COVID-19 deaths have hit a grim milestone.
According to the Centers for disease control, at least 675,446 Americans have now died from COVID.
That exceeds the estimated number of 50 million deaths worldwide and 675,000 in the United states from the 1918 influenza pandemic—when there was no vaccine, described as “the deadliest in human history,” according to the CDC.
In Schoharie County, as of Tuesday, the CDC is reporting 65 new cases of COVID from September 10-16 and the threat of transmission remains “high.”
The positivity rate is 7.14 percent and three more people were hospitalized during that period.
The New York State COVID-19 Report Card website, which records school COVID numbers, has been “temporarily unavailable” since at least Monday, September 13 as the state Health Department works to “simplify” the reporting process.
However, the Health Department said schools are still required to report the data, it’s just not available for public viewing.
The site is expected to be back up by Monday the 27th.
Locally, some schools have been reporting COVID data on their websites.
According to the Cobleskill-Richmondville website, as of September 20 there were a total of seven student and eight staff cases confirmed at C-R.
Schoharie Central School had previously reported one student and one staff member had tested positive since the start of school, September 14 and September 12, and Sharon Springs Central School reported two positive cases in staffers before school began.
At SUNY Cobleskill, the campus has cancelled its Coby Family Weekend October 1-2 because of the high COVID numbers across the state and region.
Countywide, 55 percent of those eligible are fully vaccinated.
Town-by-town vaccinations rates from the CDC follow.
The first number is the percentage of those with with one dose; the second is those who are fully vaccinated.
Sharon Springs—38.7 percent; 36.1 percent.
Fultonham—43.9 percent, 39.6 percent.
Richmondville—47.5 percent, 44.4 percent.
Charlotteville--49.5 percent, 43.4 percent
Cobleskill—49.8 percent, 47 percent.
Gilboa—51.8 percent, 49.5 percent.
Jefferson—52 percent, 49.3 percent.
Sloansville—52.2 percent, 48.6 percent.
Middleburgh—53 percent, 49.3 percent.
Schoharie—53.5 percent, 50.4 percent.
Carlisle—59 percent, 55.9 percent.
Central Bridge—61.2 percent, 56.6 percent.
Warnerville—77 percent, 72.1 percent.
Esperance—80 percent, 75.4 percent.
Howes Cave—80.1 percent, 74.7 percent.
West Fulton—84 percent, 79.5 percent.
Summit—84.7 percent, 77.8 percent.
Blenheim—99 percent, 99 percent.