MASK IMPORTANCE
Health commissioner reiterates significance of face coverings
ALBANY, N.Y. » Albany County Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen reemphasized the importance of residents to wear masks in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Whalen referenced the science- based evidence that masks serve as a vital instrument to help keep the virus infection rate down.
“Our numbers are down and I would say that I believe this is a reflection of adaptation of appropriate infection control practices in New York State,” she said. “As we’ve spoken about there’s a lot going on these two weeks and important considerations and decisions are being made about going back to school etc.
“We do not live in a risk free environment and it’s very important when we have these discussions to know that all of our discussions have to be based on risk.”
To that end, Whalen reiterated the need to wear masks to help in that effort.
“I respectfully will argue wearing masks is appropriate. It is one of the cornerstones to the strategies going forward that will help keep the infection rate low in New York State and across the country,” Whalen stated. “These are strategies that are adapted in countries where not just the United States but other people that have managed to reopen the economy and one of the most important things is to wear
masks because this lowers the infection rate.
“This is something that I say based on evidence.”
Touching more on schools, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy was joined by Gail Darrigo, who serves as the Clinical Director of the Children with Special Needs and Mental Health Divisions of Albany County’s Department for Children, Youth and Families.
“While the delivery of some Albany County programs and services changed to adapt to the health and safety regulations during the pandemic, our passionate workforce never slowed down on behalf of residents” McCoy said. That is certainly true for our Department for Children, Youth and Families who support children with special needs and others, especially at a time when they are increasingly falling behind with schools being closed.”
“Our Early Intervention Program has remained open and our Evaluation Team has continued doing assessments remotely, while our pre-school center based programs have been open since July 13 providing speech and physical therapies to 75 kids between the ages of 3 and 5” he added. “These are the types of initiatives that improve lives and I’m proud to support. And I strongly encourage women and teen girls to utilize our Single Point of Entry, which can make it easy to find help with health care, addiction support, counseling and more.”
Darrigo discussed how Albany County’s Early Intervention Program serves 397 infants to three-yearolds, helping them get connected with services that they qualify for, including speech, occupational and physical therapies; social work and special education. Most of these services have been provided via Skype or Zoom, save a small percentage of those that continued in-person meetings.
The county’s Evaluation Team has conducted 143 different assessments this year, 49 of which have happened since May.
In breaking down the latest numbers regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the County Executive confirmed six new positive cases Thursday.
Encompassed within the new cases are one healthcare worker or those who live in congregate settings, four with close contacts to positive cases and one who did not have a clear source of transmission.
There have been 2,328 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Albany County to date. Additionally, the number of people under mandatory quarantine has dropped to 557. The five- day average for new daily positives has decreased to 7.8. Currently, there are 42 active cases. Thus far, 7,728 people have completed quarantine.
Of those who completed quarantine, 2,286 of them had tested positive and recovered, an increase of one.
There was one new hospitalization overnight and there are now three people hospitalized The hospitalization rate has ticked up to 0.12% from 0.08%.