Don Smith's resident tested found negative for virus
by Dan McClelland
The resident of Don Smith's apartment complex who village officials last week worried might test positive for the coronavirus was tested and the results were negative, Mayor Paul Maroun reported this week.
As a result the senior apartment building does not have to be quarantined and closed to the public, as would have been the case had the resident tested positive for the virus.
The news report last week of the potential quarantine caused great concern among many of the residents at the Wawbeek Ave. complex.
Mayor Maroun on Monday spent seven hours on video meetings and teleconference calls with many North Country local, county and state leaders. Yesterday he called that a personal record of time spent in a day doing that.
Yesterday he reported there are still no coronavirus cases in Tupper Lake. There are three people here, however, who have been ordered to quarantine but none of them have tested positive.
Franklin County continues to have 12 positive cases, according to the county legislator, who talks with his colleagues in the legislature and with Katy Strack of the county health department daily. He said, however, there are 71 people in Franklin County who are what he terms “suspected positive” and 113 people across the county in quarantine.
He said there are 266 people in this county who have been tested for the virus and 28 people who have had COVID-19 and survived it.
According to conversations he has had with medical professionals and health experts Mr. Maroun does not believe this county has reached “its apex” yet as the number of suspected cases continues to increase. “We're watching the numbers every day!”
As of yesterday there were no COVID-19 cases at Alice Hyde Hospital in Malone and two at Adirondack Health, but neither are intubated.
Of other North Country statistics, the mayor said there are 128 positive cases currently in St. Lawrence County, 38 people in Essex County (24 absolutely positive and 14 suspect) and 99 in Clinton County (56 absolutely positive and 43 who are suspected of carrying the virus).
Mayor Maroun said area prison continue to stay stable with no positive inmates in Bare Hill or Franklin facility and 27 inmates who have tested positive at Upstate Correctional.