SULLIVAN COUNTY –– Some say records are made to be broken. But that isn’t always a good thing.

Commissioner of the Division of Health and Family Services, John Liddle, told legislators at a special Management and Budget Committee meeting on Thursday, that they had 93 new positive COVID test results that day, which for the fourth consecutive day, set the highest single day mark since the pandemic began.

In addition to that figure, the county announced on Friday, that there were 476 active COVID-19 cases, with 1,110 others in quarantine/isolation due to exposure — the highest number of active cases the county has had since April of 2020.

Liddle suggested that it wasn’t time to panic, comparing the number of hospitalizations on Thursday (10) to when active cases were at a similar mark in April 2020 (28).

“That doesn’t mean that everything's fine,” said Liddle. “With all the media comments about Omicron and spreading all over the world … we are in a very serious situation. But the sky is not falling. Really what’s important now is vaccination.”

Liddle said in order to beat the pandemic, they need to get vaccine rates (see sidebar) up to 80 percent across every demographic and age group.

“Vaccines do work,” said Liddle. “I know Dr. Oz, Joe Rogan, Dr. Facebook may have other opinions, and I do want to say that vaccines are not foolproof. There are folks that have questions and concerns and folks have raised stuff on social media that they deserve to have answers to those questions. It’s hard to get straight answers because there’s so much misinformation out there and also because the virus is changing day by day.”

As the Democrat previously reported, Public Health is monitoring the new Omicron variant, but at this time, county officials have stated that there is much even the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and NYS Department of Health don’t know about it or how it will impact the support vaccines currently provide.

“The fact is vaccines do reduce the potential for severe illness or death,” said Liddle. “That’s proven by science.”

According to the county, New York State Department of Health has been closely monitoring hospitalization rates, noting that fully vaccinated New Yorkers have an 89.8 percent lower chance of being hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who are unvaccinated.

Public Health Director Nancy McGraw told legislators Thursday that of the 458 new positive cases the county saw last week, 74 of those individuals or roughly 16 percent, were identified as people who are fully vaccinated. One hundred and twenty of the 458 people who tested positive, roughly 26 percent, identified as being vaccinated or partially vaccinated (at least one dose).

McGraw told the Democrat that hospitalizations are increasing and hovering around nine or 10 per day, but approximately 70-90 percent of them have been among unvaccinated individuals. She added that they’ve also seen a slow but steady increase in deaths over the past three months.
Of the 95 county residents who have passed away from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to McGraw, 15 deaths, or 16 percent, have occurred in the past three months.

Legislator Nadia Rajsz, who chairs the Health and Family Services Committee, pointed out that if Garnet Health Medical Center – Catskills were to become inundated with patients due to COVID, it compromises everyone else in the county because they’d have nowhere else to go outside of Middletown or elsewhere.

“We need to reduce the amount of people getting sick, for them not to end up in a hospital taking a bed that you or anybody else may need,” said Rajsz.

In addition to encouraging vaccination, McGraw also touched on the importance of mask wearing.
“… everyone should be wearing masks when they cannot socially distance from others (six feet or farther away),” she said. “Masks are proven to greatly reduce chances of infection, not only of coronavirus, but other transmissible diseases like the flu.”

For questions about coronavirus, Public Health can be contacted at 845-513-2268. Info is also available on the county’s website, as well as the NYS Department of Health and CDC websites.

COVID at County Jail
During Thursday’s Public Safety and Law Enforcement Committee meeting of the County Legislature, Sullivan County Jail Administrator Hal Smith said they’ve had a COVID outbreak at the jail.

Smith said that of the 96 incarcerated individuals at the facility, 22 have tested positive and were being treated with a vitamin pack, which is a CDC-approved treatment.

Smith said they had two or three individuals that displayed symptoms and that it lasted for a couple days.

“Now everybody is symptom free,” said Smith, adding that everyone seems to be doing fine.

National Guard
Last week it was announced that Governor Kathy Hochul was deploying medical teams from the National Guard to help nursing homes throughout the state facing staff shortages.

The Care Center at Sunset Lake has accepted such assistance.

According to Care Center at Sunset Lake Administrator Megan Holton, eight members of the National Guard started Monday and will be assisting them through the holidays. They will be supplementing for resident care, assisting the nursing department and filling gaps where needed.

“We’re looking forward to working with them and definitely thankful for the assistance they're providing,” said Holton.