Provided photos: Project Stork provided these photos of its setup on Webber Avenue in Oakfield.

OAKFIELD – Project Stork has been awarded a $19,000 grant from the East Hill Foundation for infant and toddler programs that assist with basic needs in Orleans and Genesee counties.

The funding will help pay for diapers and other baby care needs, said Jenny Staebell, director and founder of Project Stork.

She started Project Stork in 2016. It is based at 20 Webber Ave. in Oakfield, which she said is accessible to families in the two counties, particularly the highest need communities of Albion and Batavia.

The non-profit organizations serves 200 low-income mothers in Genesee and Orleans counties. The grant from East Hill will allow Project Stork to provide free monthly diaper and baby care packages.

“Mothers share that they worry about not being able to change their baby’s diaper often enough,” Staebell said. “We are not only providing supports and resources, but education as well. There is a direct correlation between a mother’s maternal wellbeing when their child has their basic needs met. Simply put, diapers and other needed infant and toddler care supply can create positivity within a household.”

Access to diapers has been an under-recognized need, Staebell said. There is no federal assistance for diapers. SNAP and WIC benefits can not be used to purchase diapers. While diapers can be bought with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance, less than a quarter of families living below the federal poverty level receive TANF, Staebell said.

Project Stork appreciates donations as well as drop offs of diapers, baby wipes, baby soap and lotion. For more information, go to www.projectstorkinc.org or call Project Stork at (585) 590-6626.

Press Release, Congressman Chris Jacobs

Representatives Chris Jacobs (NY-27), John Katko (NY-24), Joseph Morelle (NY-25), Anthony Brindisi (NY-22), and Elise Stefanik (NY-21) have sent a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Lowey and Ranking Members Granger and Rogers, asking for the inclusion of funding for Phase II of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee’s expedited review of the International Joint Commission’s Plan 2014 in any spending package being brought to the House Floor this month.

“Though a small investment from the American government, the importance of this study is significant for our constituents along the shore of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Communities along this watershed have experienced increasingly high water levels and subsequent flooding over the past several years, and many public and private property owners are still at risk of severe damage from high water levels,” wrote Jacobs, Katko, Morelle, Brindisi, and Stefanik.

Plan 2014 is the set of rules and regulations that governs outflows from Lake Ontario through the Moses-Saunders Dam located on the St. Lawrence River. The body that administers these outflows, the International Joint Commission (IJC), has initiated a two-phase expedited review of Plan 2014 through its Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee (GLAM). This process has allowed the diverse stakeholders impacted by Plan 2014 to give substantive input toward the goal of comprehensively reviewing Plan 2014.

In their letter, Reps. Jacobs, Katko, Morelle, Brindisi, and Stefanik specifically requested funding for Phase II of the IJC’s expedited review of Plan 2014 through its Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee (GLAM).

Phase II will be a three-year study of Plan 2014 rules and operations under extreme conditions moving forward. Phase I of this review has already been funded by Congress and is currently underway.

Organization has provided emergency medical services since 1979

ALBION – COVA Emergency Medical Services is reaching out to the community and local government leaders, raising concern about budget shortfalls for the organization.

COVA responds to about 2,000 calls annually, mostly in the central Orleans towns of Albion, Barre, Carlton and Gaines.

COVA’s new ambulance heads out for a call last week. The scaled-down vehicle cost $80,000 and replaced an ambulance from 2013 with 200,000 miles.

The organization operated on a $1,093,578 budget in 2019, but the revenue came in at $1,042,964, a $50,614 difference. That has been the trend the past three years – about a $50,000 budget deficit.

This year is shaping up to be worse. COVA’s call volume was down early in the Covid-19 pandemic, which hurt revenue. COVA also is spending more for PPE for staff and for disinfecting the ambulance after each call.

The organization continues to face other challenges with low reimbursement rates through Medicaid and Medicare.

Medicaid pays about 20 percent of the COVA bill and the Medicare rate is about 32 percent. Those are an increasing number of the COVA calls, said Laurie Schwab, COVA’s chief operating officer and paramedic.

The Medicaid calls include responses to the two state prisons in Albion. Those calls not only are at a low payment, but they tend to be time-consuming because of the time needed to be processed into the prison and for an inmate to meet the COVA staff for care and transport.

Private health insurance pays more compared to Medicaid and Medicare, but the checks from private insurance are made out to patients. They should then write their own check to COVA but many just keep the money from the insurance companies.

