North country spike in COVID cases continues

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Wednesday was another bad day for new COVID-19 cases in northern New York.

St. Lawrence County reported 323 new cases. That’s a little better than the 355 reported Tuesday, but still off the charts compared to just a few weeks ago.

For what it’s worth, here’s a look at the last few Wednesdays, as St. Lawrence County has reported new COVID cases:

December 15 - 88 new cases

December 21 - 81 new cases

December 29 - 142 new cases

January 5 - 234 new cases

January 12 - 323 cases

Good news? No new deaths to report from St. Lawrence County., and the number of people hospitalized dropped between Tuesday and Wednesday’s report, from 27 to 22.

(Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of hospitalizations reported Wednesday as 16.)

In fact, hospitalizations in St. Lawrence County aren’t keeping pace with the number of new cases. Again, comparing the last five Wednesdays:

December 15 - 30 hospitalizations

December 22 - 18 hospitalizations

December 28 - 11 hospitalizations

January 5 - 16 hospitalizations

January 12 - 22 hospitalizations

Lewis County, meanwhile, reported an additional 86 cases Wednesday, bringing the number of people in isolation in the county to 312, and the number hospitalized up slightly, from 10 to 12. Lewis County reported no new deaths.

Jefferson County once again reported the largest number of new cases, 498. About one in every five COVID tests in the county is now positive.

But no one died in Jefferson County, though hospitalizations rose by three, to 30.

The number of people in Jefferson County in ‘mandatory isolation’? Wednesday, it was 2,695.