By Doug La Rocque
With states of emergency declared in many towns, the Village of Hoosick Falls, the City of Troy and the County itself, the citizens of Rensselaer County are doing their best to fight back at this global pandemic. All across the county there are examples of people helping people, whether ill with the coronavirus or some other malady, those who are self quarantined and especially the elderly, who along with those with underlying medical conditions are the most vulnerable to this disease.
With schools out, we have seen all the area districts stepping up to feed the students who normally depend on their school for one to two meals a day. These cafeteria staffs, along with administrators and instructors are coming in daily to pack up meals, with transportation staff using buses to deliver these baskets of food to the children they normally pick up on a daily basis.
One of the most visible entities in the county is the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Department, headed by Sheriff Pat Russo and Undersheriff Ed Bly. The Eastwick Press spoke with the Sheriff on Wednesday, March 25, to find out just what his department is doing, and what precautions they are taking for themselves as well as all personnel at the County Jail. He tells us “While in the grip of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Sheriff’s Office has implemented policies to insure the protection of the public, our staff and the inmates housed in our facility. At the correctional facility, the Sheriff has cancelled all inmate visits and suspended inmate programs, thus limiting the public from entering the building.
All new inmates entering the facility are screened and placed in a separate housing unit for 14 days and are required to wear a protective mask when they are out of their cell.
My Undersheriff has daily briefings with our command staff, which is constantly assessing the situation and making necessary adjustments.
The Highway Patrol has issued protective equipment to all of our deputies and has briefed them on the importance of heightened awareness while interacting with the public.
We have ordered two ionizer units, which will enable us to disinfect our patrol units.
My command staff has met with the County Attorney on the ability of the Sheriff to facilitate the use of officers from local jurisdictions in a mutual aid situation.
We have canceled pistol permit processing and our civil office is Continued on page 9
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is conducting limited transactions behind a glass window.
Emergency Operations Center, insuring that there is real-time communication with all County departments.
I would also like to take the time to commend the entire staff of the Sheriff’s Office for coming to work and performing their duties in this time of crisis.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin has been giving daily live stream updates on the number of cases in the county, and answering questions sent in by county residents. His message has been one of concern, and urging all to take the necessary precautions, but also not to panic and use basic common sense. As he, county health officials, mayors and supervisors repeatedly point out, it may take a while, but we will get through this.
How Long Is That Going To Take
That is the proverbial $64,000 question. In his daily briefing on Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said the number of confirmed cases inn the state has risen to over 30,000, the vast majority of those in New York City, Westchester County and on Long Island. The number of new cases reported since Tuesday was more than 5,000.
Governor Cuomo again called upon the federal government to send thousands of more ventilators to the state, reiterating he sees the need for 140,000 hospital beds. Transforming a number of large downstate buildings into makeshift hospitals, he feels the actual number of available beds might be 120,000.
There is a possible light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. The governor saying at his briefing on Wednesday “This past Sunday, the projection was that hospitalizations were doubling every two days. On Monday, the numbers suggested that the hospitalizations were doubling every 3.4 days. On Tuesday, the projections suggested that the hospitalizations were doubling every 4.7 days. Now that is almost too good to be true, but the theory is given the density that we’re dealing with, it spreads very quickly, but if you reduce the density you can reduce the spread very quickly.” The governor has repeatedly talked about the apex of the curve, which is described as the greatest load on hospitals. For perhaps the first time, he has quantified that, saying he expects to reach the apex in 21 days.
As far as Rensselaer goes, County Executive McLaughlin reported 5 more confirmed cases on Wednesday, bring the total to 38. Two of the latest being reported in North Greenbush and Pittstown.
Need Help
Most localities in the eastern part of the state, such a New Lebanon, have developed programs to help any residents who might find themselves in need. Contacting your local Mayors, Supervisors and city, village and town halls, will most assuredly get you started on a right path, however, if you have no luck, you are also welcome to call The Eastwick Press, as we have contacts we can reach out too, to get in touch with you.