Essex County Health Department data shows that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in Essex County increased by about 36% from October to November.

While October saw 439 new cases, November brought 595.

“In working with our case investigators and contact tracers, we can attribute a lot of the spread to household exposures and smaller, private gatherings that occurred over the start of the holiday season, Halloween through Thanksgiving,” ECHD Program Coordinator Andrea Whitmarsh said.

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Variant transmissibility

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Whitmarsh explained that, as the weather gets colder and people head indoors, it becomes more difficult to socially distance and reduce instances of repeated interaction.

“The more contagious variants are going to thrive in those settings and we’ve seen delta do just that — we’ve had a marked increase in cases due to its transmissibility,” she said.

“We expect a similar spike due to omicron, so we unfortunately anticipate that cases will continue to remain high and even potentially increase between now and January as families celebrate the holidays.”

In October, 61% of Essex County residents who tested positive were not vaccinated against COVID-19, compared to 55% in November.

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School-based cases

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The number of cases among pre-K through 12 th grade students and staff increased by 18%, from 172 cases in October to 203 cases in November.

In October, the ratio of staff to student cases was about 1 to 4, compared to around 1 to 5 in November, Whitmarsh said.

“Many of Essex County’s student cases have occurred in the population of youth that, up until recently, were not yet eligible to be vaccinated: students 5 to 11 years of age,” she noted.

Whitmarsh said ECHD expects school-related cases to decrease as more children are vaccinated, but noted that full protection is not achieved until two weeks after the second doses of their primary vaccine series.

“This is also occurring at a time when protection for some (staff and students) is starting to wane,” she continued. “That’s why we’re working so hard to get booster doses out to everyone that is eligible, which now includes 16- and 17-year-olds who are at least six months out from completing their primary series of the Pfizer vaccine.”

According to the North Country COVID Vaccine Dashboard, 41.9% of Essex County’s 5- to 15-year-olds have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Hospitalizations, deaths

In October, 17 Essex County residents were hospitalized due to COVID-19, 13 of whom were not vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The following month, 21 residents were hospitalized; 11 were not vaccinated, 10 were and, of the latter, two were boosted.

October saw five Essex County residents die of COVID-19, three of whom were not vaccinated. In November, there were four coronavirus-related deaths. ECHD said two were not vaccinated, and none of those who were had received booster shots.

ECHD has already reported five COVID-related deaths this month.

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Get vaccinated

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Whitmarsh said spikes in cases generally result in more hospitalizations and more deaths.

“The good news: while daily case numbers for New York State as a whole are the same as last year at this time, our overall hospitalizations and deaths are about half of what they were compared to that same time period,” she said. “This is a direct result of vaccination.

“In the North Country, where vaccination rates are lower than in other parts of the state, we are unfortunately experiencing similar hospitalizations and deaths as we did at the peak last year and we really don’t have more cases overall than we did at our previous peak.”

ECHD’s message is to get vaccinated now if you haven’t yet, and get boosted if you’re eligible.

“The same staff that are doing case investigations and contact tracing are also working at vaccination clinics, supporting school-based testing and educating the public by sharing information and resources,” Whitmarsh said. “The best way to thank a health care or public health worker is to get vaccinated!”