The headline in today's local paper brought home the coronavirus crisis in a way the national news has not. After announcing the first Covid 19 related death in Essex County yesterday, the eponymous nursing home was reported to have 24 positive cases of the virus. The story went on to report no staff members had tested positive and they were actively tracing to try and locate the person or persons who infected the residents.
The Essex Center is owned and operated by a downstate company and I'm sure there have been in person interactions between headquarters and the 100 bed nursing home. It will be interesting to see how the contact tracing establishes the locus of infection.
Until now, the biggest outbreak of Covid 19 in the North Country was 19 people testing positive after several hundred young people gathered for an alcohol fueled party in Clinton County. The cases in Essex are in a much more vulnerable population of mostly elderly patients. I certainly won't be surprised to see additional fatalities in the days ahead. To paraphrase the tagline from the movie, Jaws, "Just when you thought it was safe to go out in public again".
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