Spike attributed to prison cases
Tally of people with COVID jumps by 31; daily rate of positive tests surges to 4.7%
Ulster County’s tally of active COVID-19 cases jumped from 110 on Monday to 141 on Tuesday. A county official said all but five of the 31 new cases were in state prisons.
The 31 new confirmed cases were among 661 people tested, meaning the rate of positive tests was 4.7 percent, sharply higher than the typical daily rate of 0 to 1.7 percent over the past few weeks. The last time Ulster County had a daily positive test rate higher than 4.7 percent was May 18, when it was 6 percent, according to the county’s online dashboard of COVID-19 data. The county’s peak rate of positive tests was 33 percent on April 13, when the pandemic was at its worst in New York state.
The last time the number of active COVID cases in Ulster County jumped by more than 30 in a day also was in April, when the total climbed from 903 on April 22 to 949 on April 23, according to a chart on the dashboard.
Assistant Deputy County Executive Daniel Torres said 25 of the 31 new cases of COVID in Ulster County were among the state inmate population, but he did not have additional details. A spokesperson for the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), which oversees the state prisons, did not provide information about when the inmates whose positive results were reported to the county on Wednesday were tested.
In an email Wednesday, DOCCS repeated its statement from a day earlier that the department is “in consultation with [state Department of Health], continues to evaluate all options of further testing, and anticipates doing additional targeted testing.”
“The department is awaiting test results for analysis in its continuing mission to keep all staff and incarcerated individuals safe,” the statement read.
DOCCS did not say how many members of its staff working in Ulster County’s state prisons have tested positive for COVID-19. Information on a state website indicates 1,308 DOCCS employees across New York have tested positive for the virus and five have died.
The state does not breakdown those numbers by facility.
Ulster County is home to four state prisons: Eastern, Shawangunk, Ulster and Wallkill.
County Executive Pat Ryan said Wednesday that the jump in COVID cases at prisons was “unfortunate but pretty predictable.” He said DOCCS “decided to proactively test a subset of all of the inmates,” which invariably resulted in positive results, some of which
were probably asymptomatic cases.
The executive said COVID caseloads at state prisons in the county are likely to continue increasing over the next several days as results from more tests come back.
“Because of DOCCS’ proactive testing, now at least they know [about confirmed cases of COVID],” Ryan said. “In the medium and long term, this will make everyone a lot safer, including in the community.”
He noted that although prisons are “somewhat of a closed environment,” employees at the facilities live in the community, and “we’re working with municipalities that have a larger population of corrections officers….”
“It would be absolutely tragic for this to bleed over into our community,” Ryan said.
He said the county has been assured by DOCCS that prison employees are
provided with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) to maintain their own safety.
A DOCCS spokesperson said Wednesday that all of the department’s facilities “have appropriate PPE for staff, and staff are required to wear a mask while on duty.” Additionally, according to the department, masks have been distributed to prisoners, and hand sanitizer is available for staff members and prisoners “in common areas of all facilities.”
Despite the recent spike, Ryan said, Ulster County is “still in good shape … and if the trend continues, we are on track for schools to open in September.”
The state will allow schools to open only in regions with a 14-day rolling average infection rate of 5 percent or less, and state prisons and county jails are included in the math, Ryan said.
There have been no cases
of COVID-19 at the Ulster County Jail in Kingston since the start of the pandemic in March.
Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, speaking during a Facebook Live event Wednesday, said he, too, anticipates possible spikes in coronavirus numbers as a result of “DOCCS testing more aggressively.”
Dutchess County has three state prisons: Downstate, Fishkill and Green Haven.
By the numbers
Ulster County has had 1,987 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak began in March. The online dashboard says 1,757 COVID patients in the county have recovered and 91 have died.
Dutchess County has had 4,447 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak began. The county’s online dashboard says 4,082 patients in the county have recovered and 153 have died. (Molinaro said individuals are considered to have recovered from COVID-19 after they have “outlived the symptoms and the quarantine period.”)
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Also on Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said driving schools licensed by the state
Department of Motor Vehicles can conduct prelicensing courses online due to the pandemic.
The course, commonly called “the five-hour course,” will be offered over “secure technology,” such as Zoom, WebEx, Go To Meeting and Skype, the governor’s office said.
For more information, email DriverTrainingProgram@dmv.ny.gov or call (518) 473-7174, Option 3.