Late reporting shows 7 more coronavirus deaths
Albany County’s Mccoy says 3 December cases were at congregate settings
Albany County continued its worrisome January death toll from coronavirus, with the addition of seven more deaths recorded on Saturday, said County Executive Dan Mccoy. But those seven deaths didn’t occur overnight, Mccoy said.
“There was a reporting delay of four deaths and we learned the other three people had passed away in mid-december,” Mccoy said in a statement. “I am looking into why the December deaths were just reported and they all lived in congregate settings.”
Those seven deaths include a woman in her 60s; a woman in her 70s; two women and one man in their 80s; and a woman and a man in their 90s. The county has now seen 272 people die from COVID -19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
The issue with the county’s death reports follows a pair of incidents involving congregate settings. The first occurred at St. Joseph of Carondelet in Latham, when in December nine nuns died in just over a month, but five of those deaths weren’t immediately reported to the Albany County Department of Health, according to Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen. The second happened on Jan. 6 when Mccoy expressed frustration that the county was only then finding out about four deaths that occurred at a nursing home between Dec. 12 and Jan. 3.
“You’d hope after 10 months, we’d have the system down pat. You would think that we would have the nursing homes reporting to us,” Mccoy said at the Jan. 6 briefing.
There were 257 new virus cases overnight, Mccoy said in Saturday morning ’s briefing, with 200 not having a clear source of infection. Fifteen more people were hospitalized, bringing that total to 167.
Statewide
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Saturday said another case of the UK variant was identified in Tompkins County. To date, there are 17 known cases of the variant in the state, a number of them in Saratoga County.
There were 157 COVID-19 deaths in the state Friday and the positivity rate is 5.77 percent, his office said.
Rensselaer County reported one death and 117 new cases.
Exposure advisory
Schenectady County Public Health Services confirmed an employee who later tested positive for COVID -19, worked at Tops American Grill in Rotterdam from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 9 and 10, and from 8 a.m. to noon Jan.
11. The agency is working to identify and quarantine close contacts of the worker. Although the agency believes there is a low risk of exposure, members of the public who dined at Tops during those times should monitor themselves for symptoms of COVID-19 for 14 days from that date and consider getting tested. If symptoms do develop, stay home and call your doctor, and SCPHS at 518-3862824 option 2, for guidance.