From Casey Jones, Editor of Allegany Hope 8/23/21
BREAKING: The first Allegany County, NY, COVID-19 death in over two months has been reported by the State Health Department as fatalities both statewide and in Upstate New York jumped significantly over the weekend.
The county’s 88th death to date, which helps maintain Allegany’s high fatality rate per population, was recorded yesterday as having occurred out-of-county which normally means at a hospital or other care facility.
The fatality retains the county at 17th from the top statewide and ninth among the 40 Upstate counties north of Orange and Dutchess. It is higher per population than Manhattan in New York City and two Downstate counties.
The last county death was recorded on June 3, with two others also occurring within a prior 10-day period.
Statewide, 28 fatalities were reported yesterday, the highest since 33 were recorded on May 15. The daily number had been as low as two on July 28, less than a month ago, as the Delta variant, estimated in some nine out of 10 new cases continues a nationwide surge.
The number jumped from 21 on Saturday.
Upstate, there were seven new deaths yesterday, a drop from 10 on Saturday, which was the highest since May 25. It had been as low as zero on both August 1 and 2.
Deaths are viewed as a lagging indicator of new cases and hospitalizations which have skyrocketed over the past month and a half throughout the state.
New positives were at 3,816 yesterday statewide, down from a high of 5,138 last Wednesday, which often occurs with weekend reporting. Upstate, new cases were at 1,163, down from 1,443 on Friday. The daily increases were only 255 and 44 respectively on July 5.
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