COVID cases remain high in county, across region
by Dan McClelland
Franklin County health officials have recorded 48 new cases of COVID-19 in the county in the 24 hours between Sunday and Monday, County Legislator Paul Maroun reported this week.
The virus and the new Omicron variant are raging across New York State and across our county and town.
“There are five children in the county under the age of five years of age who have contracted the virus,” he said. Across the county too are another 16 children between the ages of five and 12 and seven cases among teenagers 13 to 17 years of age.
Mr. Maroun said there was a second death in as many weeks on Sunday, bringing the total of people who have died from COVID- related causes to 29 since the pandemic began nearly two years ago.
He said people of all ages in the county have died from the disease.
“Of the people now testing positive, 35% of them have been vaccinated. Fifty-four percent of those who have recently tested positive for the virus are unvaccinated.”
“Franklin County remains what health officials are calling 'a critical risk area',” he reported.
The county legislator and mayor said there are is considerable effort at the county level these days to make more masks available to the public and particularly for local schools.
He also said there are currently five COVID patients receiving treatment at the Adirondack Medical Center and seven in the hospital at Malone's Alice Hyde.
Mr. Maroun was scheduled to participate in a Zoom call with the governor's office on Monday and after that call he expects to know more about the number of test kits coming to this area.
He said he wasn't sure how the test kits will be made available to the public but will know more later this week. There has been news from Albany of late that test kits will be provided to every school student in coming days, he noted.
“I'm asking everyone, if they are not vaccinated, to please do so. If you don't think you are going to contract the virus, then that's fine. But it's about people who are more fragile than others or who may have immune systems that are not as strong as healthy people!”
“I run into people every day who don't want to get vaccinated and I understand. But I don't believe it. Science says these people are wrong.”
He said people should get vaccinated to protect the people around them: the young, the elderly and the frail.
“To everyone I say: please get vaccinated!”