Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge reports for Columbia-Greene Media that Columbia County now has ten people in the hospital with COVID-19, the highest number since March. “It’s very worrisome,” Columbia County Department of Health Director Jack Mabb said. “The difference is before when we had our hospitalizations they were mostly elderly people with a lot of comorbidities, [but] one of the people that is on a vent right now is under 40. It’s worrisome for us seeing them rise like this.” Two of those hospitalized are on ventilators, and both are unvaccinated. “You see what’s going on in other states, I think that New York will be different, Columbia County will be different,” Mabb said. “We have a very high percentage of people who are vaccinated. I think our numbers are probably going to stay up and we’re going to stay in the red, and these hospitalizations will continue to happen, but we won’t go the way like other states have gone.” The new, highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus, is the reason for so many more new cases. “Some of the preliminary science on the delta variant suggests that all it may take is passing by an infected individual to become infected, due to the viral load present in nasal passages,” county Department of Health Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Chuck Kaiser said in a statement. “It’s no longer a matter of 10 minutes of exposure within six feet.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.