P.M. NEWS FRIDAY 2-19-21
Governor Cuomo held a COVID Briefing this afternoon in Albany, first, State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker explained the controversial March 25th memo from the CDC regarding returning COVID patients from hospitals back nursing homes, had no bearing on how Nursing home patients caught the virus:
(Zucker 2-19-21)
Governor Cuomo was asked by a reporter about the lag time in breaking down nursing home deaths & hospital deaths to state Lawmakers after the US Department of Justice asked for the information, and he said that any lawmakers could have requested the information by subpoena at that time, but they didn’t:
(Cuomo 2-19-21)
The Governor said that the whole experience has led to a package of nursing homes reforms that he is including in the state budget, so that a repeat of the slow response time to the next pandemic does not lead to more nursing home deaths.
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Chenango County Public Health added 9 COVID 19 cases today, bringing their total to 2338 since the pandemic began. Their number of Active Quarantines went down by 14 to 181; hospitalization went down by 1 to 13, their active cases decreased by 2 to 52.
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Otsego County Health Department reported 17 new COVID 19 cases Thursday, with 7 hospitalized & 92 active cases. 30 of their 49 COVID deaths have occurred since January 1st.
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Norwich resident Shelby Benjamin has been named as this year’s New York Dairy Princess earlier this week in a virtual ceremony. Benjamin will receive a $1,200 scholarship and will serve for a year as a dairy industry ambassador and advocate at events around the state.
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New York’s Health Insurance Open Enrollment Period will be further extended to May 15th, aligning with states across the country. With this extension, New York joins the federal Marketplace and other state-based Marketplaces giving consumers more time to enroll for 2021. New Yorkers can apply for coverage at nystateofhealth.ny.gov, or directly through insurers.
A.M. NEWS FRIDAY 2-19-21
The Federal government has informed New York that nearly all COVID-19 vaccine doses allocated for Week 10; which were scheduled to be delivered between February 12th and February 21st, and are delayed due to the winter storms continuing to impact much of the country. Every dose that should have shipped on Monday was held back, and only a limited number of Pfizer vaccines left shipping facilities on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Department of Health is working with local health departments, hospitals & pharmacies to minimize the impact on their operations and reduce the number of appointments that must be rescheduled.
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Delaware County Public Health reported 16 new COVID cases Thursday out of 361 tested; they have 140 active cases, 23 hospitalized & 308 in quarantine.
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