On May 7, 2020, Dutchess County announced that they are changing the way they report data for those who have died from COVID-19, as well as several other key data points that include total number of confirmed cases, and total number of tests completed, to be effective on May 8, 2020. They will be using New York State’s numbers. Results via Google’s search results consistently gave a higher count for Dutchess County.

Of the counties that A Little Beacon Blog tracks for these reports - Orange and Putnam - both matched Google results with the number of deceased. Dutchess County’s was always lower: say 36 in Dutchess County’s Tracker vs 70 in Google’s Tracker.

As explained by Dutchess County in their 5/7/2020 announcement of the change:

The New York State Department of Health has authority and oversight over many of the facilities reporting case data, including hospitals and nursing homes. These facilities are not required to report to local health departments, including the Dutchess County Department of Behavioral & Community Health (DBCH). While DBCH does communicate regularly with each of the individual facilities and has been getting some of the data from them, it is difficult to reconcile on a daily basis with the state data and creates confusion for the public. Additionally, State data can include presumed positive cases in fatality numbers, unlike the data reported by local health departments.

DBCH was recently provided access to the New York State Health Emergency Reporting Data System (HERDS), however, the data is reported in the aggregate and does not provide the necessary specificity for county reporting.

Active case data, which are the cases that DBCH are currently monitoring, will continue to be reported by DBCH as well as the breakdown by municipality and number of recoveries...Dutchess County’s COVID-19 Community Impact Data Dashboard will continue to be updated daily, following NYSDOH data updates.

Beacon’s number of Active COVID-19 cases was rising as of 5/10/2020. This last report on 5/10/2020 was at 146. The last time we recorded it in our spreadsheet was 5/4/2020 and the number of active cases was 137. Not a huge difference, but a consistent increase nonetheless.

One might argue: “Well, the number of people tested is going up, so that must be the reason.” And that may be. However, the daily percentage of those who test positive for COVID-19 for the day - of those tested - has remained consistent. We track that number also. The percentage of people who test positive from those tested per day has been at 8%-9% in the last few days. Additionally, the number of tests issued in Dutchess County, according to the tracker, has remained consistent, averaging in the 400s tests given per day.

While some “low-risk” business types can open state-wide in New York on Friday (drive-in movie theaters, landscaping/gardening, tennis) Dutchess County has 3 more criteria to hit before meeting the 7 state requirements to begin reopening, which are:

14-Day Decline in Hospital Deaths OR fewer than 5 deaths (3-day average).
New Hospitalizations (under 2 per 100k residents - 3 day rolling average.
At least 30 contact tracers per 100k residents.

County Executive Marcus Molinaro has announced, during his 5/11/2020 restarting video, that he will deliver live updates about the data in Dutchess County on Wednesdays and Fridays. This Wednesday, he will host a Town Hall at 5:30pm. Videos are at Facebook, or at at the Dutchess County channel at YouTube.

The last time we published reporting on these numbers was 5/1/2020. This gap of 11 days is for no other reason that Distance Learning started in our home, and while we get into that rhythm of that schooling, finishing articles got a little tricky. We have several unpublished drafts, though!

However, in that time, Dutchess County changed how they are reporting, and New York launched a new regional tracker for the re-opening. So, one must not delay!

Sources:
New York State Tracker: Updated daily.
Dutchess County Tracker: Updated daily, but there could be lags, according to their Source notes.
Orange County Tracker: Updated daily, with the exception of municipality information which is updated every 2-3 days, according to their Source notes.
Putnam County Tracker: Updated daily.
Google via Wikipedia
Testing is limited, which implies that people testing positive for COVID-19 is not total, as many people are not tested.

DUTCHESS COUNTY 5/10/2020

How Many People Tested In Dutchess County:
18,964 (last week 15,558 via New York State Tracker)
How Many People Tested POSITIVE As Of This Day:
3,359 (last week, 3,049, via New York State Tracker)
How Many People Tested This Day:
471 (last week 473, via New York State Tracker)
How Many People Tested POSITIVE This Day:
47 (last week 48, via New York State Tracker)
Number Of People Hospitalized For COVID-19 As Of This Day:
56 (last week 69, via Dutchess County Tracker)
How Many COVID-19 Related Deaths As Of This Day:
101 (last week 38, via Dutchess County Tracker, but Google shows 84 (previous 73)

BEACON
Active COVID-19 Cases In Beacon On This Day:
146 (last week 134, via Dutchess County Tracker)

FISHKILL
Active COVID-19 Cases In Fishkill On This Day:
174 (last week 175, via Dutchess County Tracker)
Active COVID-19 Cases In East Fishkill On This Day:
153 (last week 151, via Dutchess County Tracker)

WAPPINGERS
Active COVID-19 Cases In Town of Wappingers On This Day:
136 (last week 163, via Dutchess County Tracker)
Active COVID-19 Cases In Wappingers Falls Village On This Day:
40 (last week 45, via Dutchess County Tracker)

ORANGE COUNTY 5/10/2020

How Many People Tested In Orange County:
34,404 (last week 28,848, via New York State Tracker)
How Many People Tested POSITIVE In Total:
9,543 (last week 8,910, via New York State Tracker)
How Many People Tested On This Day:
535 (last week 839, via New York State Tracker)
How Many People Tested POSITIVE On This Day:
57 (last week 159, via New York State Tracker)
Number Of People Hospitalized For COVID-19 As Of This Day:
99 (last week 147) (via Orange County Tracker)
How Many COVID-19 Related Deaths As Of This Day:
367 (last week 329, via Orange County Tracker)

NEWBURGH
Active COVID-19 Cases In Newburgh On This Day:
645 (last week 587, via Orange County Tracker)
Active COVID-19 Cases In City of Newburgh On This Day:
1,314 (last week 1,165, via Orange County Tracker)