Broome and Tioga Both Report New COVID-Related Deaths

A man and a woman in Broome County and a Tioga County resident have died as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic this week. 

Broome County Executive Jason Garnar says, while the local spike in cases is leveling off, man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s have died and there were 71 new cases reported in the county during the October 14 briefing.  

Broome County now reports 2,509 total cases and 85 deaths.  As of the afternoon update October 14, 671 cases were active, an increase of 68 from the day before.  Garnar reminds residents that numbers reported today are the result of action or exposure ten days ago. 

The Democrat, who briefed reporters via video live stream and video conference instead of in-person for the first time due to safety concerns, says the county is now at a positive rate from testing of three to four percent. He says he hopes to have that under one percent in the next week in an effort to get the county out of the Yellow Caution Zone for COVID clusters as identified by New York State. 

There were three new cases in Chenango County for a total of 280 and seven deaths, 27 in Cortland County for a total of 511.  Cortland public schools have move to remote learning.  There were two new cases reported in Delaware County yesterday for a total of 137 and 8 deaths and 15 new cases in Tioga County where another person has died, bringing the death toll to 28. Tioga reports a total of 388 cases since the start of the pandemic.