Liberty, NY – The continually evolving response to COVID-19 is bringing about changes to the COVID-19 dashboard displayed for public use, Sullivan County Public Health Director Nancy McGraw noted today.
“The changes are in part due to the availability of self-attestations and increased use of at-home test kits, and also coincide with the shift in contact tracing and case investigation to New York State,” she explained. “In order to best inform the public with the most accurate data available, Sullivan County Public Health Services will focus on vaccination efforts and prevention education, as well as investigating severe disease, hospitalizations, and deaths related to COVID-19. We will continue to report those data points moving forward.”
In addition to tracking and encouraging vaccination, Public Health is staying closely connected to Garnet Catskill and medical providers to ensure all possible aid is provided to ease pressure as case counts ebb and flow. The changes in the dashboard are designed to complement that effort by empowering the public with useful, actionable information.
The following changes will go into effect Tuesday, February 1:
• The dashboard will no longer report the number of active cases, since not all positive at-home test results are reported.
• Dashboard updates will be provided on Tuesdays and Fridays, which will include the rolling data from 3-4 days prior.
• The dashboard will not include a combined isolation/quarantine number, as contacts are no longer being collected in all situations (contact-tracing continues for vulnerable congregate settings).
• The dashboard will continue to show the number of total cases since the beginning of the pandemic (March 2020), the number of Sullivan County resident deaths due directly from COVID-19 complications since the beginning of the pandemic, as well as a breakdown of hospitalized cases at Garnet Catskills Medical Center, including out-of-county residents.
• The dashboard will include links to the NYS Department of Health’s vaccine tracker.
• The dashboard will no longer give a township breakdown of cases on a map, as this does not reflect current positivity rates.
“While our priorities in responding to the pandemic have transitioned recently, our commitment to monitoring the severity of disease and hospitalization in our community has not changed,” McGraw affirmed. “Our daily data reports have given a snapshot to the community about the status of disease, but we recognize that the real-time accuracy of this data is decreasing due to the changes in guidance and our increased understanding of the disease. We acknowledge that with the increased availability and reliability of self-tests, Sullivan County Public Health Services no longer receives notice of all positive test results. We encourage residents to continue using our self-test reporting portal at www.sullivanny.us/Departments/Publichealth/Coronavirus/Attestation, but many may choose to also use the State affirmation forms. The self-test number serves as a data point, but by no means captures the total positive cases in our community.”
NYS has the capacity to interview all lab-reported positive cases through a telephone call, regardless of age, to screen for any needs during isolation and risk of severe illness. All positive cases are referred to the County or NYS self-affirmation forms, which serve as the person's isolation order, release, and documentation for school or work.
For detailed information on what to do if you test positive or are exposed to COVID-19, please visit www.sullivanny.us/Departments/Publichealth/Coronavirus, or the NYS Department of Health’s website on Isolation and Quarantine at https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/new-york-state-contact-tracing.
McGraw continued, “Our best tools to prevent spread, severe illness, and hospitalization continue to be vaccination, masking, and knowing what to do if you test positive or if you have been exposed to someone who is positive for COVID. I encourage you to refer to our website for more information about steps to take if you test positive. Over the past few weeks, our efforts have focused on vaccinating our young people and providing booster doses to those who are eligible. The Community Assistance Center has been distributing self-tests and masks throughout the County as we receive shipments, and we thank our community partners for assisting in this effort.”
