Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Columbia County Department of Health on February 3, reported four new COVID-related deaths. The four people were residents of nursing homes, Columbia County Department of Health Director Jack Mabb said. Three of the four died in the nursing home. The fourth died in hospital. “We have one nurse whose job it is to periodically look at the obituaries because what we don’t find out is if someone dies with COVID in a nursing home, we may not find that out,” Mabb said. The four deaths occurred over the past couple of weeks. The youngest of the four was 78 years old and all four had comorbidities, Mabb said. They were all vaccinated, but Mabb did not know if they had received a booster shot. Nursing homes and assisted care facilities are not required to report COVID-related deaths to the county department of health, Mabb said. Three of the deceased had been residents at Ghent Rehabilitation and Nursing Center and the fourth was a resident at Livingston Hills Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Mabb said. The latest deaths bring the total in Columbia County to 133 since the beginning of the pandemic, with 18 deaths reported since the beginning of this year. “When you look at individual deaths, you’ve got seniors in a nursing home that are very vulnerable,” Mabb said. “It may not be the primary cause of death but it really contributes to it....We seem to have more deaths lately, maybe it’s the wintertime and other complicating things. The flu could be making its rounds, but some of these folks don’t have a chance.” Mabb said the county had 41 new positive cases as of February 4. At this time in January, the number of new daily cases was in the triple digits. “I think for the month of February, we may stay around 30 to 40 cases a day,” Mabb said. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.