This trio is committed to COVA. They include, from left: Jennifer Stilwell, a volunteer EMT; Anna Tower, chief financial officer; and Wendy Kelly, an administrative assistant. COVA is located at 239 South Main St. in Albion.

COVA loses about $50,000 to $70,000 in “kept checks” annually, Schwab said. COVA and other ambulance providers have pressed state legislators to pass legislation, requiring the funds to be turned over to the ambulance companies or to have the insurance companies pay the ambulance providers directly.

The “kept checks” typically range from $1,000 to $2,500. If people turned those funds back to COVA the organization’s budget woes would be solved.

“It creates a financial hardship for COVA,” Schwab said.

COVA officials have met with local town and village leaders in recent months to discuss the deficits and how to keep COVA viable. COVA believes municipal support is needed. They are seeking $100,000 annually to be divvied up among the four towns – Albion, Barre, Carlton and Gaines, and possibly the village. The contributions from each municipality would be based on COVA’s call volume in each municipality.

In 2019, the call breakdown by municipality included 1,030 calls in the village, 542 in the Town of Albion, 211 in Carlton, 159 in Gaines and 110 in Barre. There were also 25 mutual aid calls.

COVA used to be able to set aside 10 percent of its income towards a new ambulance. The organization last month welcomed a new ambulance to its fleet of three ambulances. The new one replaced an ambulance from 2013 with about 200,000 miles.

The new one is a scaled down model that cost $80,000. It will be better on gas mileage with less maintenance costs.

Chris Atwell, a COVA EMT, gets his masks on and heads out for a call last week. COVA responds to about 2,000 calls a year.

The organization was staffed with volunteers when it started in 1979 but has shifted to mostly a paid staff. There are 13 full-time employees, 16 part-timers and three volunteers. COVA tries to have four on duty during the daytime hours and two on the night shift.

Anna Tower is one of the volunteers. She used to be paid as the chief financial officer but decided to volunteer in the role due to COVA’s fiscal challenges.

“It’s my passion,” she said about COVA.

But she is worried about the numbers. COVA needs more revenue to continue long-term in the community.

Jennifer Stilwell also is a volunteer EMT and member of COVA’s board of directors. If there wasn’t COVA, the central Orleans towns would have to put the ambulance services out for contract, with an out-of-community provider perhaps stepping in.

Stilwell said that could lead to longer response times and unfamiliar faces responding to calls.

“It’s nice to have a community-based ambulance,” she said. “There’s connections with the staff. It’s comforting for the residents to know the people who care for you.”

One of COVA’s three ambulances leaves the Albion base for a call last week.

ALBION – Orleans County legislators unanimously approved a $73,262,025 budget today for 2021. The spending plan will increase the tax levy by 1.66 percent, which is just under the county’s allowable tax cap of 1.75 percent.

The budget increases spending by 2.16 percent, from $71,711,638 to $73,262,025. The tax rate will go up by 1.11 percent or 11 cents, from $9,87 to $9.98 per $1,000 of assessed property.

The seven county legislators all backed the budget and there wasn’t any dissent during a public hearing on Monday and during a public comment opportunity this afternoon.

Legislature Chairwoman Lynne Johnson said the budget maintains existing programs, stays under the tax cap and provides resources to fight Covid.

The budget reduces the county workforce, eliminating 8 full-time jobs and 12 part-time positions from 2020.

Some other budget highlights include:

• The budget for the first time sets a county cap on community colleges. The county pay up to $2,050,000 to community colleges in 2021. The cost is supposed to be split into thirds, with the state, local municipality and student each paying a third. But Johnson said the state has pulled back on its contribution, putting more pressure on students and local municipalities.

The county will be spending $2,240,251 for community colleges in 2020. That is $190,251 over the cap it is setting. The county will pay the full amount this year, but starting in 2021 the towns will pay any local cost over the $2,050,000.

The town share will be based on credit hours of residents in those towns. Based on the data in 2019/2020, the additional $190,251 overages for each town would be $40,384 in Albion, $8,283 for Barre, $14,105 in Carlton, $15,040 in Clarendon, $14,096 in Gaines, $9,063 in Kendall, $21,020 in Murray, $34,297 in Ridgeway, $22,198 in Shelby and $11,760 in Yates.

• Nine mandated programs from the state account for more than 90 percent of the tax levy, Welch said. Those “9 for 90” mandates and their county cost include: Medicaid, $8,121,776; Pension, $3,054,489; Public Assistance/Safety Net, $1,802,337; Child Welfare/Protection, $1,336,399; Special Education, $971,931; Probation, $759,299; Indigent Defense, $536,053; Youth Detention, $302,650; and Early Intervention, $204,688.

