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Niagara County tops 200 known COVID-19 cases

Eleven new cases and the death of a coronavirus patient were reported Monday afternoon by Niagara County officials, as that county's total number of known COVID-19 positive tests increased to 205 people.

Twenty patients were hospitalized as of Monday's update, while 113 people were isolating at home. Sixty-seven people in Niagara County who tested positive have since recovered.

The latest person to die as the result of the virus, identified only as a 66-year-old male with an underlying health condition, is the fifth recorded fatality in Niagara County since the COVID-19 outbreak began.

"Of course, our prayers are with the family and the loved ones of this individual, as they have been all along with those that are affected by COVID-19," said Niagara County Legislature Chair Becky Wydysh during her daily televised briefing. "These are not announcements, certainly, that we like to have to make. This is a difficult time for those families as they struggle through, especially with visitation and funeral services being so drastically different from what they normally would be."

In all, 896 people have been tested in Niagara County. But Public Health Director Daniel Stapleton says acquiring additional test kits has remained a challenge. He pointed out that about six weeks ago, he placed an order for 1,500 kits. From that order, he has received only about 100 to date.

"Those hundred are going specifically for the first responders, healthcare workers, pregnant women, people that are most risk for that," he said. "So we're doing those. We're doing drive-though sampling activities in order to have the first responders - police, fire, EMTs, coroners - having them be able to make sure that they are diagnosed if they have any symptoms."

The City of Niagara Falls, expectedly, leads the number of positive test results with 52 known cases. The Town of Wheatfield is second overall with 36 known diagnoses, while North Tonawanda has 23 recorded cases.

Michael Mroziak is an experienced, award-winning reporter whose career includes work in broadcast and print media. When he joined the WBFO news staff in April 2015, it was a return to both the radio station and to Horizons Plaza.
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