COVID-19
Transportation Program Bridges Gap In Rural Vaccine Distribution
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“We’re trying to do everything we can to make sure everyone has an opportunity to get a vaccination that is eligible, whether they have transportation or not.”
WSKG (https://wskg.org/category/news/health/rural-health-desk/)
Rural health stories produced by the WSKG newsroom.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to make sure everyone has an opportunity to get a vaccination that is eligible, whether they have transportation or not.”
“It’s like fighting a battle and knowing that your weapon can help destroy the enemy, but you’re short on the weapons.”
It doesn’t take seeing someone in person to have a connection. Video and phone calls can be just as helpful.
A Kaiser Family Foundation report released last week found rural residents are among the most hesitant about vaccines.
“We were waiting for this for a long time and everything. It’s like a big sigh of relief for me.”
“We’re all ready to go, but we can only give out the vaccine that we actually have in our hands.”
“The challenge is being able to pivot when we need to pivot.”
During the week of Christmas, four staff members and 21 inmates at the Steuben County Jail tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
SYRACUSE, NY (WRVO) – The federal government is directing more than $1 billion worth of COVID relief funding passed earlier this year to offset losses incurred by ambulance providers. It’s welcome news in New York. “Emergency medical service providers across the U.S. have been struggling to stay afloat as the COVID-19 health crisis has raged on. Nowhere is that more true than here in New York, one of the hardest-hit states during the pandemic,” said Jeff Endler, a spokesperson for the United New York Ambulance Network. Lon Fricano, director of operations at TLC Emergency Medical Services that covers Auburn and Onondaga and Cortland counties, said every year in this business is tough, but COVID has doubled down on difficulties they face.
“Grief isn’t just related to death or the loss of a loved one. It can be loss of independence, loss of a connection, loss of a relationship.”
A flood watch is in effect across the region Thursday afternoon through Friday morning.
“It’s not a stimulus bill. It’s an emergency survival bill and we’re going to fight for more dollars later,.”
“Over 85 families are depending on this food for their Christmas dinners, so we are very concerned about being able to get the plowing done.”
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 154 COVID-19 deaths in the county.
“Similar to across the rest of the nation and the state, we are certainly experiencing the highest numbers and more crunch for capacity than we’ve been in anytime during this entire pandemic,” Lopatofsky said.
Garnar said that 30 percent of the ICU beds in the county were available and open as of Wednesday.
“Lighthouse said all along that we would comply with New York State guidelines, but the county insisted that we go well above and beyond those guidelines as a condition of reopening.”
“Most of the inmates are isolated from each other,” Harder added. “They’re not allowed out of their cells. They’re basically quarantined to keep the spread down.”
There are 580 active cases of the virus in Broome County and 29 hospitalized residents.
“So yeah, we hope by the time this ends we’ll still have some money in the bank and we‘ll still be viable.”
“We need to be ready, and this project is going to be an important tool that we have to address this crisis.”
“When you’re looking at vaccine trials, you’re looking for them to be better than 50 percent effective, so when we’re talking about in the nineties, that’s a highly effective vaccine,” Eder said.
The budget is about a 6 percent decrease from 2020.
The suspension of in-person classes and extracurricular activities begins Wednesday, Nov. 17 and will last through the end of the semester.
Thirty people tested positive for COVID-19 in a single day in Tompkins County. That is a significant increase.
“I think that’s something that we should all work to follow because that just makes good public health sense, but I think that’s one that would be very, very hard to enforce.”
According to the governor, yellow zones in rural areas must see a daily positivity rate below 4 percent before they can lift restrictions.
“Joe Biden has rightfully earned the title of being the projected president-elect and that should be recognized,” Rep. Reed said.
“We are entering a critical time with a recent uptick in cases of COVID-19.”
According to health officials, the person was a male in his 60s with underlying health conditions.
According to Boland, many more staff members have fallen ill in recent weeks than in the spring, when the first wave of COVID-19 hit.
“They feel like they’re sort of cut off from the outside world right now which is scary when you’re in a situation like that.”
The deaths occurred between Sept. 30 and Oct. 17.
“It leaves all of these holes in the implementation of the law where you might have disenfranchisement strictly based off of the ability for the county to interpret a law really loosely.”
“This is a public health crisis and you have cut them off from the outside world.”
The school originally moved online this month.
Democratic incumbent Anthony Brindisi, former Republican representative Claudia Tenney and Libertarian candidate Keith Price covered an array of issues, including policing and climate change.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deemed part of Chemung County an orange “warning” zone and part of Steuben County a yellow “buffer” zone.
So far, 55 students have been suspended or banned from campus because of COVID violations.
Oneonta’s mayor supports mask-wearing in public, but adds the vetoed ordinance wouldn’t make people any safer.
The district will need to test around 20 percent of those coming into the schools—including teachers, students and staff—each week.
“I don’t want to wait until after the election to do this, I think we need help now.”
