Albany County reports 65 new cases
Vaccine rollout targets younger demographics in effort to stop spread
Pre-kindergarten students from Sara Patterson’s program blow out candles on a 25th anniversary cake at Washington Irving Education Center in Schenectady in April 1991.
As Albany County continues its vaccination rollout, which has resulted in nearly 42 percent of residents receiving at least vaccine dose, new daily cases continue to hover in the 40 to 60 range, with 65 new COVID-19 cases reported overnight.
The increase, county officials said, is likely due to younger demographics transmitting the virus, more people being lax with precautions and stronger variants of the virus circulating. There were 52 new cases on Wednesday and 45 on Tuesday.
Between Feb. 12 and April 6, the number of people in their 20s who were infected with COVID-19 increased 23.5 percent, County Executive Dan Mccoy said.
During that same time frame, infections among those in their 50s grew by 13 percent, Mccoy said.
“We need to get our younger people vaccinated so we can stop the spread and get the situation under control ahead of the summer,” Mccoy said.
The county is hosting its first high school vaccination pod on Saturday at Bethlehem High School. Sixteen-year-olds were made eligible for the vaccine this week in New York state, but they can only receive the Pfizer vaccine and must have permission from a parent or legal guardian to get vaccinated.
Communities of color are still disproportionately unvaccinated. State data shows that Black people make up 7.7 percent of those with at least one vaccine dose in the county, despite Black residents making up around 14 percent of the county’s population. Similar disproportionate vaccine rates hold true for Latinos, state data shows.
There were five new people hospitalized with COVID-19 overnight, bringing the total number to 26, Mccoy said. Seven of those people are in the intensive care unit, up from six on Wednesday.