Area COVID-19 Numbers Tick Up

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The state estimates we are anywhere from a week to 21 days from the peak of the COVID-19 virus spread in New York. The bulk of the numbers are in the city, but experts predict a rolling apex...a spike in one area, followed by a spike in neighboring areas.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that downstate hospitals will be on call to handle any overflow from upstate hospitals when and if that becomes necessary. But for now, upstate hospitals will be asked to help out with New York City, which has been hit first, and hardest.

Delaware County, as of Tuesday, has 14 confirmed positive cases. Six of them are hospitalized and isolated. Six are recovering at home. An additional 35 people have been identified as requiring mandatory quarantine, while five more are under precautionary quarantine. Two people have fully recovered.

Public Health Director Amanda Walsh recorded a video Monday, saying that with each confirmed case, the county then traces all contacts and notifies them they may have been exposed.

“We will find you,” she said. “We identify people who are close contacts, what we call proximate contacts. Those people are then placed in a mandatory or cautionary quarantine for fourteen days from last contact.”

Those people are monitored on a daily basis, both to check on their health, and to make sure they are abiding by the quarantine.

County health officials caution that these numbers aren’t the full count – these are the ones they know about. 

“We border seven counties in the state of Pennsylvania, all of which have identified positive cases,” Walsh said in the video. “We can guarantee that for every one positive case that is identified, more exist, but they just haven’t been identified yet because they haven’t been tested.”

The County Supervisor’s office released a statement yesterday saying it would comply with the governor’s call to extend the restrictions on government staff. 

“Delaware County will continue to practice social distancing through limiting office staff, working remotely and several office closures through April 15, 2020.”

The statement left open the possibility of further extensions. 

Late Tuesday afternoon, Otsego County confirmed 16 cases ranging in age from 20 to 75 -- among them, Senator James Seward and his wife, Cindy, both of whom are expected to fully recover. One person in the county has died and one has fully recovered already.

Schoharie County reported 3 confirmed cases. Chenango County reported their cases doubled on Sunday, from 6 to 12. Broome County had 32 cases at last report on Monday.