Those nine mandated costs add up to $17,089,622, or 93 percent of the $18,309,497 tax levy.

• The budget allocates $2,577,00 in capital projects — $1,225,000 for highway reconstruction with state CHIPS money (down 20%), $1,152,000 in preventive maintenance on four bridges (funded through federal TIP funds), and $100,000 in county funds for culvert and bridge repairs, and $100,000 in local funds to patch and seal county roads.

• Sales tax is currently slightly above the receipts in 2019. That convinced county officials to budget $400,000 more in sales tax in 2021, to $16,175,000. (The county also is in a two-year annual sales tax diversion of $190,274 for “Fiscally Distressed Health Facilities,” which was imposed by the state.)

• The budget also maintains funding to outside agencies. They didn’t face a funding cut, and they didn’t get an increase.

Those agencies and organizations in the budget include: $240,000 to Cornell Cooperative Extension, $190,000 to Orleans Economic Development Agency, $92,500 to Soil & Water Conservation District, $10,000 to be shared among four public libraries, $5,000 to Mercy Flight, $4,000 to Sportsmen Federation, and $3,000 to GO Art!

• The fee for solid waste and recycling service will be $216, which is a 2 percent increase from 2020.

Details still need to be worked out for location, time

ALBION – Orleans County will offer free rapid Covid-19 tests on Dec. 16, Public Health Director Paul Pettit announced today during a County Legislature meeting.

County officials have been pressing the state for a free testing option in the county for several months. Right now, Orleans residents need to travel out-of-county for a free testing site.

Pettit said the limited testing in rural areas has proven a “big barrier” in helping to quickly identify who has Covid and to contain the spread.

“This has been an ongoing issue for us,” Pettit said in a meeting through Zoom video conferencing. “We continue to push and advocate for this.”

The free testing event on Dec. 16 will be for people who are asymptomatic. The time and location still needs to be worked out.

Genesee County will offer a free drive-through rapid testing for Covid on Thursday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Genesee County Emergency Management Office & Fire Training Facility, 7690 State Street Rd. in the Town of Batavia.

Pwettit said the details of the rapid testing in Orleans should be announced next week. He wants it to be a reoccurring event and not just limited to Dec. 16.

“I know this is long awaited,” he said. “Hopefully it will be a big benefit to our residents.”

New confirmed cases today include 44 in Genesee, 9 in Orleans

Orleans and Genesee counties today both are reporting a death from Covid-19. In Orleans, the death is a person over 65 while Genesee had a person pass away under age 65, according to a news briefing this afternoon from the Genesee and Orleans County Health Departments.

Orleans has now had 58 people die due a Covid-related illness while Genesee has had eight deaths.

In Orleans County there are 9 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 today, bringing the county’s total to 641 positive cases since March.

The new positive cases reside in Albion, Barre, Carlton, Kendall, Murray and Shelby. The individuals are in the age groups of 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

None of the individuals were on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive, the Health Departments reported.

Orleans also has had three of the previous positive individuals recover and be removed

from the isolation list.

Five residents of Orleans are currently hospitalized due to Covid.

In Genesee County, there are 44 new positive cases of Covid-19 for a total of 1,004 positive cases since March. Of the new cases, 16 are residents at The Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing in Batavia.

The new positive cases reside in Alexander, Batavia, Byron, Le Roy, Oakfield and Pembroke. The individuals are in the age groups of 0-19, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s 70s, 80s and 90s.

Genesee also reports that 57 of the previous positive individuals have recovered and been removed from the isolation list.

Genesee has 13 residents hospitalized due to Covid, the Health Department reported.

• 3-county data: Click here to see an online map of confirmed cases in Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties. There are currently 297 active Covid cases with 177 in Genesee, 42 in Orleans and 78 in Wyoming. A week ago on Nov. 25 there were 315 active cases in the three counties with 221 in Genesee, 41 in Orleans and 53 in Wyoming.

• Statewide data: There were 8,973 new positive cases reported yesterday out of 193,551 tests for a positive rate of 4.63. The positive testing rate in all focus areas under the state’s Micro-Cluster strategy is 5.88 percent, and outside the focus zone areas is 4.21 percent.

The number of people hospitalized with Covid-related illnesses increased by 150 to 3,924. There were 742 Covid patients in the ICU, up by 24, and 373 needed to be intubated, up by 25. There were 69 deaths due to Covid, bringing the state’s total to 26,889 during the pandemic.

