Broome Executive Reports COVID Trends While Pre-School Year Infections Grow

Broome Executive Garnar says the shift in the coronavirus infection trend is continuing to be from nursing homes and other congregate facilities to community spread.

Garnar says 70 percent of new cases are between people living in the same household or working in the same place and many of the new infections are in younger people.  Most fatalities from COVID-19 continue to be among older people and patients with preexisting health concerns. 

Broome County officials, meanwhile, are working as liaisons in the school districts as they prepare to open for the fall semester in the next week and a half. 

Many of those districts are planning hybrid schedules with some students going Mondays, Wednesdays and alternating Fridays in-person with the other half going Tuesdays, Thursdays and the other Fridays in-person and studying remotely on the other days. 

The County will be helping with monitoring, identifying coronavirus cases and contact tracing.  

Some local districts are already reporting cases of the coronavirus even before the school year begins.  For example, on the Johnson City Central School website page dedicated to alerts, the District reported August 31 it was working with the Broome Health Department after receiving notification of a confirmed case of COVID-19 involving a person in the district.  The school district has reported six confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the district.