Week’s vaccine total exceeds 7,000 doses

KINGSTON, N.Y. » More than 7,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine are coming to Ulster County this week — the 3,340 to the Department of Health that County Executive Pat Ryan announced Monday, plus another 3,700 that the state will ship directly to pharmacies and other nongovernmental distribution sites.

Ryan announced the second allotment Tuesday. The total of 7,040 doses is, by far and away, the largest weekly amount for Ulster County since the national vaccination effort started in January.

“I am very optimistic now that we are [starting] to see the supply pick up,” Ryan said during a Facebook Live briefing Tuesday afternoon.

“This is a big deal and very encouraging news .... ”

Ryan said more than 6,300 of the doses coming to Ulster County this week will go to people age 65 and older, with or without underlying medical conditions.

Ryan has been pressing the state for more vaccine doses amid recent weekly allotments as small as 700 at a time when some 120,000 Ulster County residents are eligible to be inoculated

against COVID-19.

But even with the huge jump in doses this week, there still are 30,000 people on the county’s waiting list, Ryan said.

Ryan said that, as of Tuesday, about 15% of the county’s population had received at least one dose of the vaccine. He also said about 90% of health care workers in the county were fully vaccinated, and all teachers in the county probably will be fully vaccinated within a few weeks.

“We are working close with [school district] superintendents,” Ryan said.

By the numbers

Ulster County on Tuesday reported 1,488 active cases of COVID-19, a drop of 77 from the 1,565 cases reported Monday.

Ulster’s peak number of active cases was 2,622, on Jan. 30.

The county also reported one additional COVID-related death on Tuesday, bringing its total to 233 since the local outbreak began a year ago.

Ulster County has had a total of 10,981 confirmed cases of the coronavirus since last March. Of those, there have been 9,260 recoveries.

The county also reported Tuesday that there were 49 new diagnoses of COVID out of the most recent 930 test results received. That’s a positivity rate of 5.3%.

Dutchess County reported Tuesday that it had 1,119 active cases of COVID-19, down from the 1,151 reported Monday.

Since the start of this year, daily active case totals in Dutchess have fluctuated from a high of 2,576 on Jan. 13 to a low of 713 on Feb. 15.

Dutchess reported no changes Tuesday in its number of COVID-related hospitalizations or deaths — 39

and 408, respectively.

Dutchess has had a total of 22,387 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Of those, there have been 20,860 recoveries.

The county’s most recent seven-day average of positive test results is 4.27%.

In the schools

Newly reported cases of COVID-19 in area school districts are as follows, according to New York state.

• Kingston: One on-site high school student.

• Highland: One on-site elementary school student, one on-site middle schooler and one on-site middle school teacher.

• Marlboro: One on-site middle school student.

• New Paltz: One on-site student at Lenape Elementary School.

• Onteora: One off-site student of Phoenicia Elementary School and one onsite student at Woodstock Elementary School.

• Rhinebeck: One on-site high school student.

• Wallkill: One on-site student at Leptondale Elementary School, one onsite student at Ostrander Elementary School and one on-site student at Plattekill Elementary School.