Halloween Eyed for Broome COVID Case Bump

Broome County officials say a Halloween bump in the night is more real and frightening than usual with County Executive Jason Garnar tracing the current bump in the number of coronavirus cases back to Halloween.

Garnar is blaming parties, rather than trick or treating for a big jump in cases over the past three or four days.

In his weekly briefing November 12, the Democrat said the county had been looking at a 40 percent decrease in its infection rate over the two previous weeks, getting a handle on a spike that put it into the state’s micro-cluster restrictions, but now is showing a “blip” in cases over the past three days.  He says those cases are being traced back to single households where someone was sick and others weren’t careful about isolation protocols, Binghamton University students and others who may have thrown caution to the wind for gatherings and celebrations and some healthcare workers.

November 12, the county reported another death from COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 109 and 46 new cases for a total of 4,055.

Tioga County reports three additional deaths attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic from November 10 for a total of 46.  The county also says it had 54 additional cases for a total of 925.  Another double-digit increase in the Southern Tier is Cortland County which November 12 reported 22 additions to its benchmark 1,000 cases reported on Wednesday.

Chenango County had five new cases for a total of 477 while Delaware County added four positive results for 260 cases.

New York State recorded 4,797 new cases for a total of 545,762 and 29 additional deaths for a total of 26,055 since the start of the pandemic.