The post-holiday surge of COVID-19 cases in Franklin and Essex counties has been on the decline recently, but both counties are still seeing higher numbers of new cases of the illness each day than in earlier in the pandemic.

In the past month, there have been five new COVID-related deaths in the two counties.

The state Department of Health has recorded three COVID-related deaths in Franklin County and two new deaths in Essex County since Jan. 18. The Essex County Health Department reported that a resident of the Essex Center nursing home in Elizabethtown died from COVID-related illness over the weekend. This person was fully vaccinated, not boosted and was hospitalized before their death, according to the department.

Both counties saw a spike in cases and deaths following the holiday season, lasting from the first week of January through the mid-point of the month.

The rush of many new cases being discovered every day has subsided, but ECHD Program Coordinator Andrea Whitmarsh pointed out that case numbers are by no means “low.”

The number of new cases every day is still high compared to what they had been throughout the majority of the first year-and-a-half of the pandemic, but we’ve gotten used to that now, she said. The pandemic is approaching an endemic period.

“We’re going to have to learn with COVID circulating at a certain level all the time,” Whitmarsh said.

What that level will be remains to be seen, she said.

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Current case load

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Franklin County reported 154 active cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, adding 11 new cases that day through at-home tests and 23 through PCR tests. The county’s active case numbers haven’t been this low since early November.

ECHD reported a drop in daily new COVID-19 cases this past week. Since the last day of January, when 72 new cases were reported, daily new cases reported have been as low as 33 and even 17 on one day.

In Franklin County, there were 42 state prison inmates with active cases of COVID-19 on Monday — 16 at Bare Hill Correctional, 14 at Franklin Correctional, 10 at Upstate Correctional and two at Franklin County Jail.

On Tuesday, four patients hospitalized at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake had COVID-19. None were on ventilators.

At the start of the year, there were consistently days where there would be six to eight COVID-positive patients there, with up to two on ventilators at a time. In the past few weeks, there have been between two and six COVID-positive patients there. No one has been on a ventilator with COVID at the hospital since Jan. 12.

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January spike

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COVID-19 cases surged higher than ever before last month.

By the end of the first week of 2022, Franklin County had reported 366 new COVID-19 cases and Essex County had reported 798 new COVID-19 cases.

The week after that, Franklin County’s active case number almost tripled, setting the record for the highest number of active cases in the county at one time — nearly 900.

The surge brought death.

From Jan. 1 to 18, five people in Franklin County and seven people in Essex County died from COVID-19.

In total, 59 people have now died from COVID-19 in Essex County and 40 people have now died from COVID-19 in Franklin County.

Essex County reported 2,783 new cases throughout January — on average, 80 to 100 new cases per day with one day of 199 new cases. The U.S. Census put the county’s population at around 37,000 in 2020. Around 7% of Essex County’s population tested positive for COVID-19 during January.

Franklin County reported 2,599 new cases throughout January. The U.S. Census put the county’s population at around 47,000 in 2020. Around 5% of Franklin County’s population tested positive for COVID-19 during January.

Somewhere over the curve

Whitmarsh said the end of the spike is encouraging and the area may be starting to see the “other side of omicron curve,” but she said the virus’ spread in the community is not done yet.

She was asked how she felt about Saranac Lake’s Winter Carnival event, going on currently. She felt it was a good event, since most activities are staged outside. She said the state is not trying to limit what people do any more at this stage in the pandemic and said enjoying activities and sights together is one of the better things people could be doing.

“When you look at all the mental health challenges that we’ve had as a result of this pandemic, all of the isolation that people have been feeling,” Whitmarsh said. “You know, I really think it’s time to start getting back to doing some of those things as a community.”

She also said whether people join in, stay outside or stay home comes down to personal decisions. If someone feels hesitant when considering the safety of an event, she said that might be an indication to skip it.