Broome County reports 12th COVID-19 death, announces expanded testing

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Broome County Executive Jason Garnar on Tuesday reported the county’s 12th death from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The victim was a woman in her 90s, who died at UHS Binghamton General Hospital.

This was the county’s fourth death from the dangerous disease in the last five days.

Broome County had 10 new coronavirus cases in the last day for a total of 225 cases since the start of the pandemic. It has 59 recoveries, 154 active cases, and the 12 deaths.

The county said 14 people are currently in the hospital with COVID-19, while the other 140 positives are recovering at home.

Garnar also announced that the county’s two hospitals — UHS and Lourdes — on Tuesday started testing residents with low-level symptoms of the coronavirus if their health-care provider recommends that they should be tested. The two hospitals now have about 9,000 tests on hand.

“We’ve really expanded the testing here in Broome County because the availability of tests,” Garnar said at his daily COVID-19 briefing.

The county executive explained that at the beginning of the crisis, only people with the worst symptoms of the deadly bug could be tested in Broome County, then once the county acquired more tests, individuals suffering from moderate COVID-19 symptoms could get tested. And now comes the expansion of testing to include people with minor symptoms.