Majority of Last Week’s COVID Cases Were in Fully Vaccinated People; Total Number of Positive Cases Represent 0.2 Percent of Tompkins County Resident

TOMPKINS COUNTY, NY -- The Tompkins County Health department published data on Thursday regarding cases of COVID-19 by vaccination status.

Between May 1st and July 31st, 27 percent of COVID cases detected in Tompkins County were in fully vaccinated people. That’s 84 reported cases out of a total of 315 known cases for those 3 months.

The Health Department said that the total number of positive cases represents just 0.2 percent of the fully vaccinated population in Tompkins County, but the majority of the recent jump in cases are in fully vaccinated people. 

Of the COVID-19 cases tested in the week starting on July 25th,  66 percent of them 77 new positive cases were in fully vaccinated people.

The County Health department is attributing the jump in cases to domestic travel and indoor gatherings, but has not ruled out the role that the Delta Variant may have played in the spike in cases.

Last week, The Health Department sent COVID-19 tests to Cornell University to sequence them. The Health Department has not released a determination on the variants' prevalence in Tompkins County. 

The Health Department is providing a community update this evening on the prevalence of the virus in Tompkins County and vaccination progress. 

Presenting the update will be County Medical Director Dr. William Klepack, Cayuga Health System CEO Dr. Martine Stallone, Interim County Administrator Lisa Holmes, and head of the Emergency Operations Center, Amie Hendrix. The event will be moderated by Tompkins County Legislator Shawn Black.

The Health Department’s Director, Frank Kruppa, is not set to speak at Thursday’s virtual COVID update. The Department wrote in an email sent to WRFI that Kruppa is on vacation.

The event will be live on the Tompkins County YouTube Channel at 4:30pm.