Franklin County seeks volunteer contact tracers, help with vaccine distribution; COVID-19 breaks out at 2 nursing homes in St. Lawrence County

Franklin County Public Health is looking for volunteers to help with the contact tracing process. Meanwhile, COVID-19 is reportedly breaking out in two St. Lawrence County nursing homes and may be responsible for some recent deaths.

Contact tracers identify people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus and collect information about the contact. They also let people know they may have been exposed to the virus and help them get testing.

Franklin County Public Health also seeks volunteers to help distribute the COVID-19 vaccine, once it’s available.

For both contact tracing and future vaccine distribution, the department needs volunteers who can consistently dedicate at least half a day of time, most days of the week, to be called in as needed.

Volunteers do not have to be a health care provider, but clinical or public health experience is preferred.

Volunteer can sign up online at https://apps.health.ny.gov/pub/servny/ .

In neighboring St. Lawrence County, COVID-19 has reportedly been going through nursing homes in Ogdensburg and Canton. At United Helpers Ogdensburg nursing home, there have been six deaths since Thanksgiving, and nearly half the residents have the coronavirus, according to WWNY-tv Channel 7, Watertown.

The station says people at the Ogdensburg nursing home have been getting daily phone messages, such as this one on Sunday: “There have been 39 new residents testing positive for COVID-19 since the last update. Two COVID-positive residents were hospitalized. Yesterday, one COVID-positive resident died.”

WWNY also reports a COVID-19 outbreak at United Helpers Canton Rehabilitation and Senior Care in Canton, in the skilled nursing facility only and not the assisted living section.

Three residents and two staffers tested positive over the weekend of Nov. 28. Residents who have tested positive are in isolation, and the staff members are quarantined at home.

St. Lawrence County saw 159 new cases of COVID-19 between Nov. 26 and 30. Eleven people in the county had died of the illness as of Nov. 30, and the county on that day reported over 200 active cases.