Officials urge 20-29 age group to take pandemic seriously
ALBANY, N.Y. » Albany County Executive Dan McCoy confirmed an additional 22 cases of COVID-19 in the county, during his Friday morning press conference.
Among the 22 new cases, four were attributed to those attending or within the same group of people who attended the Fourth of July weekend party on Hudson Avenue in Albany.
The total of that group testing positive now stands at 37 people who were either at the party or in contact with someone who attended. McCoy reiterated the need for those party-goers to call the Albany County Department of Health at (518) 447- 4640 to get expedited testing.
McCoy noted the additional new cases encompassed five involving healthcare workers, one person who traveled out of state, eight people with close contact to those infected, and two no traceable transmission yet.
The county executive voiced his concern and alarm at the trend in rising cases, especially the 20 to 29 group, which has seen the most positive cases in the county at 432.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow knowing how much progress we had made as a county and a region, only to see our metrics start moving in the opposite direction. Two weeks ago, our five-day average for new daily positives was 5.8, and it’s now 18.6,” McCoy said, noting that active cases have risen from 49 to 110 since July 10.
“We knew that as we opened up there would be spikes in new positive cases, but now we’re also seeing upticks in hospitalizations and the first new deaths in weeks. What happens going forward will ultimately be decided by the actions of individuals and businesses. If we continue down this path, the possibility that we will have to roll back the reopening process is real,” McCoy added.
Albany County Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen detailed how there are now multiple contacts associated with cases, as some people have begun behaving as they did prior to the pandemic.
“What we’re seeing from the example of the Hudson Avenue party is how we can get from a small number of cases, exponential growth,” Whalen said.
“We see that people that were initially at the party were affected, but as we start to get more cases we start to see that some more tie back to people that were at the party,” Whalen noted.
Whalen implored that 20 to 29 age group to be more responsible and cognizant of their actions.
“We have seen evidence where people that were young and had relatively mild or asymptomatic infections have infected those around them that are more vulnerable to the infection who have needed hospitalization,” Whalen explained.
“So this is serious, this is something that is very important for our younger population to realize that your actions matter. What you’re doing on a daily basis can affect the health of your family, your friends, your loved ones,” Whalen added on the consequences of people acting irresponsibly.
Overall, according to McCoy, there have been 2,190 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Albany County as of Friday. Additionally, the number of people under mandatory quarantine have jumped from 631 Thursday to 844 Friday. The five- day average for new daily positive cases is up to 18.6 from 14.4 Thursday.
As the county executive mentioned there are currently 110 active cases, up from 91 Thursday. Thus far, 6,725 people have completed quarantine, while 2,080 of them have tested positive and recovered, an increase of three
Six people remain hospitalized and the hospitalization rate has risen to 0.28% from 0.27% Thursday. There are now no patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). There were no new deaths to report and the county’s death toll remains at 124 since cases began being tracked back in March.