*Photo Credit: Anthony Ruggiero, City Administrator for the City of Beacon*

On April 8, 2020, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed that flags be flown at half-mast “in honor of those we have lost to to COVID-19,” according to his press release. In the Governor’s nightly briefing email, he said: “We continue to mourn the New Yorkers we have lost to this vicious virus. I will issue an Executive Order to bring additional funeral directors to New York to help with the high number of deaths due to COVID-19. There are no words that can express our grief and heartbreak at the lives we have lost. It is a loss to the very fabric of New York.”

Beacon lowered the flags to half mast, as announced by Mayor Lee Kyriacou in a COVID-19 briefing call to residents: “Beacon’s flags are flying at half-staff, as we mourn fellow New Yorkers who have succumbed to COVID-19, which tragically now exceeds 7,000 deaths statewide and 14 here in Dutchess County. We will continue to fly at half-staff during the NYS PAUSE.”

The Dutchess County Impact Dashboard lists the number of deaths as 10 as of today, but the numbers on that dashboard are a bit lower than the New York State tracker. We will take the mayor’s number on this. Home deaths that are likely connected to COVID-19 are also not counted in New York’s reporting system at this time, as first reported by Gothamist. Where the average was 25 people dying at home per day in New York City, the number grew to 280 people who had died in their home by the time the fire department was able to respond, according to NPR.

The mayor also reported that there are 79 “active cases” in Beacon. Today in Dutchess County, 98 new people tested positive for COVID-19, according to the New York State Department of Health Tracker.

In Orange County on Monday, County Executive Steve Neuhaus announced in his daily COVID-19 briefing that that 23 county residents had been lost to COVID-19 in just the last 24 hours.

The Record Online reported this week that cases are expected to grow in this region, saying: “The coronavirus outbreak is taking a more serious toll as it pushes northward in the Hudson Valley, with COVID-19 fatalities in Orange County nearly doubling since Friday and Ulster County warning it could run out of hospital beds this week.”