The National Guard is being deployed to Broome County as COVID-19 cases surge past record highs.
Close to 1,500 people are currently COVID-19 positive, a number much larger than any other time since the start of the pandemic.
"Today when I woke up, I saw a number that was the highest that I’ve ever seen before in this pandemic," said Broome County Executive Jason Garnar.
More than 900 cases came over the past six days, forcing the state to deploy the National Guard, setting up at the former Davis College in Johnson City.
“We are racing against the clock now. It’s important that when people want to get vaccinated or they want to get boosted that they can do that immediately, that they don’t have to wait more than a day or two or anything like that, and certainly we don’t want them to wait more than two weeks to get their shots, and also to get testing. And that’s what this site is going to do,” said Garnar.
The county will now be able to perform 250 tests a day thanks to 20 National Guard members and 30 local workers. Testing will also be offered as the other rapid testing site fills up.
"There’s a need for testing. There’s a need for vaccinations. We’ve been seeing that over the past few months and it outgrew our capabilities at our rapid testing center. That’s why we had to ask the state for assistance and I think with the dual sites, as the county executive said, they’re going to compliment one another. We’re going to be able to address the need of the community,” said Pat Dewing, Broome County Emergency Services coordinator.
The county’s two hospitals are also 90% full and Garnar said elective surgeries could be canceled if that number rises.
He now worries the numbers will continue to rise as we enter the holiday season.
“We had a year under our belt of this. We knew based on what happened last year, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve. These are the things that bring people together and this virus feeds on that,” said Garnar.
The county expects to have the Davis College site open until February.
