County breaks COVID record
Hospitalizations surge as N.Y. hits highest infection rate since May — 4.27%
Albany County set a new record for hospitalizations related to COVID -19, with 67 people hospitalized due to the disease Sunday.
That was up from 61 on Saturday and from the 43 reported on Friday. Before this past weekend, the previous record for hospitalizations in Albany County was 45 set on Nov. 20.
The rise in hospitalizations coincides with an overall increase in cases locally and statewide.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo reported Sunday the highest statewide infection rate seen since May, at 4.27 percent of 157,000 tests conducted.
There were also 55 deaths statewide and 3372 hospitalizations from COVID -19.
“We’re in the holiday season, and that has increased social activity, and that means an increased infection rate. That is where we are and that is what we’re going to see,” Cuomo said.
Rensselaer County announced Sunday that a fourth resident of the Eddy Heritage House nursing facility in Troy died after an outbreak there. The victim was a 102-year-old woman. Three other deaths at the Troy nursing home, which is run by St. Peter’s Health Partners, had been announced since Friday.
On Sunday, Albany County Executive Daniel P. Mccoy also reported a COVID -19 death from a residential health care setting.
The man who died was in his 90s and a resident of a congregate setting; he did not live in the county’s Shaker Place Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Mccoy said. The county did not say what adult care or nursing facility the person lived in.
On Saturday, Mccoy had reported that six people died overnight from coronavirus. In Albany County, the last
time six people died in a single day from COVID -19 was May 4, another figure underlying the significant resurgence here.
There have now been 158 deaths in Albany County since the outbreak began.
On Saturday, Albany County had reported 67 new positive cases overnight, which rose to 90 more on Sunday.
Still, the number of new cases the past two days decreased from earlier in the week: As of Sunday, the five-day average for new daily positives had decreased to 101.2 from 103.4.
That decrease, however, may be a result of fewer testing sites being open due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Health officials have worried about the impact that holiday travel and large family gatherings will have on the infection rate, which could be reflected in data released this coming week.
Among the 90 new positive cases reported on Sunday, 18 had close contact with positive cases, 71 did not have an immediately clear source of infection and one is a health care worker or resident of a congregate setting, Mccoy said, again emphasizing the latter person is not from Shaker Place, a countyrun nursing home.
County Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen said on Saturday that there is a concern about “the capacity of our hospitals to be able to take care of people.”
“We see incidences of surge capacity affecting patient care in other parts of the country,” Whalen said. “We do not want that to happen here in Albany County.”
According to the most recent New York state data, as of Saturday, the share of people testing positive for coronavirus in Albany County over a seven-day average, which is the metric being used to determine microcluster zones, has topped 3 percent for the last seven days.
Microcluster zones could be as small as a ZIP code, census tract or neighborhood.
And to determine what will be designated as a microcluster, the state can also look at average daily cases, cases per 100,000 residents and hospital admission trends.
Cuomo emphasized Sunday that the country and the world are heading into a new winter phase of rising COVID -19 cases. He said that this “surge-upon-surge” period, as the CDC’S Dr. Anthony Fauci called it in a recent interview, will likely last at least weeks into the New Year.
Although people are understandably hopeful for a vaccine in the near future based on recent news of successful clinical trials, Cuomo said, the reality is that experts agree it will take months before a vaccine is available to most of the public.
“So that’s where we are. And we are spending this weekend finishing leftover turkey and talking to health officials and local governments about a winter plan, a next phase plan,” Cuomo said. He said that he will be hosting another conference call Monday with reporters to discuss the potential next phase plan in more detail.