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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER, News and Analysis By John F. Bailey. January 11, 2022:

County Executive George Latimer in his briefing Monday, said he was opening the County Center for vaccinations of boosters, and would continue testing there in an effort to stem what he again termed was an “explosion” of covid cases across the county. He reported hospitalizations were up by 200 cases a week, rising from 225 three weeks ago to 393 last Monday, and yesterday 626.

WPCNR notes that  3,408 persons tested positive on Monday, December 27. The 626 infections Mr. Latimer announced Monday may not all  be hospitalization of persons who got the disease that Monday two weeks ago.

That week of Monday December 27 through  Saturday January 1 resulted in 26,002 covid infections. If you choose to divide the hospitalizations last week(393) and Monday’s (626)  a total of 1,019  by 26,202 you get  a very rough 4% hospitalization rate for persons getting infected two weeks ago.

This would mean that if we exceed the 26,000  at the conclusion of  last week Saturday ( official state figures are not in yet on the State covid tracker, on 2-day delay) This may generate another 1,000 hospitalizations. If the spread does not slow down, but continues to increase due to reckless socializing and no masking, we could be dealing with full houses at all the hospitals in the county. In infections soar to 30,000 a week the county hospital bed cannot handle it. That would mean at 4% of 120,000 infections in 3 weeks you would have 4,800 hospitalizations of covid patients.

Mr. Latimer called for more detailed statistics from the state for the second covid briefing in a row. He particularly wants a break down of whom were hospitalized for covid by wht=ether they were vaccinated with 1, 2, or 3, or had no shots, so the county can make more decisions on handling the spread. Of course the mystery around the hospitalizations has gone on for months. Mr. Latimer also  said he would be asking the state for a breakdown of how many students under 18 are vaccinated, and how many adults over 18 were vaccinated.

However the failure for the state and county officials to clarify the hospitalization rate when the official hospitalizations are announced, underplays and most certainly does not clarify how fast hospitals in the county may fill up and how quickly hospital personnel will burn out. This failure of the state to breakdown hospitalizations has kept the public in the dark since this Third Wave began after the 5th of July, as to who is getting it.

Will medicines be in adequate medical supply at a 4% hospitalization rate?

The hospitals in the county have 2,700 beds. Mr. Latimer said he expected the hospitalizations to continue to rise steadily. 3 weeks more of 20,000 infections a week which is what the county had through  January 7  and if most of the hospitalizations are unvaccinated people, the deaths will go up and the misery compounded.

Sixty thousand new infections of County residents (20,000 a week) will yield 2,400 hospitalizations in the county by Mid February just before winter Presidents week vacations..

Failure to vaccinate will only make infections more serious for those who get the disease and are unvaccinated.

Mayor Tom Roach of White Plains said White Plains infections of covid were more by far than any other point in the pandemic.