McCoy: We need more test kits
ALBANY, N.Y. » Albany County is now facing a problem seen across much of the United States, a lack of COVID-19 test kits.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy and Albany County Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen implored President Trump and the federal government to send them more test kits and medical supplies.
“There’s been a problem, we’re running out of tests. So, as you know, Albany Med has stopped doing the drive thru tents, St. Peter’s Health has done the same thing because we need more, we need more test kits, we need more supplies,” McCoy said on the decline of test kits.
According to McCoy, as of Thursday morning, 1,019 people had been tested in Albany County, the third-highest outside of New
York City. During the Friday morning joint press conference, McCoy added the number of positive cases has risen to 70, with 283 people in mandatory quarantine and 498 in precautionary quarantine.
Six have required hospitalization, Whalen confirmed.
According to Whalen, the cases range in age from three to 90. Whalen spoke to the issue of the lack of
test as well.
“The development around the lack of availability of test kits is problematic. This gives us a very difficult task of seeing how this is unfolding in our community,” Whalen stated.
“And if we look to other communities that have had similar outbreaks, we know that we are only at the start. So we have a couple of early data points that the cases are rising in the community and if we do not have the availability of tests, those data points dry up,” Whalen explained.
McCoy also asked people with an over-abundance of supplies to consider donating them to health care professionals on the front line.
“The people that have stocked up on masks and gowns and everything like that, please give them to the hospitals or get them down to us and we’ll get them out to the people that need them. They’re running short at hospitals. They’re running short, not just around Albany County but around the state of New York,” McCoy explained.
“I commend the Governor on trying to get stuff
like this, the N- 95 masks, the Clorox wipes, the gloves, the test kits, all this stuff, please, Mr. President, please get this stuff to us quicker. We need it because the only way we’re going to stop this is by having the right tools to fight it. And without the right tools, it’s going to be harder,” McCoy added on the need for more supplies.
Whalen warned that people should not have a false sense of security if the numbers of positive cases decrease, given that would likely be a byproduct of the lack of testing.
“What I do not want to happen is for the public to get a false sense of security from this. Our inability to diagnose more cases does not mean that there are not more cases,” Whalen stressed.
Both Whalen and McCoy emphasized the need for people to heed guidance on social distancing.
“To the parents with young kids, please take this serious. Stop gathering, stop trying to go out, stop going to playgrounds to play basketball, stop going to the swings,” McCoy said.
“What you do today is going to inf luence what happens here in five days, in six days, in two weeks. It is an individual mandate on everyone in the community to take this very seriously,” Whalen remarked.
“We look at the areas that have been hard hit by this and we look at happens we people don’t take it seriously and the effects can be catastrophic in terms of overwhelming a health care system. We are in a very critical time right now where we can make a difference if people do as they’re advised,” Whalen