills in Monticello has tested positive, according to the Sullivan County Health Services. The individual, who worked in the casino from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 30 to Dec. 2. The county said that there is no indication the person contracted the virus at work or impacted anyone else. Health Services urges anyone who thinks they have been exposed or develop symptoms to self-quarantine for 14 days and call their healthcare provider.

Colleges

Bard College reported Monday that three members of an off-campus household had tested positive for COVID. The college said that two of the individuals had negative tests before leaving for Thanksgiving and self-reported positive results from an off-site testing site after returning. In accordance with Bard protocols, these two have not returned to campus since the pre-Thanksgiving departure. The third individual was one of the others’ roommates who chose to remain and did not travel for the holiday, but received a positive test result Monday through the Bard Health Service. All three are self-quarantining at home.

By the numbers

Dutchess County reported two more deaths to COVID on Sunday, bringing the county’s fatality total to 198.

The County reported on its online dashboard 93 new confirmed cases but, with 87 recoveries, there were only four more active cases, putting it at 1,036. To date, Dutchess has had a cumulative 8,192 confirmed cased.