The County update this afternoon took place outside the Agency and had a focus on local businesses.

Broome County had a 5th death from COVID-19 over this weekend it was a male in their 80s at Lourdes Hospital.

Including deaths, we have 72 positive cases. 13 are hospitalized, 45 are at home, and 9 have recovered.

551 have been tested, with 458 negative, and 21 pending.

As for tests, some good news in the County.
Broome County was finally able to secure over 4000 of the 6000 tests they had ordered.

Plus, the County announced a response, recovery, and resiliency taskforce.

The Agency and Chamber of Commerce are examining the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and finding ways for businesses to recover from it.

Stacey Duncan, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, has reached out to over 300 businesses to find out how they are doing and putting programs into action to help keep businesses open and persevere through this tough time.

Duncan said "Especially our small businesses... As they say, they are the backbone of our community... They are places where people convene... And get together at restaurants... Our service industries... We want to make sure we can keep them afloat... As well our larger businesses and major employers in our community provide such a need and such an asset so anything we can do to keep them going during this time... We are going to avail every resource that we have at this time..."

The task force is asking businesses to communicate their changing needs to them so that they can best come up with strategies to help as many businesses that they can.