For the first time since October, the Alice Center nursing home in Malone is officially without any active cases of COVID-19.
The Alice Hyde Medical Center, which oversees the Alice Center, announced on Monday that its skilled nursing facility would open its doors to visitors starting on Feb. 22.
Residents of its assisted living program, which is located in a different part of the same building that houses the skilled nursing facility, were able to receive visitors starting on Feb. 8 â but until recently, the skilled nursing facility still had a positive case there, so that part of the building remained closed to visitors.
eizzo@adirondackdailyenterprise.com
A New Yorker receives a COVID-19 vaccine Feb. 8, at a state vaccination site at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, Manhattan.
(Provided photo â governor s office) Vaccine eligibility requirements expanded to include a new swath of the population on Sunday. The Essex County Health Department has scheduled a vaccine clinic in the southern end of the county this week, and Franklin County Public Health is piecing together its vaccine distribution plan. Those with comorbidities and underlying health conditions are now eligible to get vaccinated. That includes those with cancer or those in remission, chronic kidney disease, a pulmonary disease, intellectual and developmental disabilities, heart conditions, those who are immunocompromised, those who are pregnant, those who are obese or severely obese, those with a sickle cell disease or thalassemia, those with diabetes, a cerebrovascular disease, liver disease, and those with neurological co
eizzo@adirondackdailyenterprise.com The workload facing local hospitals and county health departments is on track to becoming unsustainable. Health care officials are imploring residents to take precautions to curb the spread before that happens. In a virtual press conference on Friday, multiple doctors from University of Vermont Health Network hospitals and public health directors from around Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties warned that the local COVID-19 caseload was beginning to stress the operations of both hospitals and county health departments. This comes at a time when rural hospitals have already faced significant financial challenges. Before the pandemic, some North Country hospitals were merging and downsizing. Last spring, those financial challenges were compounded when hospitals were directed to cancel elective surgeries for several weeks, cutting off a vital revenue-generator for rural health care facilities that care for a relatively large number of patients
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing hospitals across the state to step up their rate of COVID-19 vaccinations. The medical center in Plattsburgh reports that most of the allotment that the North Country has received has been used.
During his COVID-19 update on Monday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo lambasted some hospitals across the state for low COVID-19 vaccination rates. He also praised high performing hospitals including the Adirondack Medical Center. The Saranac Lake hospital was placed in the top tier with an 87% vaccination rate. He warned low performing hospitals that they risk receiving further allocations if they don’t step up their vaccination rates. “We want those vaccines in people’s arms. New York state Department of Health sent out a letter to all hospitals that said if you don’t use the allocation by the end of this week, the allocation you have received by the end of this week, you can be fined and you won’t receive further allocations.
acerbone@adirondackdailyenterprise.com Franklin County reported 35 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend, but also saw 72 positive cases resolved or recovered, showing a continual spread of the virus, as well as a high recovery rate. Franklin County reported 18 new cases on Saturday and 17 new cases on Sunday. On Saturday 22 people were deemed recovered from the virus or had their case resolved, and on Sunday 50 more were listed as recovered, bringing the total number of positive cases down to 150 by the end of the weekend. Out of 704 total positive cases reported by the county since the start of the pandemic, 546 have recovered. Eight people have died of COVID-19-related complications, most at the Alice Hyde nursing home in Malone.