The death occurred almost seven months to the day the county announced it was closing all schools to slow the spread of the virus.
Officials made the decision after a rise in cases of COVID-19 included 11 new cases in a 24-hour period.
The Ithaca City School District began in-person classes this week.
As of Wednesday, there were 540 active cases across the county, including 191 in Binghamton.
“In coordination with this new cluster initiative, I am going to continue to ask people to stay home for these 14 days as well,” Garnar said.
“You want to make sure cases still aren’t growing, even if they’re underneath the 100 threshold over a two week period.”
“There’s no clear issue arising from off-campus activity,” SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras said. “It’s not as if there’s one big gathering or two big gatherings. But clearly the activity is coming from off-campus.”
According to Garnar, the rapid test machines employed at the site can produce results in 15 minutes.
54 new active cases were added to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard between Wednesday and Thursday, with 8 people currently hospitalized.
The majority of cases are not driven by college students, either. Garnar said just 21 of the 193 active cases are Binghamton University students.
“Certainly no fault that we’re placing on the facility at all,” Wheeler said. “It’s just more of a clearing up of those communication lines.”
County Manager Jack Wheeler and Steuben Public Health Director Darlene Smith announced an uptick in cases at the nursing home Tuesday afternoon.
“A disturbing number were locked up due to slowdowns and failures in the assigned counsel and the public defender system.”
“After doing months of homework, and consulting with industry experts, I am convinced that a more detailed environmental review is needed by the DEC, especially now that the project permit is on hold,” Lupardo said.
“When you provide a sample for a test, it is a snapshot in time. It’s a false situation to assume it protects you going forward.”
“Certainly, we are working very hard behind the scenes to make sure we can get people in contact with doctors if they need it and things like that, if they need it.”
Critics of the facility have called it an incinerator. Under regulatory definitions set by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), it’s not.
“We committed to do everything we could to mitigate this situation, and today, that means ending residential housing for this semester.”
Student gatherings are now restricted to no more than 10 people.
Hartwick College has reported only two positive student COVID-19 cases so far.
“We want the village trustees of Endicott to respect their residents, to listen to their concerns and to represent their best interest.”
Pressure on the health system multiplied when federal changes were made to the rules governing which tests insurance providers must cover.
“Any student that is ticketed will be…suspended immediately because this is serious. So we are moving very aggressively with those cases, with those parties on or off campus.”
“We’re saying here are some examples of where those resources are needed, and they’re needed now.”
Teachers have been given the choice of returning to in-person teaching or teaching virtually. Teaching aides have not been given the same option.
The study is scheduled to last two years, but a vaccine might be ready for the public sooner.
“Teachers are always paying for things out of the goodness of their hearts, and they’re not paid that much, but this one is so expensive we’ve got to get federal help.”
“Before this whole thing, I thought I would’ve thrown my life in front of kids to save them. Now it’s like asking us to go in and risk our lives.”
“It is really, really going to hurt this community if we don’t get some type of assistance.”
“If parents are going to have to go to work and the kids are at home, that’s just an absolute nightmare.”
“We have no idea what impact such a large influx of students during this time will have on the collective health of our community.”
One of the grant-funded projects at Binghamton University looks at how to best disinfect and reuse N-95 masks.
“And across the country we prioritize bars and restaurants over young people. How dare we do that.”
Protest organizers NoBurnBroome said they will continue to build support and fight the opening of the lithium-ion battery recycling facility.
“Now more than ever, school districts need more funding in order to make this work in this environment.”
“This isn’t a small or large winery thing. It’s adding an expense, and expenses are high.”
“As the state considers reopening, it is unrealistic to believe athletic seasons can start on August 24th as originally scheduled.”
Windsor Superintendent Jason Andrews said part of the challenge school districts have faced in crafting their plans is due to the sometimes conflicting guidelines they have received from national health and education officials.
During their most recent online session, participants made art while talking about racism and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Those expenses still continue whether or not there are people here.”
“Scheduling bathroom breaks for little kids seems kind of crazy, but it’s just something we have to do to keep them safe.”
“What we want to avoid is providing data in a manner that would cause people to jump to potentially false conclusions about the disease or about any individual in our community.”
“We were all facing the fact that when we reopen, we have to figure out how to social distance in one of the most intimate settings there is: taking care of a customer.”
Students will be required to undergo regular screening and testing for COVID-19.
“Everyone’s got that opinion, but it’s only me that’s got that liquor license.”
Earlier this year, Governor Andrew Cuomo expanded absentee voting to include all New Yorkers.
“Our primary goal is keeping people safe, whether that be making sure they’re wearing masks, or if someone falls and gets hurt, or any number of different kinds of ailments.”
Counties vary in approach to tracking the virus’s impact on ethnic groups
“In the sense that you can waive rent and you can not have consequences that are going to impact those same people that you are trying to help.”
“Not being a chain gives us the opportunity to really listen to the community, put in the grocery store what they want in the grocery store.”