HUDSON — Two new COVID-related deaths were reported Monday in the Twin Counties, but infection rates continue to decline.
One death in Columbia and another in Greene were reported by the counties’ respective health departments.
“It was a community member who, I’m sad to say, was in their 50s,” Columbia County Department of Health Director Jack Mabb said.
Age and gender were not available for the Greene County resident.
The two deaths from the virus bring the total number since the beginning of the pandemic to 81 in Columbia County and 63 in Greene County.
Both counties have seen the number of coronavirus deaths increase in the new year. In Columbia County, 31 of the 81 COVID-related deaths, or 38.2%, were reported by the Department of Health in 2021.
In Greene County, more than half of all COVID-related deaths, or 55.5%, have been reported since Jan. 1. So far this year, 35 deaths have been reported by the Public Health Department, with 28 virus deaths recorded in 2020.
“The single biggest indicator of death from COVID remains age,” Mabb said Tuesday.
The Columbia County Department of Health has reported 3,331 positive COVID cases since the beginning of the pandemic. Over the past week, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 8, the Department of Health reported 149 new COVID cases. Over the past month, from Jan. 8 to Feb. 8, there were 1,259 new cases, or about 37.7% of all positive cases.
There are 335 active virus infections in Columbia County at this time.
On Monday, the county saw 12 new positive cases, the lowest number of daily new infections the county has seen in several months, Mabb said.
The numbers of COVID infections have been declining since a surge after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Mabb expressed concern over a possible increase in the infection rate caused by people gathering at Super Bowl parties Sunday.
There are 33 hospitalizations because of the virus and two people in the intensive care unit, according to the Columbia County Department of Health.
Greene County Public Health has reported 2,401 positive COVID cases in the county since the beginning of the pandemic in mid-March. Over the past week, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 8, Public Health reported 98 new cases. Over the past month, from Jan. 8 to Feb. 8, there were 756 new cases, or about 31.4% of all COVID infections in the county.
There are 108 active cases in Greene County.
The county’s Public Health Department reported 14 residents in the hospital because of COVID-19.
The infection rate is improving after the post-holiday surge, Greene County Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger, R-New Baltimore, said Tuesday.
“In the last week or two we’ve certainly come down from the high numbers after Christmas and New Year’s that we were seeing,” Linger said.
The Twin Counties have also recently seen a decrease in the number of people in mandatory quarantine because of the virus.
In Columbia County there are 184 residents in quarantine and a month ago — on Jan. 8 — there were 366, according to the Department of Health.
In Greene County there are 297 people in quarantine, and last month there were 438 as of Jan. 8.
The state COVID testing dashboard tracks the percentage of daily positive tests administered in each county. Those numbers are reported as a seven-day and 14-day rolling average.
Both counties’ percentages of positive cases have dropped in the past month, according to the state dashboard. Columbia County has a seven-day rolling average of 4.4% positive tests and Greene County’s seven-day rolling average is 5%.
Last month the dashboard reported 7-day rolling averages of 7.8% in Columbia County and 10.4% in Greene County.