The Peru Gazette

Health Officials Concerned as Local COVID-19 Cases Increase

Plattsburgh, October 6, 2020. Local health officials are urging residents to not become complacent in the fight against Covid-19. As many businesses and schools in our region have reopened, many residents are resuming more “normal” daily activities. Health officials fear that this return to “normalcy” has given many residents the impression that the risk of Covid-19 has decreased. As a result, many residents are increasing their social circles and becoming more lax in their mask-wearing, social distancing, and handwashing efforts.

“Covid-19 is in our community. As much as we all want this to be over, the risk of COVID is still present,” stated John Kanoza, Director of Public Health in Clinton County. “Already this week we have seen nine new lab-confirmed cases of Covid-19, bringing our current total number of active cases to twelve. What has been particularly evident with our most recent cases is the lack of apparent connection between cases. These cases are not associated with one specific gathering, event or location but dispersed throughout our community.”

Community spread means people have been infected with the virus in an area, including some who are not sure how or where they became infected. “While we routinely provide case updates for Clinton County that reflect cases identified through testing, there are certainly many more individuals throughout our community with COVID-19, including both those without symptoms (asymptomatic) and those attributing symptoms to a different ailment,” added Mr. Kanoza.

While some have looked to the relatively low number of deaths associated with COVID-19 in Clinton County to minimize the severity of the virus, Mr. Kanoza cautions residents to reconsider. “One death due to COVID-19 is one too many. These are people, our friends and neighbors, with families who are suffering unnecessarily—these deaths could have been prevented. In addition, researchers are only just beginning to learn about the long-term health complications that COVID-19 causes.”

Recent hospitalizations also have health officials concerned. “We have seen a significant uptick in hospitalizations from COVID in the last two weeks. Aside from our concern for hospitalized patients, we know that hospitalizations are just the tip of the iceberg of cases in the community. We had a very mild summer and I am afraid we have been lulled into some complacency around masking and social distancing and avoiding high-risk situations. Please, wear your masks and do the things we all need to do to be safe,” urged Wouter Rietsema, Vice President for Population Health and Information Services and Infectious Disease Physician at the University of Vermont Health Network- Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH). “Two weeks ago we [CVPH] had one patient admitted with COVID-19, and now we have seven,” noted Dr. Rietsema.

Health officials reiterated that the most effective way to keep our community safe is to continue the practices that have been emphasized from the start. “We must continue to physically distance (6 feet) ourselves from others, wear masks, wash our hands frequently, avoid crowds, and stay home when we’re sick. Our desire for this pandemic to be over does not make it so. It is up to each and every one of us to continue doing our part to keep those at greatest risk in our community safe,” added Mr. Kanoza.