On Monday evening, during the weekly City Council Meeting for 9/21/2020, City Manager Anthony Ruggiero provided detail for the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in Beacon during his regular report session (see hour/minute 1:06:00). He explained that the positive cases were connected an assisted living facility located in Beacon. “We had received a number of emails after a News12 report,” Anthony remarked.

That facility, as reported by News12, is Hedgewood Assisted Living Program, located at 355 Fishkill Avenue. Anthony stated that this increase right now is isolated in the one facility, and that State and County Health Departments have been monitoring, and both have been to the facility, where the staff and residents are tested weekly.

According to News12’s report: “A spokesman with the assisted living facility tells News 12, ‘Each of our nearly 200 residents is observed carefully. This facility - subject to 24-hour a day, seven-day a week unannounced inspections, strictly adheres to all NYS Department of Health guidelines.’ The person did not go into detail on the breakdown of cases among residents and employees, or even the severity of symptoms.”

Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro confirmed to News12 that there is likely to be an increase in case number based on this cluster, telling the news outlet: “It is likely going to result in more cases, with severity because of the age of the individuals and sadly, we’ve already seen 1 individual succumb to the disease. We have to engage in that social distancing. We are encouraging people, ya know, we cannot have theses large gatherings. And continue to wear a mask please.”

At the time of this announcement on Monday, there were 27 cases on the Dashboard, "with about 13 that are related to this facility, with sadly, 1 death,” said Anthony. Always a man of dates and schedules, Anthony reflected on the speed of the spread, when he remarked: “This was fast moving. There were 0 cases about 2 weeks ago. Week of September 14th, there was a severe spike of 8 or 9, and then the last week, 13.” Anthony stated he was in regular contact with the Commissioner, and that Beacon’s first responders had been made aware of the situation.

Wednesday night, after another increase to 45 active cases in Beacon, Mayor Lee Kyriacou made an announcement via robo call, which is also texted and emailed to those who opted in. “To be clear, the large increase is from a single residential facility – not from Main Street businesses, or not from children returning to schools.”

Mayor Kyriacou went on to encourage citizens to practice personal safety: “Beacon is doing exceptionally well. We have carefully opened up much of our city activity, while keeping our COVID numbers way down – that is remarkable. Our job as individual members of this community remains unchanged: Each of us must continue to do our part – social distancing and face coverings in public, quarantining if required, being respectful to all. Everyone’s vigilance is essential to keeping us all safe.”

Click here to visit Dutchess County’s Dashboard, which lists Beacon’s active case numbers. To see how many new cases were recorded in Dutchess County for the day, click here for New York State’s Dashboard, and click on the text link for Dutchess County, and then the highlighted shape of the county.