Active cases of coronavirus rise in Ulster and Dutchess counties; Dutchess offers free rides to vaccination sites – The Daily Freeman

Kingston residents Belinda Dankwah, left, Gershom Baah, center, and Millicent Preko hold up their vaccination cards after receiving their second shots at the former Best Buy store in the town of Ulster, N.Y., on Friday April 9, 2021. The three are all home health aides.

Ulster County on Friday reported a small uptick in its number of active coronavirus cases, while Dutchess County reported a more substantial increase.

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Ulster said it had 1,730 active cases of COVID-19, up just four from the 1,726 reported Thursday. Dutchess reported an increase of 29 actives cases from 1,297 to 1,326 but also a drop in COVID-related hospitalizations from 70 to 63.

Ulster County reported 93 new COVID diagnoses out of the most recent 1,719 test results received a positivity rate of 5.4% and 89 newly designated recoveries from the illness.

Ulster County has had 13,773 confirmed cases of COVID since the local outbreak began in March 2020, as well as 11,797 recoveries and 246 deaths. No additional deaths were reported Friday.

Dutchess County also reported no additional deaths. It has lost 428 residents to COVID since last spring.

Dutchess has had 27,032 confirmed cases of COVID since March 2020 and on Friday reported a seven-day positive test rate of 4.4%.

Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro announced Friday that, starting Saturday, the county will provide free rides on its public transit system to anyone who has an appointment at one of the county's two "point of dispensing," or POD, sites, as well as any future pop-up vaccination sites in the county. The county-run POD sites are in the former J.C. Penney store at the Poughkeepsie Galleria and the former CVS store on Route 22 in Dover.

Residents who live within three-quarters of a mile of a regular Dutchess bus route but who cannot use the regular fixed-route service and need transportation to a POD site can get free paratransit service or Dial-A-Ride and Flex Demand Response service by calling (845) 473-8424 in advance. For details, go to dutchessny.gov/publictransit.

Ulster County began free bus ridesto its POD site at Hudson Valley Mall earlier this week.

The college reported Friday that it had 21 active cases of COVID among students and two among employees. The college said nine students were in on-campus quarantine and five were in on-campus isolation.

SUNY New Paltz has had 228 positive COVID-19 cases among students since Jan. 1, and 32 cases among employees during the same period.

Appointments to be vaccinated at state-run sites, including the one at the Ulster County Fairgrounds New Paltz, can be made online atcovid19vaccine.health.ny.gov.

Appointments to be vaccinated at the Ulster County-run site at Hudson Valley Mall in the town of Ulster can be made atvaccinateulster.com, and Dutchess County's vaccination sign-up site isbit.ly/dut-vax.

Greene County said Friday that residents can find a searchable list of vaccination POD sites at VaccineFinder.org.

Newly reported cases of COVID-19 in area school districts are as follows, according to New York state.

Kingston: One on-site J. Watson Bailey Middle School student and one on-site high school student.

Ellenville: Three on-site elementary school students and one on-site high school student.

Highland: One on-site middle school student.

Marlboro: One on-site high school student.

Rondout Valley: Three off-site high school students.

For local coverage related to the coronavirus, go to bit.ly/DFCOVID19.

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Active cases of coronavirus rise in Ulster and Dutchess counties; Dutchess offers free rides to vaccination sites - The Daily Freeman