Franklin County is in a state of emergency again as COVID-19 cases remain high. County leaders said this declaration was to attract state resources and will not impact businesses.

The Franklin County Board of Legislators has once again declared a state of emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic in an effort to attract state attention and resources.

Board Chairman Donald Dabiew said this state of emergency won’t include mandates for businesses or schools. It’s purely intended to flag the county’s need for more COVID-19-related resources at the moment.

The county reported 86 new cases on Thursday. Dabiew said that’s a lot in one day for a small county like Franklin. The declaration says that the spread of the virus “is leading to significant public health consequences.”

“It’s just gotten out of hand,” Dabiew said. “We’re all tired of it.”

Dabiew is asking the state to reopen state-run vaccine clinics, allow Emergency Medical Technicians to give out vaccines, and make more COVID-19 test kits — including at-home kits — available. He said many pharmacies throughout the county are sold out. He’s been told there’s a state-wide shortage, and said he wants Franklin County to be at the top of any list for new kits. The need here is “dire,” he said.

“To be put on a list I think we need to show that there is a state of emergency here,” Dabiew said. “They don’t seem like they’ve noticed us yet.”

Franklin County first declared a state of emergency because of the coronavirus in March 2020. Dabiew estimated that this state of emergency was renewed until the start of 2021.

The new state of emergency took effect at 4 p.m. Thursday and will last until 4 p.m. Jan. 1, 2022.

Large gatherings are playing a role in the high rate of transmission of the virus around the county, Franklin County Public Health confirmed Thursday. The department is asking that people get tested before and after holiday gatherings, stay home if they feel symptoms, wear masks and get vaccinated.

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Franklin County

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Franklin County Public Health reported 86 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. There were 263 active cases of COVID-19 countywide as of Thursday.

Data from a map FCPH created on Monday shows that the active cases are mostly in the northern end of the county, but there were 27 cases in Tupper Lake and 10 in Harrietstown.

There is one inmate at Bare Hill Correctional with an active case of COVID-19 and three at Franklin County Jail, both facilities are in Malone.

There have been 26 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Franklin County since the start of the pandemic. One of those was reported on Monday.

Of those eligible in Franklin County, 64% of residents have been administered at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 59.5% are fully vaccinated.

FCPH Director of Public Health Kathleen Strack wrote in a statement that a main reason for Franklin County’s high number of COVID-19 cases is “seasonal and other celebratory gatherings.”

She said FCPH recommends limiting the number of people from outside a single household at gatherings and wearing masks when physical distancing is not possible.

She encourages people to get tested before and after gatherings; isolate if they have symptoms of COVID-19; stay away from others if they test positive; wear masks, even if vaccinated; and get vaccinated.

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Adirondack Health

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Adirondack Health spokesman Matt Scollin said Thursday that there are nine people hospitalized at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake who have tested positive for COVID-19, and three are on ventilators. He said eight of these nine people are unvaccinated.

AMC has nine ventilators, Scollin said.

He said things are different now than they were in the early days of the pandemic. Last year, there were shortages of ventilators and the state considered moving ventilators from North Country hospitals to downstate hospitals, where there were more cases at the time. Now, he said, there are more ventilators available, and with more COVID-19 hospitalizations upstate and fewer downstate, if AMC needs more ventilators, he said he’s “confident” the hospital could get them. He said the Hospital Association of New York State and the DOH decide where ventilators go when they move around the state.