Re: Confirmed/Suspected Cases in New York State outside NYC
News updates for 6/12/09:
Reported by the Lower Hudson Journal News in White Plains, NY:
Westchester County reports first H1N1 death, a 29 year old woman in Yonkers. She died Tuesday night and had an "underlying medical condition". The exact cause of death is pending autopsy. Westchester County is currently reporting 55 confirmed cases, Rockland County 8, and Putnam County 3. There have been no deaths in Rockland or Putnam.
Putnam County has confirmed a second case in a student at Fulmar Road Elementary School, and emergency rooms in the county are reporting an uptick in people concerned they might be ill with swine flu.
http://www.lohud.com/article/2009906120350
Reported by the Fox 40 WICZ TV in Binghamton, NY:
Broome County - Specimens from sick students at Chenango Forks Middle School have been sent to Albany to be tested for H1N1. Results are expected next week.
http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=9281
Reported by the Times Union in Albany, NY:
Saratoga County - A student at Acadia Middle School in the Shenendehowa School District has the county's second confirmed case of H1N1. The student had only mild symptoms. Officials didn't specify how long the student has been absent or when he or she would return to school. The school will not be closed.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=809335
Reported by the Evening Sun in Norwich, NY:
Chenango County reports 3 cases of confirmed swine flu. "At this time" the residents have recovered and only had mild illness. (...kind of an unusual choice of words)
http://www.evesun.com/news/stories/2009-06-11/7180/Swine-flu-confirmed-in-Chenango/
Reported by WKBW in Buffalo, NY:
Erie County is now reporting 100 confirmed cases, and a third school in Buffalo has closed due to flu outbreak. Oracle Charter School on Delaware Avenue has closed for 3 days, beginning Wednesday and reopening Monday. An unspecified number of students and staff have reported illness and are currently being tested for H1N1.
The other two schools to close in Buffalo were Riverside High School and Buffalo United Charter School. Both schools had three confirmed cases of swine flu.
http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/47875907.html
Reported by Newswatch 50 in Watertown, NY:
Jefferson County reports 3 new confirmed cases,
two children and one adult. The two children have fully recovered at home and the adult is recovering, officials said.
The total number of confirmed cases in Jefferson County is now nine.
Jefferson County Public Health is conducting active "surveillance" of local hospitals and schools to identify clusters of flu-like illness. The agency anticipates more confirmed cases, a press release said.
http://www.newswatch50.com/news/local/story/3-more-cases-of-Swine-Flu-in-Jefferson-County/8-pEo4WymUOwjOWOgoFarw.cspx
Reported by the Times Herald Record in Albany, NY:
Besieged by flu cases, student absences spike at Monroe-Woodbury
By Chris Mckenna
Posted: June 11, 2009 - 2:34 PM
CENTRAL VALLEY — A rash of flu-like illnesses and high absences in Monroe-Woodbury School District appears to be letting up after spreading from the middle school to the elementary schools, Superintendent Joseph DiLorenzo said Thursday.
He said the number of student absences peaked at the middle school on Friday at 406, which is nearly a quarter of the student body and roughly quadruple the number of absences the school usually has.
By Wednesday, that number had dropped to 155, still higher than the customary 80-100 range.
“It’s dropping each day,” DiLorenzo said. “We seem to be on the tail end of it.”
In the meantime, the number of kids staying home from the district’s five elementary schools seems to be leveling off or declining after climbing last week and remaining elevated early this week, he said.
Central Valley Elementary hit its recent high on Tuesday, when 101 pupils – or about 13 percent of the school’s enrollment – were out.
Pine Tree Elementary hit a high of 137 absences – 15 percent of its student body – on Monday.
The schools are getting many reports of flu-like symptoms, although other illnesses such as strep throat and ear infections are contributing to the absences, DiLorenzo said.
Others can be attributed to parents keeping children home to keep them from getting infected.
The district is consulting with the Orange County Health Department and having custodians clean doorknobs and computer keyboards, DiLorenzo said.
The illnesses are occurring in the midst of a swine flu outbreak, although whether that particular strain is to blame for the Monroe-Woodbury illnesses is unclear. Orange County has had six confirmed swine flu cases but stopped testing for the virus weeks ago unless the symptoms are severe, as ordered by the state.
Minisink Valley School District has also had recent absence spikes that have now subsided. The number of kids out at the middle school jumped to a peak of 196 on May 18 but dropped to 68 by June 1, according to figures the district provided Thursday.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090611/NEWS/90611030/-1/SITEMAP
Reported by News 10 Now in Syracuse, NY:
Tioga County reports its first case of the virus. Otsego County confirms 6 new cases, all in the Morris Central School District, which has a total of seven students with the virus.
http://news10now.com/content/all_news/474505/new-cases-of-h1n1-virus-in-the-southern-tier/?RegionCookie=1013
(as far as I know these were not included in any official case counts)