OSWEGO COUNTY – According to the Oswego County Health Department, as of 3 p.m., there have been 210 additional cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and seven county residents have died since Friday, January 15.
“The 210 positive cases reported today are a combined total from the last four days,” said Oswego County Public Health Director Jiancheng Huang. “On Saturday, there were 61 new cases; 41 on Sunday, 59 on Monday, and 49 today. While it looks like these daily positive case reports – and even the total numbers of tests – are relatively lower these past few days, I still urge residents to be diligent in their preventative measures.”
There are also seven additional COVID-19-related deaths since Friday; three yesterday and four today.
“Every death is an unfortunate development in our efforts to fight this virus and something that we never want to see. I would like to express our sincere condolences to the families and friends of these individuals,” Huang said.
Oswego County Legislature Chairman James Weatherup posted his weekly video briefing today. In this week’s video, he talked about vaccination clinics.
“I’m happy to report that the county health department finally received enough vaccine to hold its first large-scale vaccination clinic,” Weatherup said. “This past Saturday, the health department vaccinated 961 people at the G. Ray Bodley High School in Fulton. The clinic ran very smoothly and was well-organized… by the end of today, the county health department will have vaccinated 1,376 residents. We estimate that 4,000 county residents have received the first dose of vaccine through the health department and our other community health care partners.”
Weatherup some residents will begin to receive their second part of the dose later this week. For those eligible for the vaccine and in need of an appointment, visit here or call the New York State Vaccination Hotline at 1-833-697-4829.
The Oswego County Office for the Aging is helping senior citizens who do not use the internet to sign up for available appointments. Those age 65 and older can call the OFA office on weekdays at 315-349-3484.
Weatherup also spoke about misinformation spreading on social media in regards to vaccination clinics.
“The county is not making money off the clinics or profiting from the public’s misfortune,” Weatherup said. “Although the Office for the Aging is helping eligible seniors to sign up for the vaccine, and their staff has been a huge support in helping to run them, vaccination clinics are operated by the Oswego County Health Department. We receive the vaccine at no cost. We do not bill for it. We can bill insurance companies for administrative costs only. We recoup that expense for our taxpayers. This is standard practice for all our vaccination clinics when state or federally funded vaccine is used.”
Weatherup said if a person does not have health insurance to cover the administrative fee, they will not charge that fee with the priority of protecting residents and increasing public immunity.
He said in November the legislation approved a resolution to accept a grant in the amount of $304,948 to support the county’s COVID-19 response measures. The purpose of the grant is to help with tracking and contact tracing. It allowed the county to hire more people to work as public health investigators until June 2022.
“To insinuate that the county government is trying to profit from the public’s misfortune by charging an administrative fee for the vaccine is shameful and disingenuous,” Weatherup said.
According to Senior Public Health Educator Diane Oldenburg, the infection rate in Oswego County is slowly declining. As of yesterday, the 7-day positivity rate was 7.8%, but is still much higher than the county would like, Oldenburg said.
In response to questions the health department is still receiving from the public, Oldenburg said the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two doses. When someone receives their first vaccine, they get an appointment for their second dose. Both doses need to be from the same manufacturer.
“Until we know for sure the vaccination protects people from spreading the virus, and until enough people are vaccinated some community immunity can be achieved, everyone needs to wear a mask, continue social distancing, and avoid unnecessary gatherings,” Oldenburg said.
She said they have heard some reports of arm pain and fever after someone gets their vaccine, and studies show that up to 50% of people experience symptoms such as fever, fatigue, headache, chills, or muscle/joint aches. For most people these symptoms were mild and short lived.
Oldenburg asked the community to continue being patient as the vaccine is rolled out. She said it will be months long process to vaccinate those who are currently eligible, and the county will continue to schedule clinics as it receives shipments of vaccine.
“Please understand we are not aware of the amount of vaccine that is being allocated to the county until it is ready to be shipped,” Oldenburg said. “The number of appointments will vary from clinic to clinic. We share your frustration.”
Today’s statistics are below:
Oswego County: (as of 3 p.m.)
- Total # of active cases: 1,058 (Friday: 1,280)
- Total # of positive cases: 5,168 (Friday: 4,958)
- Total # of recoveries: 4,041 (Friday: 3,616)
- Total # tests: 122,854 (Friday: 119,315)
- Total # of negative results: 115,897 (Friday: 112,665)
- Total # of people in mandatory isolation/quarantine: 1,566 (Friday: 1,862)
- Total # of deaths: 69 (Friday: 62)
- Total # of hospitalizations: 213 (as of Jan. 15. – There were 152 reported on Jan. 1)
Municipalities With Cases: Map updated Friday.
