HUDSON — The 103rd Columbia County resident has died in relation to COVID-19, health officials said Thursday.
The Columbia County Department of Health reported a new COVID-related death Thursday morning. The man was in his 60s and was not vaccinated.
Thursday’s death is the first in October.
“These deaths of unvaccinated people bother me a lot,” Columbia County Department of Health Director Jack Mabb said. “And to have six in such a short period of time, it’s just heartbreaking, it really is. To deny the vaccine, to say no to the vaccine and then have the virus kill you, it’s really tough.”
The Columbia County Department of Health reported six COVID-related deaths since the beginning of September including this latest death; there have been six deaths in the past six weeks in Columbia County.
The county has not had this many deaths in a window this small for several months, according to the county department of health.
Columbia County reported it first COVID-related fatality March 28, 2020. Since then, 103 Columbia County residents have died of the virus. The county reported the highest numbers of deaths last winter when there were 22 COVID-related deaths in January and 15 in February. There were four deaths reported in March and three each month in April and May. The number of deaths occurring in the county dropped to zero in the months of June and July in the county and there was one death in the month of August. Five county residents died because of COVID in September.
All of the COVID-deaths in Columbia County have occurred among people who were not vaccinated, Mabb said.
As of Thursday morning, three Columbia County residents were hospitalized because of the virus, down from five hospitalizations Wednesday. None of the people hospitalized were vaccinated.
“Because of the school outbreaks, we’re having more school-age children being a part of our daily total, and they are unvaccinated,” Mabb said. “At this point in time over 50% of our cases are breakthrough, but they are not seriously ill people.”
COVID vaccines first became available to certain high-risk groups of people in late 2020. New York state increased vaccine eligibility over the next several months and by mid-spring anyone 18 and older was eligible to receive a vaccine. Today, anyone as young as 12 is eligible.
The department of health is holding its first Pfizer booster vaccine POD on Friday morning at Columbia-Greene Community College from 9-11 a.m. A link to sign up is available on the county department of health website.
Mabb said the department of health is planning two more Pfizer booster PODs at the college on upcoming Fridays. The links for those PODS will be posted when available.
“Our thinking is we only planned out the next two weeks because we’re thinking Moderna will probably be approved soon,” Mabb said.
The department of health will be ramping up its PODs and holding them at more hours once the booster shot for Moderna is approved.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report 65.9% of all Columbia County residents are fully vaccinated and 71.5% of all county residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Of the county population that is 12 or older, which includes anyone old enough to be eligible to receive the vaccine 73.6% of people are fully vaccinated and 79.9% of people in the county have received at least one dose of the vaccine.