December Deadliest

Month, Bond Says

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

With three deaths in two weeks, four people in the ICU and 16 hospitalized, Otsego County Public Health Director Heidi Bond has declared December to be the deadliest month of the COVID-19 pandemic so far.

“Three deaths in a month is the most we’ve had,” she said. “Before that, it was two in April.”

The victim, a woman over 55, had not been in the ICU, but had been hospitalized for less than week before she died on Friday, Dec. 18.

Last week, two other women died, including one who had been infected with the virus by an employee at the assisted living facility where she lived. The employee, Bond reported at the time, had spent Thanksgiving with a group of people outside their home, and was infected there.

This week’s seven-day total saw 141 cases, a slight decrease from last week’s total of 153. But Friday, Dec. 18, saw a second day of 35 cases, the current record for number of cases in a single day.

And with Christmas looming, Bond worries that the cases will climb even higher as people continue to gather against CDC recommendations.

“We’re starting with a higher number of cases than we did at Thanksgiving,” she said.