SULLIVAN COUNTY –– As part of her report to legislators at Thursday’s Health and Human Services’ committee meeting, Public Health Director Nancy McGraw said that things aren’t looking too bad on the COVID front.

While they continue to communicate with school districts, a major change has been that they are no longer looking at positivity rate. McGraw said that data really doesn’t make sense anymore, due to over-the-counter tests and under reporting.

McGraw further stated that they’ve had about 110 new cases over the last few months, and the death toll in Sullivan County since the start of the pandemic is 140.

“We’ve got a pretty low seven-day average positivity rate,” she said. “The number of cases per day, or per week, per 100,000, is what the state is really looking at in addition to hospitalizations. Hospitalizations have been at zero, or less than five, for several weeks. So that’s good. People are still testing positive but not getting as sick as they were.

“We want to continue to remind people if they’re [at] high risk, if they’re elderly, that they continue to consider vaccination and boosting.  It’s the best protection,” said McGraw. “And [for] the very large groups in the community, to wear masks, especially if they are indoors, for any length of time.”

Public Health announced Friday that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have  reclassified the County as an area of high transmission for COVID-19. Current recommendations for counties in this classification are to wear a mask indoors when in public, stay up-to-date with COVID vaccines and get tested if you experience symptoms.

There may be additional precautions needed for people at high risk for severe illness. If you’re immunocompromised, you can learn of more ways to protect yourself at www.cdc.gov. 

On a separate note, McGraw said Public Health is trying to get caught up on items that were put on the back burner after having to focus so many resources on COVID over the last couple years.

“We’re very busy,” she said. “We have a rabies clinic coming up in June at Morningside Park. Staff are gearing up for their health education and outreach and Narcan training continues.”

Public Health Director Nancy McGraw updates the public and legislature of what the department is working on, and where things stand with COVID-19.