PLATTSBURGH — As of Thursday morning, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Clinton County had decreased from 48 last week down to 26.

“Last week was the week from hell,” Clinton County Director of Public Health John Kanoza said at Wednesday’s Clinton County Legislature meeting.

From Monday, Oct. 19, through Saturday, Oct. 24, the county saw 42 new positive cases, an all-new record and almost triple the typical weekly case count, he added.

“That’s not a record I’d like to break again.”

Kanoza noted two clusters, one at SUNY Plattsburgh to which more than 30 cases were linked, and another at Clinton Correctional Facility that had spread to 14 inmates.

“We are seeing recoveries from a lot of those.”

Wednesday saw three new lab-confirmed cases: one a SUNY Plattsburgh student, another a college student who came home to the area, and the third a general member of the community, Kanoza said.

“That’s what we expect to see this time of year because people are inside; they’re not outside as much as they are during the summer where we’re having zeros, ones and twos every day.”

Kanoza commended the county’s contact tracing team for the speed with which they approached the clusters.

“You can’t waste time. You’ve got to pin down the contacts, the contact tracing. You’ve got to do it and identify who needs to go in quarantine.”

As of Wednesday, just two positive COVID-19 cases were in University of Vermont Health Network’s Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, Kanoza added.

“Our number-one goal is to not let the hospital be overwhelmed. That’s the key.”