Active Covid cases in 3 local rural counties hit new record high – 634

Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming all have their most Covid cases during pandemic

(Editor’s Note on Dec. 23 at 5:48 p.m: The Genesee & Orleans County Health Departments said they made a mistake with the 343 active cases for Genesee County. That number should have been 247. With that correction, the active cases for the three counties would be 538, which is still the most during the pandemic.)

The three local rural counties of Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming set a new record high on Monday for active cases of Covid-19 with 634 combined in the three counties.

They passed 600 active cases for the first time. On Friday, they hit 500 cases for the first time with 527.

Genesee County accounts for more than half of the cases with 343, followed by Orleans at 152 and Wyoming at 139.

Those caseloads are all the most for each of the counties during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Genesee’s previous high was 269 active cases on Dec. 7. Orleans was at 151 on Dec. 18 and Wyoming’s high was 123 on Dec. 10.

The three counties, which have a combined population of about 140,000, also have 2,071 people under mandatory quarantine for being close contacts to people with Covid. That includes 1,057 in Genesee, 530 in Orleans and 484 in Wyoming.

An active case is someone who has tested positive but hasn’t been cleared from mandatory isolation. If people test positive for Covid, they must be in mandatory isolation for at least 10 days. They are cleared after they have been fever free the last 3 days with symptom improvement. Sadly, if people die after contracting Covid, that also is no longer an active case.

Public health officials and leaders of the County Legislatures in Orleans and Genesee have pleaded with residents to take precautions against spreading Covid.

They are urging people to wear masks, adhere to social distancing and limit social gatherings. State officials say 74 percent of the recent Covid spread is from private social gatherings and households.