Governor Cuomo directed State agencies to prepare emergency assets and assist local governments as needed as multiple storm systems are expected to impact locations throughout the state with snow, sleet and freezing rain through the holiday weekend.  Isolated power outages may also occur; NYSEG Officials announced today that they are getting crews ready to handle weather related issues.

————————————————————-

Chenango County Public Health continues to see an increase in COVID 19 cases, they reported 19 more active cases, giving them 150 current cases, Hospitalizations went down by 1 to 5, and Quarantines went up by 36 to 569.  Chenango County has had 536 of their 1179 cases in December.

—————————————————–

The Otsego County Health Department reported 33 new COVID 19 cases today, bringing their active total to 120, with 21 now hospitalized.  They have reported just fewer than 600 new cases in December with 9 of their 17 reported deaths occurring since December 1sst.

————————————————————-

The Broome County Health Department continues to average almost 100 new cases of COVID 19 each day in the month of December, including another 137 reported today, The County has had a total of 7959 cases since the Spring, 2646 of them have been reported since the beginning of the month, County Health Department officials said that 45 of their 176 deaths have occurred in December, COVID hospitalizations have been hovering around 100 and 3 nursing homes continue to be COVID hotspots.

——————————————————————

A.M. NEWS THURSDAY 12-31-20

Governor Cuomo announced he is signing an Executive Order to extend the requirement that death benefits be paid out to families of frontline government workers for an additional 30 days. The legislation providing these benefits would otherwise expire Tonight, The Governor also announced that more than 200,000 New Yorkers have now been vaccinated with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and beginning next week, New York will open vaccination criteria to ambulatory care health workers and public-facing public health workers, including those administering COVID-19 tests.

———————————————————–

Governor Cuomo announced Wednesday that the Buffalo Bills will have 6,700 fans in attendance when they host a 1st-round playoff game the weekend of January 9th & 10th.  Fans will be allowed in who are wearing masks and test negative before the game, there will also be contact tracing after the game, and that the game will serve as a pilot program for how the state can safely reopen large events.

——————————————————

Delaware County Public Health reported a 13th death from COVID 19 Wednesday.  The County had 15 new positive cases, 4 are hospitalized and 274 are quarantined.

——————————————————-

The Broome County Special Investigations Unit Task Force executed a narcotics search warrant at 296 Main Street in Binghamton and arrested 42 year old Bernard Barnes, 42 year old Cora Stevens and 35 year old Leroy Poole, all of Binghamton.  Investigators seized Cocaine, Fentanyl & drug packaging materials and about $1,400 in cash from alleged drug sales.  Barnes, Stevens and Poole were charged with several counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminally using drug paraphernalia. Poole and Barnes were jailed while awaiting further court action and Stevens was released after Monday’s arrests.

———————————————————-