Nuns die from COVID
Eight elderly sisters tested positive in December; 2 died a day later./
Two residents of St. Louise House, a residence for nuns at 96 Menand Road, died of COVID -19 last month.
Eight elderly sisters tested positive for the virus in December, according to Belinda Davis, communications director of Daughters of Charity. Two of them died — a 98-year-old on Dec. 28, and an 86-year-old the following day.
The remaining six St. Louise House residents were tested twice more in late December and the results were negative. No other sisters have tested positive for COVID -19 since, though Davis said residents aren’t tested unless they have symptoms of COVID -19 or had left the building.
There were also two other nuns who died at St. Louise House earlier in December, as well as another in October, but Davis did not attribute those three deaths to COVID -19.
It is the second COVID -19 outbreak known at a Capital Region nuns’ residence within the last month.
County Executive Dan Mccoy said on Wednesday that the county learned of four deaths that occurred at a nursing home between Dec. 12 and Jan. 3. The county said none of those previously unreported deaths occurred at St. Louise House.
St. Joseph’s Provincial House on Watervliet- Shaker Road has lost nine nuns to coronavirus. Albany County health officials did not know about five of the deaths until the Times Union inquired about an increasing number of obituaries that were being published about nuns who lived there.
COVID-19 deaths increase at fast rate
The Capital Region crossed another grim milestone on Thursday, as five more COVID -19 deaths among residents brought the region’s known death toll from the disease past the 600-mark.
The latest victims of the pandemic were confirmed by local officials Thursday: a
Schenectady County man and woman in their 90s; an Albany County man in his 90s; a 97-year-old Troy woman; and a Greene County resident. Albany County saw one more death and 283 new coronavirus cases overnight.
Albany County accounts for roughly 40 percent of the at least 601 deaths that have occurred.
Unfortunately, deaths from the virus are occur
ring at their fastest clip yet.
It took just 15 days for the region to go from 500 to 600 deaths, compared to 26 days for the area to go from 400 to 500 deaths (the post-thanksgiving surge) and more than five months to go from 300 to 400 deaths (the summer lull). Even in the early days of the pandemic, when nursing homes were hit hard by the virus, it took approximately one month each to cross the 100 and 200 mark.
The quickening pace
comes as a Saratoga Springs jewelry store employee was just identified as having the state’s first known case of the more-contagious B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom and has led to mass shutdowns there.
Schenectady County seeks residents 75 and up for next round of vaccinations
Schenectady County is enlisting local organiza
tions to help identify people 75 years and older who could be eligible to receive vaccines when a new round of inoculations begin.
“We’re starting to prepare for the logistics of going into (phase) 1B,” said Schenectady County Manager Rory Fluman on Thursday of the county ’s efforts to vaccinate the next round of older people after the initial roll out of inoculations were given in skilled nursing facilities.
It is the first outward sign that a local govern
ment in the Capital Region is preparing to vaccinate elderly residents outside of nursing homes.
A letter sent by the county Department of Senior & Long Term Care Services indicated the next round could start as soon as the second week of January, though Fluman said Thursday that county officials are awaiting word from the state Health Department and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office on when they can officially start.
The county ’s letter asks
operators of senior residences, assisted living facilities, and other types of “community-based service providers responding on behalf of your residents” for help compiling the names of vaccine candidates. The county also appears to have sent the letter to people known to be 75 and older.