Dear Families,

I hope you all are weathering the wind and rain and making the most of the glorious sunny days tucked in between.  Without our daily schedules as they were, I hope you are feeling more connected to the natural elements around us.  It surely feels necessary.    

There has been a lot of movement this week as New York State continues to expand Covid-19 diagnostic and antibody testing.  Unfortunately, we are still awaiting an announcement about the establishment of a drive-thru testing site in Columbia County.  Despite this, however, we’ve seen a small increase in testing locally, especially in our nursing homes.  

Increased access to testing is large part why we’ve seen an increase of positive cases this past week.  We will likely continue to see this number go up as the county increases testing efforts and we get a better picture of the actual spread in our area. 

This past week, Governor Cuomo announced a plan to re-open businesses regionally in New York State.  Some of the factors that will contribute to those decisions are infection rate, hospitalization rate, and hospital capacity.  Despite NYC’s hospitalization rate steadily dropping, Columbia County’s has increased in the past week.  

This is all to say that although NYC is passed the peak of this virus, we may not be and we have to continue to be very diligent in order to slow the spread.    Please wear masks while in public and limit your time out and about in the world.  

A few other resources and points of information I wanted to share:

  • The Roe Jan Food Pantry in Hillsdale is working extra hard to ensure that local vulnerable families have food on the table.  Please consider supporting their efforts


  • We are seeing a severe blood shortage due to the implementation of social distancing and cancellation of blood drives nationally.  If you are a person who is eligible to give blood, please consider doing so at upcoming local blood drive on Friday, May 8that the Taconic Hills High School (73 Route 11A) from 9am – 3pm.

As always, please keep me updated on the health and status of your family and please stay home for 14 days if you are experiencing any signs or symptoms of illness.  And please feel free to reach out if you need support of any kind.

Take good care,

Kara Desiderio
School Nurse
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