The average number of new COVID-19 cases in Broome County has doubled over the last few days.
County Executive Jason Garnar says prior to Tuesday, the county was averaging around 50 new cases per day. But in the last 3 days, the average has climbed to over 100 new cases per day.
Last year during the pandemic, the county was able to shift personnel from other departments to help with contact tracing. But Garnar says this year, they don’t have that same ability.
“I really want the public to know, until we can really hire more contact tracers, until we get to that point, our ability to contact trace the way that the Broome County Health Department wants to, 100 percent effectively, is going to be limited as a result of that, so our contact tracing efforts are limited because we don’t have the same number of employees who can do it and because our numbers are getting worse and worse, we are receiving much more COVID positives every day,” Garnar said.
The county asks residents who are waiting for test results to self-quarantine and make a list of all people they have come in close contact with.
