Albany County COVID-19 death toll climbs to 117
ALBANY, N.Y. » Albany County’s COVID-19 linked death toll increased to 117. During his daily press brief Thursday, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy confirmed a woman in her 80’s had died overnight.
Additionally, there have been 1,813 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Albany County as of Thursday, an increase of four since Wednesday. Plus, there are 469 people under mandatory quarantine and five people under precautionary quarantine.
Thus far, 5,130 people have completed quarantine, with 1,553 of them having tested positive and recovered.
Presently there are 13 people hospitalized, ticking the hospitalization rate up to 0.71%.
McCoy also commented on the latest reopen efforts.
“The latest guidance from the Governor’s Office allowing restaurants and bars to expand their outdoor dining on land it controls adjacent to their business in Phase 2 without prior approval is a huge win for our residents, our business community and municipal and county governments whose budgets have been devastated over the last nearly three months since the shutdown began,” McCoy remarked.
In addition, McCoy urged more creative steps for businesses as the Capital Region advances toward Phase 3 of the reopen.
“I’m encouraging municipalities to work with businesses and develop plans to utilize sidewalks and even streets for expanded space. These two policies will ensure smaller restaurants can bring in more customers and, in general, will ensure customers and workers can maintain proper social distancing, stay safe and have a greater peace of mind,” McCoy added.
Businesses interested in expanding their outdoor dining space, which are licensed by the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) can do so utilizing contiguous open-air land that it controls via deed, lease, management agreement or any other agreement.
Yet, they also must submit a diagram showing any alterations to the SLA at their email temporaryalterations@sla.ny.gov.
Municipalities choosing to let businesses to expand onto municipal- owned land, can do so through a “Municipal Extension,” and submitting a plan and the two required forms to the SLA. The plan must be completed before any alterations are made utilizing municipal space.
According to McCoy, State Department of Motor Vehicle locations will be able to reopen in Phase 3, which is currently slated for June 17. People should schedule in-person transactions ahead of time.
Plus, recent guidance was made available by the Governor’s Office allowing for garage and yard sales in Phase 2. Those hosting sales cannot allow any more than 10 people in a given space.
Finally, McCoy highlighted that the Small Business Development Center of New York will be hosting two webinars on Phase 3 reopening Friday, June 12. The first focuses on food services at 1 p.m., and the second details personal care services at 3 p.m.