Two more school districts go remote

Ulster County reports two more deaths from the virus, bringing the total to 114

KINGSTON, N.Y. » Rondout Valley and Marlboro’s school districts announced they are switching to full remote instruction on a day when Ulster County reported two more deaths due to COVID-19.

The Rondout Valley School District announced Tuesday that it will be fully remote Dec. 21-23 prior to the holiday break and all remote the week its schools resume for Jan. 4-8. During that first week of January, the district will reassess the situation. The current plan to return to hybrid instruction on Monday, Jan. 11.

Rondout was also notified Tuesday that a high school student and a bus driver on a private school route both tested positive for COVID. That student was last in attendance on Dec. 7. It has been determined that no school-related individuals were required to quarantine because of the driver.

Marlboro announced that it will switch to remote learning on Friday, Dec. 18, and remain that way through for the remainder of the month. The district Tuesday reported that a remote middle school student

had tested positive.

The Kingston and Saugerties school districts announced last week that they were going fully remote until the end of the month.

The deaths are the first in Ulster County since reporting one fatality over the weekend. That brings the death toll to 114 since the pandemic began.

There were 55 new positives out of 1,039 tests conducted Tuesday. That is a 5.29% new infection rate.

The active cases rose only from 1,905 to 1,912 with 46 individuals recovering. To date, Ulster has had 4,749 confirmed cases and 2,723 recoveries.

In the schools

• The Rhinebeck Cen

tral School District announced Tuesday that an on- site teacher and staff member at Chancellor Livingston Elementary tested positive.

• New Paltz was notified of a positive case of COVID-19 by an on- site teacher at Lenape Elementary.

• Ulster BOCES reported that a student at the Career

& Technical Education Center had tested positive.

By the numbers

Dutchess County reported t wo more fatalit ies due t o COVID on Monday and had hospitalizations rise f rom 96 to 106. The county, which has had 10 deaths over the past week, now has 208 total deaths.

Dutchess had 192 more confirmed cases on Monday, but also had 199 recoveries. Active c ases dropped f rom 1, 330 to 1,321. To date, the county has had 9,482 confirmed cases and 7,953 recoveries.