Paul Kirby reports in the Daily Freeman that Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan said Aug. 26 that he is worried about the county’s rising numbers of COVID-19 active cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. “We are seeing … all of the data continue to trend upward in an increasingly alarming manner,” Ryan said during an afternoon briefing on Facebook. “… The risk of COVID, each day, in Ulster County continues to grow.” Greene, Columbia, and Rensselaer counties have all reported recent COVID-19 deaths, while Ulster County has reported six in the past nine days. The highly transmissible delta variant of COVID has been spreading throughout the U.S. Ryan is focused on getting more people vaccinated, with the county planning to reopen its former vaccination hub in the former Best Buy space at Hudson Valley Mall in the town of Ulster to administer booster shots. “Our ability to offer vaccines safely and quickly was an essential part of why Ulster County became a leader in vaccination rates,” Ryan said in a statement Aug. 26. “As we enter the next phase of vaccinations, I am confident that we will again be able to replicate our previous success.” In Ulster County, 61.6 percent of the population is fully vaccinated as of Aug. 26. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.