(In our first installment last week, we just about reached the end of 2020, with vaccines about to release and 4000 cases in Steuben. We pick up the story there.)

Year’s end brought an outbreak at Steuben County prison, and many banks returned to drive-through service only. The sheriff’s office calculated that domestic incident calls had increased 29% over the previous year, validating fears that increased isolation, plus increased tension, would lead to more abuse. Food Bank of the Southern Tier served 20% more household requests in ’20 than in ’19. One good result of all this – flu cases went down, thanks to improved hygiene and distancing. Apparently we hadn’t been washing our hands as well as we’d thought we were!
Some people still insisted the whole thing was a hoax, while others had fears of vaccines. But as vaccines became widely available, Americans lined up (with six-foot intervals) in millions. In January Steuben started offering shots to those over 75, in addition to front-line workers.
Steuben County Public Health authorized high-risk winter sports for high schools. County school district administrators unanimously agreed that masks would be required (with medical exemptions), and no indoor spectators will be permitted. Business closures continued, including the venerable Carey’s Groceries in Cohocton. (Some closures were due to owners who had planned to retire deciding not to open up again.) Movie theaters and libraries reopened, with limitations, around the first of March. Corning Community College became a state mass-vaccination site, while pharmacies and County Public Health also continued vaccinations. In April, vaccines became available for all those 18 and over. A special effort reached out to migrant workers.
With some circles still downplaying the risk, or even the existence, of the virus, too many people did not seek medical help until their cases had become very severe. Steuben County Dairy Festival rook place in June, after a one-year absence. But a group of demonstrators demanded that Corning-Painted Post Schools end their mask mandate for students.
By June the dangerous Delta variant of the virus was becoming widespread; many sites again required, or strongly recommended, masks.
People who’d either been vaccinated OR had had the virus gained some degree of immunity, and as those numbers went up, the number of NEW cases went down. In not much more than a month and a half, Steuben had added 3000 cases. Then it took two months to get the next thousand, and almost four months (April 2 to July 29) to get another thousand. Things looked good! But then we had another thousand by September 15. After that, thousand-case blocks built up every two or three weeks until the start of this year, when it looked like all Hell broke loose. We got a thousand cases in three days – two days! – four days – in one month and two days, we added 6000 cases.
Why wasn’t there panic in the streets? In part, I suppose, people were “dulled” by the whole experience, becoming listless and resigned to huge numbers.
Also, this was ANTICIPATED rise, for several reasons. This was “flu season,” when flu-like cases typically rise. There were multiple “gathering holidays” (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s) to breed cases – all still bad, and much of it avoidable, but at least unsurprising.
The delta variant was still giving trouble, but many new cases were of the omicron variant – easier to catch, but normally not so severe. On top of that, case reports shot up immediately when thousands of home test kits were handed out. In time, matters equalized. It took Steuben four weeks to rack up the next thousand. Going from 23,000 to 24,000 took a month and a-half. In March, Hornell held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade in three years. A shopkeeper in Corning told me that some folks were requesting COVID posters from the windows, figuring that they’d be worth money someday.
That might be a little premature. New variants are always possible, long-term effects are unclear, and poor hygiene is still dangerous. Masks and distancing still matter. But we may be on the downward slope at last.