Western New York continues to have the highest rate of positive tests in the state. Orleans County is in the Finger Lakes Region which has the second highest rate.

PEMBROKE – The Western New York National Cemetery in Pembroke is now accepting applications for burials. The cemetery was dedicated on Monday.

As with all VA National Cemeteries, funeral directors can call the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 1-800-535-1117 to schedule burial services at the Western New York National Cemetery.

Anyone seeking information regarding eligibility for internment in a VA National Cemetery can click here to be directed to Veterans Administration page on eligibility for VA national cemetery.

“Western New York is honored to be home to thousands of veterans who put their lives on the line to protect our country,” said Congressman Chris Jacobs in a press release this afternoon. “Now, they finally have access to a final resting place close to home, and the full memorial and burial benefits that they have earned. This day is long overdue and the product countless hours of hard work by advocates, veterans, VA employees, and community members to ensure our veterans are properly honored.”

Big celebration on horizon: Orleans County’s bicentennial in 2025

This stack of photos has people who aren’t labelled. Cooper said she would welcome input in identifying this lady in the top photo.

ALBION – The new Orleans County historian in settling into much bigger office space. The historian was working out of the basement in the Treasurer’s Office at 34 East Park St.

Last month the office moved to the upstairs of the building. The computer services department was using the space but moved to the new addition at the County Administration Building.

That left six rooms available for new historian, Catherine Cooper. She has space to process items, organize and store them.

Cooper started in the part-time position on Sept. 14. She retired in June after 33 years at Lee-Whedon Memorial Library in Medina, including 10 years as director.

“This position is like an extension of being a librarian,” Cooper said. “You help people find things.”

One of her immediate goals is to take stock of all the photographs and printed materials in the historian’s office. There are many boxes to go through.

“I want to organize and position the collection so all of the contents are findable,” she said.

Catherine Cooper holds a photo of retired County Historian Bill Lattin. This photo was taken on May 3, 1984 by Louis Monacelli. Lattin served in the role for 35 years. He retired Dec. 31, 2014. Cooper said Monacelli left a trove of photos where people are identified and the date recorded on the photographs.

Cooper praised her predecessor Matt Ballard for his efforts in organizing parts of the collection and digitizing some important records. Ballard also wrote a weekly column of local history and gave frequent public presentations.

The new office for the historian looks out at the Orleans County Courthouse and County Clerks’ Building.

Bill Lattin, who served in the role for 35 years before retiring on Dec. 31, 2014, also was superb in the role, writing a local column for the newspaper, giving many public presentations and authoring many books on local history.

Cooper plans to write columns, too, but not at Ballard’s pace. She will work with the local town and village historians. A big anniversary is around the corner. The county’s bicentennial is in 2025. That year is also the 200^thanniversary of the Erie Canal opening across the state.

Cooper would like to begin preparing for the county’s big birthday. “There will be a big gala celebration,” she said.

She also is intrigued by older local barns and would like to create a “barn census” with local barn owners sending in photos and information on those structures. Cooper regrets that many of the older wooden barns have collapsed in recent years.

She is grateful for the space in the historian’s office. She finds she can spend hours looking through the photos and records.

“The time really flies by,” she said.

Cooper has office hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. She can be reached in the office at (585) 589-4174 or at Catherine.Cooper@orleanscountyny.gov.

Lynne Johnson warns against ‘Covid fatigue’ as cases go up

ALBION – Orleans County residents are urged to support local small businesses this holiday season and also to take precautions against the spread of Covid-19.

“Small businesses are in trouble,” said Lynne Johnson, the chair of the Orleans County Legislature. “They are barely keeping themselves alive through this pandemic. We need to give them a lifeline. I can’t stress enough we need to shop local and we need to shop often.”

Lynne Johnson

Johnson and the other county legislators held a Zoom video conference with Darlene Hartway on Monday. Hartway delivered a message that the locally owned small businesses are worried about surviving the pandemic.

Covid-19 restrictions pushed more customer traffic to Big Box stores and online shopping, hurting the businesses on Main Street.

The holiday season comes at a time when Covid cases and hospitalizations are surging locally, in the region, state-wide and across the country.

If Orleans was designated a micro-cluster focus zone by the state, local businesses could see more restrictions. Johnson urged residents to continue to take precautions by wearing masks, social distancing and using hand sanitizer frequently.

