WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Despite another day of eye-popping increases in the number of COVID cases in the north country, there was the glimmer of what could be good news Wednesday.
Or maybe not. COVID has a way of not being what you think it’s going to be.
The news in this case is the number of hospitalizations at Samaritan Medical Center, the region’s largest hospital. Only 17 people were in Samaritan Wednesday because of COVID. We say “only,” because that number is not much different from what Samaritan has been seeing, before the sharp spike of COVID cases this week.
This could mean the Omicron variant is not making people as sick as earlier forms of COVID. That’s what some experts think. Or it could just mean we haven’t seen the peak yet, and worse is coming.
“It’s too early to say whether it’s good news or the bad news has not arrived yet,” said Dr. Asim Kishloo, from Samaritan.
“One thing I know for sure is, we were far ahead of what was going on in the whole state,” he said. “So I’m hoping, the county we live in – we might have seen the worst already.”
One thing which has not changed: COVID remains a disease of the unvaccinated.
“The way we are seeing things here, almost 80 percent of our patients who are admitted to the hospital are not vaccinated, and almost all – I’d say 99 percent of the patients – who are in ICU, who are critically sick, are not vaccinated,” Dr. Kishloo said.
Samaritan, meanwhile, is coping with a staff shortage in its nursing home facilities. Samaritan had asked the National Guard for help – specifically Licensed Practical Nurses and Certified Nursing Assistants – but it didn’t happen, so Samaritan is restricting the number of new residents it takes in at Samaritan Keep Home and Samaritan Summit Village.
“We basically mitigate it by not admitting as many residents,” said Leslie DiStefano from Samaritan.
“It can often be frustrating when your loved one needs a place with skilled nursing and they might have to go outside the area. And part of this is, we’re not able to accept them into the facility if we don’t have the adequate staff,” she said.
Despite the rapid increase in COVID cases in Jefferson County, six of 15 Jefferson County legislators went maskless at Tuesday night’s board meeting, to one degree or another. Some wore masks before they sat down, but took them off once they were seated; others just didn’t wear them at all. And some put them on if they got up and walked around.
The six were Jeremiah Maxon, Bobby Ferris, Corey Grant, Dan McBride, John Peck, and the new vice-chair of the legislature, Patrick Jareo.
7 News reached all six Wednesday, to ask why they chose to not wear a mask given that it’s a state requirement, and that they were reminded of the requirement at the meeting.
Maxon dismissed the question out of hand; “I don’t think this is a story,” he said. “It’s not a question I’m gonna answer.”
Ferris said he doesn’t support the mask requirement, is fully vaccinated with a booster, and wore a mask into the county building.
“In public when I’m out, in other peoples’ businesses, I wear a mask,” he said.
McBride said he’s vaccinated with a booster and said “I just thought that (not wearing a mask) was my choice.”
“It’s everybody’s personal decision,” he said.
Peck said he wasn’t trying to make a statement or protest; “for me, it’s a matter of practicality.” He likened wearing a mask at the meeting to the rules governing mask wearing at a restaurant. Once he’s seated at his own desk “I consider that neutral territory.”
Besides, Peck noted, “You can tell a lot more about people’s thoughts and intentions when you can see the whole face.”
Likewise, Jareo said he wasn’t protesting, and wore the mask when he was walking around.
“I didn’t think about it all that much,” he said.
And Grant said it was a simple matter to settle: “It’s my choice,” whether to wear a mask, or get vaccinated.
We asked all the legislators if they thought they were sending the wrong message to the public, given that they are public officials violating a state requirement. They did not.
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