Mccoy pivots: no shutdown
County schools except Albany, Bethlehem to open doors; Region’s ICU beds filling up
County Executive Dan McCoy walked back his statement from earlier in the weekend that urged schools to go remote, as the Capital Region Sunday continued to be one of the region’s most impacted by the COVID -19 surge in New York.
In a Saturday morning news conference Mccoy said county officials would be talking to school superintendents about how in-person school should switch to remote learning this week as the county saw more than 300 cases a day for the first time in the pandemic. By Saturday evening, however, Mccoy had softened his message.
“Albany County cannot and is not shutting down local schools, and there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to this kind of decision,” Mccoy said in a statement released
Saturday evening. “There are unique circumstances that exist within each school district, and I’m confident superintendents will use their best discretion to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of their students, families, faculty and staff.”
County officials met with school superintendents later Saturday to discuss whether schools should close. On Sunday, a number of county school superintendents put out statements affirming they would be resuming in-person learning as normal. Only Albany and Bethlehem schools switched to remote learning in Albany County for this week. Many other school districts in surrounding counties, however, had previously decided to delay in-person learning after the holiday break.
Mccoy ’s initial recommendation for schools to go remote was prompted by 300 new overnight cases of COVID -19 Saturday (following Friday ’s record-breaking 346 overnight cases) and a record number of
hospitalizations — 133. Hospitalizations hit another high Sunday, at 142, while daily cases dropped down into the 200s.
But compared to other regions statewide, the Capital Region hit a troubling metric Sunday — the lowest percentage of intensive care unit beds available, at just 17 percent, the state reported.
As county executive, Mccoy does not have the power to shut schools down — only the state can do so — but he said Satur
day morning that “alarmingly, we’re seeing more and more kids that have COVID -19,” so he hoped school superintendents in the county heed the data and take precaution by switching to remote learning or postponing the start of classes.
However, with his later statement encouraging school administration to follow their instincts, he also encouraged parents “to use the recently released guidance from the CDC on making the decision on in-person learning, and to utilize the remote learning option to the extent that’s feasible.”
Bethlehem Central School District and Albany city schools heeded McCoy’s initial plea, both announcing Saturday that they would be moving to remote learning until Monday, Jan. 11. Albany students in grades 7-12 had already been remote this school year, with sixth graders following suit in December. Bethlehem students in grades 6-12 had already been remote since mid-december.
“Albany County school superintendents met with representatives from the county and Albany County Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen on
Saturday. During that meeting, it was made clear that all available data indicate that the rate of virus transmission in schools is low, and therefore, it is safe to reopen,” Marie Wiles, superintendent of Guilderland Central School District, wrote in a letter to parents.
She continued, “Last spring, we saw the effects of closing schools for all in-person learning. So far this year, we have seen that schools can open safely amid this pandemic.”
But on Sunday evening, Whalen’s office flatly disputed Wiles’ assertion: “Any representation that there was a specific recommendation made or that it was said that school opening was ‘safe’ is simply not true, and does not convey the complexity of the discussion or the many considerations laid out,” Whalen said in a statement.
Cohoes interim Superintendent Peggy O’shea said in a note to the community, “Unless staffing shortages require allremote learning or there is evidence of broader virus transmission in schools, we will remain open for in-person learning.”
Meanwhile, Albany County lost two more residents to COVID -19 since Saturday — a man in his 50s and a woman in her 70s.
The county ’s overnight cases saw a slight reprieve Sunday, down to 222 new positive cases, with a total of 1,844 active cases in the county. The five-day average for new daily positives also decreased from 271 to 267.4.
Of the county ’s new COVID -19 cases, 182 did not have a clear source of infection. Thirty-five had contact with other individuals who had COVID -19, and five were health care workers or residents of congregate settings.
There was also a record-breaking 24 patients in the intensive care unit Sunday, with two new additions overnight.
“This comes just three
days after we recorded our deadliest month since the outbreak began,” Mccoy said in a news release. “This is clearly having an impact on our hospital capacity. ... Compared to other regions in the state, these are nearly the lowest rates anywhere and below the state averages.”
Mccoy and Whalen warned Saturday that cases will likely continue to top 300 through the first few weeks of January, given the holiday season’s expected effect on COVID -19 spread in households and the community at large — especially with parties the county knows occurred on New Year’s Eve.
“So what can we do, what should we do? And the answer is: stay home. Stay at home if it is at all possible for you to do this,” Whalen said. “We have to now put ourselves on individual responsibility for shutdown, and to the extent possible, that is the way we can currently flatten the curve before we have widespread availability of the vaccine.”