Ulster, Dutchess near 30K total cases
Active infections and test positivity rates fall, but death tolls continue to rise in 2 counties
Active cases of the coronavirus and the rate of positive test results have been falling in the Mid-Hudson Valley, but Dutchess and Ulster counties are nearing two unenviable milestones: Dutchess is about to top 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the local outbreak began last March, and Ulster is closing in on 10,000.
Both counties also continue to cope with rising death tolls: Dutchess on
Monday reported six additional COVID-related fatalities, bringing its total for the pandemic to 381, while Ulster reported two additional passings, for a total of 219.
Separately, the state reported a resident of the Woodland Pond at New Paltz retirement community had died from COVID outside of the facility.
Dutchess County has had 19,996 confirmed
cases of COVID-19 since last March, its online dashboard of COVID data showed Monday. Ulster, also online, reported a total of 9,921 cases.
Ulster, though, reported a decline in the number of active COVID cases — from 2,337 on Saturday to 2,302 on Sunday — and only 32 new diagnoses of the virus out of the most
recent 1,156 test results received. That’s a positivity rate of just 2.8%, close to the county’s 2½-month low of 2.6%.
Dutchess County on Monday reported 317 new positive test results for COVID but also a decline in the number of active cases, from 1,267 to 1,066, and a steep drop in the number of people hospitalized with
COVID, from 132 to 108.
Dutchess also reported a decline in its percentage of positive test results — to 4.8% on Saturday from 5.8% five days earlier and the recent peak of 9.1% on Jan. 14.
Dutchess says 18,549 people in the county have recovered from COVID since the local outbreak began. Ulster’s reported
recovery total is 7,400.
Vaccine
Ulster County had yet to be told Monday how many doses of COVID-19 vaccine it will get this week, according to Assistant Deputy County Executive Dan Torres. He said the county hoped to have that information Tuesday.
Ulster has received a total
of 6,800 doses of vaccine over the last four weeks from the state, which gets its allocation from the federal government.
Last week’s allotment for Ulster County was 1,900 doses.