“Covid fatigue is setting in right when it can be the most dangerous,” Johnson said on Tuesday during a Zoom conference call with elected officials. “We are facing our toughest test of the pandemic.”

Most of the recent surge is attributed to Covid spreading in-doors at house gatherings. New York is one of at least 15 states to set limits of 10 people for gatherings in private residences.

“It only takes one positive person who can spread it,” said Paul Pettit, public health director in Genesee and Orleans counties.

He said people don’t tend to wear masks in a private setting. Those gatherings are fueling some of the local spread, he said.

Orleans and Genesee are also seeing spread from workplace settings where some asymptomatic workers are passing it to co-workers who then take it home to family members.

“We’ve had several clusters where it was driven in the workplace,” Pettit said during the Zoom call on Tuesday.

If urged people who have symptoms to stay home from work or school and get tested to verify if they have Covid-19.

Local law enforcement has responded to 300-plus PAUSE complaints during pandemic

ALBION – Orleans County law enforcement wasn’t called to investigate any complaints on Thanksgiving about people exceeding a 10-person limit on gatherings inside private homes, Sheriff Chris Bourke said.

“I was expecting to get a lot of those and we did not receive any,” Bourke told local elected officials in a Zoom conference call on Tuesday.

There were only eight complaints in the state on Thanksgiving about the 10-person limit, Bourke said, quoting a survey from the New York State Sheriffs’ Association. That survey included responses from 46 of the 62 counties in the state.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said there weren’t any fines in the state on Thanksgiving for exceeding the 10-person cap.

Bourke said local law enforcement continues to respond to “New York on PAUSE” complaints, where customers or employees can call a hotline or file a complaint online to report a business that isn’t adhering to social distancing or mask wearing.

Of the 311 complaints filed during the pandemic in Orleans County, Bourke said 171 have been handled by the Sheriff’s Office, 63 by the Medina Police Department, 47 by the Albion Police Department and 30 by the Holley Police Department.

Bourke said the Sheriff’s Office uses “friendly persuasion” in responding to the complaints, making sure the businesses know the rules and understand the threat of Covid-19.

Bourke urged the businesses and community to treat Covid-19 seriously. He said one of his neighbors has died after contracting Covid, and the brother of a corrections officer died after getting Covid.

ALBION – The public health director in Genesee and Orleans counties said he is concerned by the increasing number of being hospitalized with Covid-19.

Paul Pettit

That is the reality in the two counties, statewide and nationally, said Paul Pettit, public health director for the two counties.

Genesee currently has 12 people hospitalized due to Covid, while Orleans has six. In Orleans County, there are currently 37 active Covid cases and six are in the hospital. That 16 percent is a high percentage of people with severe symptoms after getting Covid, Pettit told elected officials in Orleans County during a Zoom conference call on Tuesday.

In Genesee the 12 people hospitalized are out of 207 active cases or 6 percent.

“It is troubling, the severity of the cases,” Pettit said. “We are seeing people with more challenging symptoms.”

During the summer and early fall, Pettit said most of the local Covid cases were people who were asymptomatic or who had mild symptoms.

“Now we’re seeing a significant increase in hospitalizations,” Pettit said.

The hospitalizations have been rising fast in the state. They were at 3,774 on Monday. That’s up from the 1,151 on Nov. 1, and 2,124 on Nov. 16. The state passed 3,000 on Nov. 25 with 3,056.

Nationally, there are about 100,000 people hospitalized with Covid, the most during the pandemic. On Nov. 11, the U.S. had 60,000 people hospitalized with Covid.

Free tests for people who are asymptomatic, but may have been exposed to Covid

BATAVIA – Genesee County will offer residents, who are asymptomatic with free drive-thru Covid-19 self-administered rapid testing on Thursday.

The free testing will be offered from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Genesee County Emergency Management Office & Fire Training Facility, 7690 State Street Rd. in the Town of Batavia.

For anyone with a recent potential exposure to Covid-19, it is not recommended to be tested until at least 5 days have passed since the exposure. Anyone with any cold or flu-like symptoms, even if mild, will not be eligible for this test, and neither will any others arriving in their car.

This is for people without symptoms or who are not feeling sick.

Those interested in scheduling a test must register on-line (click here). Anyone needing additional help for online registration may contact the Genesee County Health Department at 585-344-2580 ext. 5555.

“It is very important to note that this testing is not for residents who are experiencing symptoms,” said Paul Pettit, public health director in Genesee and Orleans counties. “Those individuals should be contacting their physician to discuss treatment and testing options. Given the surge of infections in the county, it’s important that we identify those who are infected that may not be demonstrating any symptoms and in fact are feeling fine.”