On March 16 two years ago, my wife and I walked from Bath’s Dormann Library to Five Star Bank, completed our errand, and walked back. When we got there the library director was breaking the news that they had just been ordered to close down, that afternoon, and everybody should check out however many books they wanted. I grabbed some nice thick ones, and one last chai smoothie for the road from the library cafe.
Within days most everything was shut down, including the churches and the schools. I think most of us assumed it would be for a few weeks, or at most a few months. I don’t know anyone who dreamed we’d still be struggling with it (happily, at a lower level!) over two years later. I started keeping an ongoing chronicle, strictly of Steuben County COVID news, for future historians. I’m now up to 150 pages.
On March 18 Steuben County reported its first case, and Bath V.A. was soon taking advantage of its bridge across the Conhocton to strictly control access. Allegany County reported its first death on March 30th, Livingston on the 31st. On April 2nd, the first Steuben death was reported. In those early days three nursing homes drove the cases, and the deaths, in Steuben.
Toilet paper shortages prompted Angry Oven Pizza in Bath to offer a free roll with every delivery… while supplies lasted. Disinfectant was in short supply. Masking was urged or mandated, along with distancing, and strict washing regimes. President Trump responded erratically, at first insisting that no one would die, then later treating it as a serious public health crisis, mixed in with disdaining masks, blaming it on China, saying it was all a hoax to make him look bad, saying it would go away like magic, suggesting that we inject people’s lungs with bleach, and being hospitalized himself. Under his administration the “Operation Warp Speed” vaccine-devlopment program forged ahead, but his confused response overall probably killed whatever slim chance he had had in the fall election.
St. James Mercy Center opened its new hospital in the midst of a health crisis. With lower demand, farmers were dumping milk. People put up pictures of Easter eggs in their windows, so that children could spy them from the street. Parks and playgrounds were closed. County offices were closed. Businesses and service groups made or bought masks for free distribution, or turned to making disinfectant. Catholic Charities, Food Bank, and other agencies worked out ways to distribute needed food and clothing with minimal contact. Schools delivered lunches to their children. Hornell schools set up wifi hot spots throughout their district – many public libraries left theirs functioning, and accessible from the parking lots.
Limited reopening began on May 15, but the summer clobbered tourism, retail, and restaurants. The region shed jobs in thousands, and multiple businesses closed for good. But Corning Inc. announced that its Valor glass would be used for the vaccine vials, and Steuben County Fair kept its uninterrupted streak going with a drive-through fair, averaging 300 vehicles a day.
Steuben went over three months without a death, and schools reopened with hybrid arrangements… days on site, plus days on computer. Halloween was pretty quiet, but the November election went smoothly thanks to early voting, absentee ballots, and hygiene discipline at the polling places.
But as restrictions had come down, cases increased, with Steuben reaching 1000 by October 26. Three days later, a case in Almond meant that every municipality in Steuben had been affected. Deaths hit 100 (79 of them in nursing homes) by December 1, and by the 4th we had reached another thousand cases – in just over a month. Eight weeks after that, just as the vaccine was about the become available, we would have jumped from 2000 cases to 5000. By then we would also have 160 deaths.

(Our second installment, next week, will bring us up to date.)

From time to time we’ve been looking back on our lives in the COVID crisis, based on a running summary (now 133 pages) that I’ve been keeping for Steuben County Historical Society. We pick up today with June of 2020.

Steuben County lost about 3800 jobs in May.

Following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, socially-distanced protests took place at multiple locations in our area. Elmira-Corning NAACP held a virtual town hall with the mayors of both cities.

Corning Pride conducted a vehicle parade, but all its other activities were mostly on-line.

It was announced that Corning Inc.’s Valor Glass would be used for the upcoming vaccines. The company said it would add 94 jobs at the Big Flats plant.

In mid-June public pools and playgrounds were allowed to reopen, with restrictions. Summer day camps were allowed to operate, but overnight camps were closed. Bath V.A. Living Center opened the gates for a vehicle parade, so that residents could again see family members, albeit from a distance.

Seven of the eight Southern Tier county executives wrote Governor Cuomo, asking that each county health officer be allowed to set the conditions and procedures for high school graduations.

DMV offices in Corning, Bath and Hornell reopened by appointment. Hospitals in the Arnot and Guthrie systems allowed limited visitation. Arnot Health received ten million dollars in emergency federal aid. On June 22 Steuben County Legislature met in person (with distancing) for the first time in months. Movie theaters were allowed to reopen, with restrictions, at the end of the month.

The Democratic primary had a record number of voters, thanks to over 3000 mail ballots. Nearly all libraries in the five-county system reopened in late June or early July. Hornell Public Library, which is a city government function, had to remain closed, but took advantage of the opportunity to do renovations.

Artemus the Bison (on Rockwell Museum’s exterior Pine Street wall) was fitted with a three-foot by four-foot protective mask. Hornell blasted its fireworks at a higher altitude than usual, so that people would not need to crowd in to see them. The New York State Festival of Balloons in Dansville was cancelled for the year.

Tim Marshall, director of Steuben County Office of Emergency Services, told the Public Safety and Corrections Committee that the recent 91-day operation is the longest time the Center has operated continuously, the previous record being a week during blizzards. On July 7, Steuben County Historical Society reopened Magee House, with limitations. Starting July 9, the state permitted severely-restricted nursing home visitation for the first time since March 13. Corning Community College reduced staff. Hornell announced that the sewers were having problems because of people flushing disinfectant wipes.

On July 20, Steuben County reached 300 reported cases. Wilkins RV in Bath reported much-increased business. “With the new travel restrictions, airlines – all that kind of stuff, they are trying to avoid all that and they really want to get out and do something just together with their family.”

Stay tuned – we’ll be back with more!