Albany County again sees record cases

ALBANY, N.Y. » Albany County again saw a new record-high in confirmed positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations on Wednesday. Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy made the startling announcement during his press briefing.

Additionally, McCoy noted the COVID-19 attributed death of a man in his 90s, bringing the confirmed county death toll to 161 since March.

Encompassed within the 167 new cases are 148 who either would not or could not provide a clear source of infection, 15 who had close contact with positive cases, three who are healthcare workers or residents of congregate settings, and one person who traveled out of state.

The county currently has 904 active cases. There are also 2,181 people under mandatory quarantine.

The 17 new hospitalizations overnight brought the record-high of county residents hospitalized to 84. Among those 84, 12 patients are in the ICU. The hospitalization rate is now 1.39%.

“Another day goes by and sadly more records are set here in Albany County. This is the second consecutive day we’ve reported the highest

number of new cases of COVID-19 in one day, and we once again now have the highest number of residents currently hospitalized,” McCoy stated on the seemingly daily shattering of record cases and hospitalizations.

“To put that into perspective, on November 20 we had a record number of residents hospitalized at 45. We’ve now nearly doubled that amount,” McCoy further illustrated on the jump in those being admitted to hospitals.

Conversely, McCoy thanked those in the community who continue to follow the correct public health measures in attempting to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“For those who are following the health guidelines, I want to thank you. And for those who aren’t, I urge you to consider the greater good of the community. If our numbers continue to move in the wrong direction, more people will

get sick and we will [ be] placed in a micro- cluster zone by the state and businesses will be forced to shut down,” McCoy added.

On the topic of microcluster zones, Deputy Albany County Executive Dan Lynch also provided the latest on that front.

“There’s been a variation and some change of the metrics that are going to be used to determine the entry into a yellow, orange or red cluster zone,” Lynch said.

“Earlier this week the Governor [Andrew Cuomo] through his five-point strategy has added new metrics to be folded into the existing and we’re still waiting for guidance on what that actually means and how they will become a part of the overall evaluation,” Lynch continued on awaiting word on what state metrics coupled with case numbers and hospitalizations will have on the area.

Lynch went on to note some of those data points include regular hospital bed capacity, ICU bed capacity, staffing, and also death rate.

“From all accounts, it ap

pears from a capacity level the hospitals have good capacity in both regular hospital beds and ICU beds,” Lynch remarked regarding the latest conference call Wednesday afternoon with Dr. Fred Venditti of Albany

Medical Center.

Lynch also noted that according to Venditti, the eight Capital Region hospitals appear to be ready in the event that cases reach a surge level.