1-10 confirmed cases: Boylston
11-25 confirmed cases: Amboy, Redfield
26-50 confirmed cases: Minetto, Orwell, Williamstown
51-75 confirmed cases: New Haven
76-100 confirmed cases: Albion, Parish, Sandy Creek
101-150 confirmed cases: Hannibal, Palermo, West Monroe
151-200 confirmed cases: Constantia, Mexico, Richland, Scriba
201-250 confirmed cases: Granby
251-300 confirmed cases: Schroeppel, Volney
301-350 confirmed cases: Oswego Town
Over 400 confirmed cases: City of Fulton, City of Oswego, Hastings
SUNY Oswego Statistics: (as of 3:05 p.m.) Note this includes the numbers for Saturday, Sunday, Monday (holiday) and today
- Total number of active cases: 27 (+6)
- Total number of cumulative confirmed cases since Jan. 2: 72 (+26)
- Total number of tests: 525 (no change)
- Total number of recoveries: 25
- Total number of confirmed cases Jan. 16 to Jan. 29: 26
- students living on-campus: 0
- students living off-campus while taking classes on-campus: 0
- employees working on-campus: 2
- students living off-campus learning remotely: 24
- employees working remotely: 0
- Total number of on-campus quarantine rooms occupied: 0
- Total number of on-campus isolation rooms occupied: 0
- Total number of off-campus students in quarantine: 11
- Total number of off-campus students in isolation: 23
Oswego County School Districts: Look for your school district’s COVID-19 report card here. It shows if there are any positive cases within the school district, for students and staff.
New York: (as of yesterday)
- Total # of positive cases: 1,258,087 (Friday: 1,203,550)
- Total # of deaths: 33,224 (Friday: 32,566)
*NY numbers are from the NY State Department of Health.
Other updates from the state can be found here.
U.S.: (as of 3:22 p.m.)
- Total # of positive cases: 24,186,358 (Friday: 23,461,685)
- Total # of deaths: 400,292 (Friday: 390,809)
- Total # of recoveries: No data available (Dec. 14: 6,298,082)
Worldwide: (as of 3:22 p.m.)
- Total # of positive cases: 95,938,177 (Friday: 93,580,828)
- Total # of deaths: 2,050,154 (Friday: 2,003,885)
- Total # of recoveries: 52,852,933 (Friday: 51,573,307)
For information on symptoms, diagnostic testing, antibody testing, childhood inflammatory disease related to COVID-19, or other COVID-19 related topics, visit the Oswego County Health Department’s COVID-19 page.
Resources:
- Oswego County COVID-19 Hotline: 315-349-3330
- Potential COVID-19 Exposure Sites In Oswego County
- Oswego County COVID-19 Testing Sites
- COVID-19 Vaccine Information
- New York Mental Health Hotline: 1-844-863-9314
- Oswego COVID-19 Mental Health and Crisis Hotline: 315-343-5507
- Oswego County YouTube Updates
- These videos are briefings given by Oswego County officials on Tuesdays.
- City of Oswego Emergency Assistance
- Fulton Coronavirus Hotline – 315-895-4767
- Oswego County Health Department
- Oswego County Health Department COVID-19 dashboard
- New York Department of Health
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Unacast Social Distancing Scoreboard
- Where to get help with food and general assistance
- Oswego County Office for the Aging – 315-349-3484
Links For Statistics:
- Oswego County
- Oswego County Health Department
- SUNY Oswego Dashboard
- New York state
- New York Department of Health
- U.S.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Worldwide
- Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
Notes: The total number of positive cases in Oswego County is cumulative since March and the number of recoveries and deaths are of those numbers. SUNY Oswego cases are included in the county numbers, however, the county tracks only those living in Oswego County. That means that students who chose to leave and go back to their home county and test positive there will be included on the college’s dashboard, but not the county’s. Their positive result would be reported to their home county, not here.
SUNY Oswego reset its numbers for the Winter/Spring 2021 semesters and does not include numbers from Aug. 12, 2020 to Jan. 1, 2021.
Discover more from Oswego County Today
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Just explain how paying a fee to an agency that is already getting paid by the taxpayers of Oswego County for something that was free, isn’t taking advantage of the misfortunes of the taxpayers. How is it fair to charge someone’s ins. co. but not charge some people that don’t have ins. Ans. me that Mr. Weatherup.
When you know you will be getting money to administer the vaccine in not to distance future. If they are already getting paid and the money was already in the budget to pay for these workers where is the money going. Oh that’s right you gave out raises and you upped your Revenue line to cover those raises and this is revenue. You still don’t like all the underlining facts to come out do you. Hurts when you get your hand caught in the Cookie Jar.
Wow 3% vaccinated that is a huge celebration! What a joke. I know we are waiting on doses from companies but still not great news. People do realize that the numbers show that probably the real reason numbers are going down is because so much of the population has been infected right?? It is simple math that once enough people get sick the only way for numbers to go is down. I saw now that Biden’s pick for CDC said that antibodies aren’t able to fight off the new strands but the vaccine will? Not a doctor but don’t vaccines create antibodies to fight illnesses???? Make sure you line up and as Frank stated all of a sudden pay for something that is supposed to be free. One the bright side maybe now the teachers will stop cowering at home and come back to work. Maybe the people the district furloughed were from the wrong group. Hope the Superintendent learns to stand up to the teachers union.