At the drive-through site, a staff member for the testing center will offer guidance for residents to administer their own self-test by using a cotton swab. Each person in a vehicle will self-administer their own test. If there is a minor in the car, an adult in the vehicle will be asked to administer the test. People will then drive off and will be contacted via phone with the results, with option for these results to be emailed as well.

“If a person who is asymptomatic tests positive for the virus, he or she will need to be in isolation for a minimum of 10 days,” Pettit said.  “While this might discourage people from getting tested, we need to work together as a community to reduce the surge, plus someone who is asymptomatic can still infect a loved one who is not.”

Pettit said he expects additional rapid testing opportunities in the near future in Genesee and Orleans counties.

File photo by Tom Rivers: The Orleans County Jail had 13 corrections officers and three inmates test positive for Covid-19 last month.

ALBION – Orleans County Sheriff Chris Bourke said the county jail had 13 corrections officers test positive for Covid-19 last month, with one of the officers hospitalized and on a ventilator for two days.

Bourke said most of the staff who tested positive were asymptomatic or had minor symptoms.

“Everybody has recovered and is doing well,” Bourke said on Tuesday on a Zoom conference call with other elected officials in the county.

The jail has about 45 staff members total. In addition to the 13 corrections officers, three inmates tested positive for Covid last month.

The jail is at about a quarter of its 82-inmate capacity.

Bourke said there are no in-person inmate visits right now. Friends and families of inmates can use the Video Visitation System.

There also won’t be weekend jail sentences served during this current surge in Covid cases in the region. Bourke said those sentences have been suspended, and not eliminated with the time to be served later when the Covid cases go down.

District Attorney Joe Cardone also said the county court system is back to functioning mostly through virtual appearances. There will be very few in-person appearances. Cardone said three upcoming trials that were scheduled have been postponed because juries can’t be picked due to restrictions with the Covid pandemic.

Judges also can’t sentence people to jail until February, Cardone said in the conference with local officials.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The lawn at Courthouse Square is covered in snow this morning. Snow showers could continue before 9 a.m. with up to an inch of snow possible, according to the National Weather Service in Buffalo.

Today is forecast for a high of 36, followed by sunny with a high of 44 on Thursday, rain showers and cloudy with a high of 43 on Friday, and a chance of showers and cloudy with a high near 40 on Saturday.

A plow truck heads north on Main Street in Albion this morning. The plow trucks didn’t see much work in November.

The Genesee and Orleans County Health Departments are reporting 9 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Orleans and 8 in Genesee.

However, the number in Genesee is likely higher. Genesee is listed by the local health department as 960 total cases since March, but the state has the number of cases in Genesee at 1,041.

“Our goal is to make sure the data provided to our communities is as accurate as possible. In order to provide accurate numbers, case investigations include contacting the individuals, of which some are not county residents,” the Health Departments said in a news briefing this evening. “This will show discrepancies between the local numbers and the state numbers. The numbers reported are those cases we have accurate data and have had contact with the individual and all their subsequent contacts.”

In Orleans County, the 9 new positive cases bring the total to 632 confirmed cases since March. The new positive cases reside Barre, Clarendon, Murray, Ridgeway and Shelby.

The individuals are in the age groups of 0-19, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. One of the individuals was on mandatory quarantine prior to testing positive.

Orleans also is reporting 11 of the previous positive individuals have recovered and have been removed from the isolation list.

The Health Department also said one of the new positive cases was recovered prior to the department receiving the test results and is being included in the recovered data.

The number of hospitalizations increased to 6. On Friday, there were two Orleans residents hospitalized due to Covid-19.

In Genesee County, the new cases are in the age groups of 0-19, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

Genesee has also had 126 of the previous positive individuals recover and be removed from the isolation list.

One of the individuals identified at The Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at

Batavia and one of the individuals identified at the Batavia VA Medical Center have been identified as out-of-county residents and have been removed from the Genesee facility and total count.

Genesee currently has 12 residents hospitalized due to Covid-19.

Message from the G-O Health Departments: We can’t stress enough the importance to limit time with non-household members. Continue to do your best to limit the spread of Covid-19 and the flu by frequently washing/sanitizing your hands, wearing a mask/face-covering over your mouth and nose when out in public and keeping at least 6 feet from non-household members.

If you are not feeling well, please stay home and contact your primary care provider for guidance.