Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

By Andy Gardner

St. Lawrence and Franklin counties have both seen additional deaths attributed to COVID-19.

St. Lawrence County public health officials reported the county’s sixth death during a Monday, Nov. 16 county legislature committee meeting.

Dr. Dana McGuire, St. Lawrence County Public Health director, announced the fatality during the county Board of Legislators Services Committee meeting on Monday, Nov. 16.

She did not give out any identifying information, such as the person’s age, hometown or where the death occurred. She said the county Public Health Department learned of the death on Friday, Nov. 13.

On the same day that Dr. McGuire addressed the legislative committee, there were 56 new COVID-19 cases in the county between Saturday, Nov. 14 and Monday, Nov. 16. A dozen people in the county were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Nov. 16.

Franklin County reported their second death during the week of Nov. 11. A week later, their county manager reported the positivity rate in Franklin County had surpassed 8%, meaning more than 8% of people being tested for the coronavirus are coming back positive.

Meanwhile, St. Lawrence County’s Board of Health president says the dramatic increase of COVID-19 going into the upcoming holidays could cause an even greater uptick of cases in the county.

Dr. Andrew Williams made the comment during the Monday, Nov. 16 St. Lawrence County Legislature Services Committee meeting.

Earlier that day, St. Lawrence County Public Health reported 56 new cases of COVID-19 between Nov. 14 and 16.

“We have great vaccine development, but it’s not available. I think we’re heading for some difficult times,” the doctor said.

The increase in COVID-19 cases has been higher than any point since health officials began responding to the pandemic in March. That’s according to Dr. Dana McGuire, St. Lawrence County Public Health director.

She noted that the county saw 199 COVID-19 cases between March 25 and May 25. Just between Nov. 1 and 5, there were 211 new cases.

“One third of the cases we’ve seen since the response in St. Lawrence County have been in the last two weeks,” she said.

And she noted that the majority if new cases have been traced back to small gatherings that started around the end of October.

“I would say it’s the smaller gatherings we have seen, and it started just before the weekend before Halloween. Since then, we’ve been seeing this rise,” she said.

Dr. Williams said he believes people will still have Thanksgiving gatherings, but because of the cold North Country late fall they won’t be outside, where risk of transmission is lower.

“We live in a climate where it’s very hard to have an outdoor Thanksgiving meal ... usually the weather doesn’t allow for that,” he said. “One real trend we see is family transmission.”

He said if one person in a household catches the coronavirus, “75% of household members can expect to get the infection once one person has it.”

Dr. Williams referred to a recent case study where in Maine, the deaths of seven people were traced back to a wedding where just one person had COVID-19 and infected other guests. The seven people who died weren’t wedding guests. They caught it from people who became infected at the wedding and then transmitted it elsewhere.

“They were able to demonstrate 176 other people ended up with the virus from that one individual, and as a result of that, seven people ended up dying, and none of them had attended the wedding,” he said. “What should have been a joyous occasion ... ended up in the death of seven unrelated people, which is very concerning.”

Both of the doctors said if people practice what they call “the five pillars of community response,” the community can cut down on the virus’s transmission.

The five pillars are wearing a mask in public that covers the nose and mouth, washing your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap, social distancing of at least six feet, staying home when sick, and staying local.

Dr. McGuire said some of the county’s cases have been traced back to people who felt ill but went to work anyway.

“Really, stay home if you do not feel well,” she said. “Just across the state and the nation we’re seeing an increase of cases. It’s important to stay local and think of the importance of when we need to go out. Most of the exposures have been in just the places we’ve been going,” she said.

Dr. Williams said if the cases keep going up, the state could lock down the seven-county North Country region, or roll back the economic reopening.

He said it’s also possible the state could take a “circuit breaker” approach, meaning brief lockdowns with “significant restrictions” that can last up to two weeks.

“The idea is there should be less economic damage and less psychological stress,” he said. “At some point you still reopen. It’s just a much shorter period of time.”

“A better idea continues to be what Dana and I have talked about ... if people follow the five pillars of prevention, much less people get Covid and we avoid shutdowns or circuit breakers,” Dr. Williams said.