(BROOME COUNTY, NY) – Broome County has experienced another record increase in COVID-19 cases with 78 new positives announced Friday morning. This brings the total number of active cases to 304 out of 1,682 total COVID-19 cases.
This comes one day after County Executive Jason Garnar strongly encouraged Broome County residents to stay home and limit social gatherings for the next 7 days to help combat the community spread. This excludes essential functions such as work or school.
“This is serious. A second day of a record number of positive cases is exactly why we all need to stay home whenever possible to stop the spread,” said Broome County Executive Jason Garnar. “I am meeting every day with our team at the Broome County Health Department and Broome County Office of Emergency Services to find ways to address this. What can you do to help? Stay home when possible. That’s what you can do to help our community right now.”
“Anything that brings people together right now poses a risk,” said Broome County Public Health Director Rebecca Kaufman. “As we train new contact tracers and conduct case investigation, we need our residents to take this very seriously to help control the spread in Broome County.”
Following this recent spike, hours at the New York State COVID-19 Drive-Thru testing site at Binghamton University are being expanded. This now includes offering testing on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. To make an appointment, you can call 1-888-364-3065.
Broome County continues to work on a plan to implement a COVID-19 rapid testing site in the community. Details on hours, location and appointments will be announced early next week.
“Our new rapid testing will also be critical in helping stop the spread in Broome County,” said Garnar. “By getting results within 15 minutes we will quickly be able to begin the contact tracing process and place people into quarantine.”
For updated COVID-19 numbers on its website at broomecountyny.gov/hd/coronavirus
