Signs suggest that the post-holiday COVID surge may be subsiding.

The number of active cases in Orange County, as reported on Jan 14, was 14,000. That’s a drop of 2,300 cases from the previous week. Ulster County didn’t fare quite as well, reporting 6,985 cases at the end of last week, an increase of more than 2,000 over the same time period.

But overall, the news is encouraging. New York State recorded about 48,000 Coronavirus cases on Friday, a nearly 47 percent drop from the roughly 90,000 cases reported a week earlier.

The positive signs are not a matter of pure luck. Preventive measures are in place everywhere. Spectators are restricted at local athletic events, municipal meetings, for the most part, have been moved back to virtual and efforts have been made to increase testing, through distribution of more at-home testing kits and by adding locations of testing sites. Neither effort has been easy. Most municipalities went through their supply in a matter of hours - the Town of Newburgh handed out their allotment of home testing kits in 20 minutes - and kits distributed last week by Orange County in the Towns of Wallkill and New Windsor have been recalled by the manufacturer from distribution in the U.S. Legislators like Senator James Skoufis and Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson, meanwhile are pushing the state to open more testing sites.

But the news is otherwise encouraging.

“We are turning the corner on the winter surge, but we’re not through this yet,” Governor Hochul said in a statement over the weekend to announce the latest numbers.

In the meantime, we should stay the course by following the recommendations of professionals: keep getting vaccinated, getting the booster dose, getting our children vaccinated, and wearing masks in indoor public places. And if you don’t have an at-home test kit yet, get one the next time they become available in your neighborhood.

We are making progress.