‘TAKE PRECAUTIONS’
Albany County confirms new COVID-19 deaths; record-high hospitalized
"A day after the U.S. recorded the highest number of residents hospitalized from the virus at one time at 100,000, Albany County had a newrecord numberof hospitalizations for the sixth day in a row." — Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy
Albany County saw five new COVID-19 related deaths and a new high-mark for hospitalizations on Thursday. Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy confirmed those developments, as well as another day of new triple- digit cases.
“A day after the U. S. recorded the highest number of residents hospitalized from the virus at one time at 100,000, Albany County had a new record number of hospitalizations for the sixth day in a row. At the same time, I had to report more county residents [died] for the third day in a row, the US had the largest number of people die in a single day on Wednesday,” McCoy remarked after 2,885 Americans lost their lives to the virus on Wednesday.
Among the deaths was a man in his 50s, who wasn’t a resident of a nursing home. The other four were residents of group settings: A man in his 70s; a man and a woman in their 80s; and another woman in her 90s. Since March, 166 confirmed county residents have lost their lives to the virus.
On the new hospitalization high, the county presently has 90 residents admitted. There were 15 new hospitalizations reported overnight, and conversely, nine discharged, for a net increase of six. Plus, 14 patients are in the ICU. The hospitalization rate has reached 1.46%.
Additionally, the county executive announced 137 new positive cases. The county has 910 active cases and 2,239 people under mandatory quarantine. Encompassed within the new cases were 118 who either would not or could not disclose a clear source of infection, 13 who had close contact with other positive cases, and six healthcare workers or residents of congregate settings.
“While this is the worst the pandemic has ever been, shockingly, the CDC is predicting that it will only get worse over the next few months before the vaccine is widely distributed,” McCoy noted on the likely rise in cases throughout the holiday season.
On that vaccine front, Albany County Department of Health Commissioner Dr.
Elizabeth Whalen cautioned that while a vaccine is on the horizon, it will be limited in scope in the near future.
“We are heartened to know that there will be vaccine coming into the state shortly but again this vaccine is not going to be for the general public,” Whalen remarked on the vaccine availability.
“We had a call with state DOH yesterday on how the vaccine will start to be distributed. As we all know, the likely first candidates for the vaccine will be our hospital providers, our front line workers who are working daily with Covid patients, and our skilled nursing home facilities. These are
the highest-risk individuals and this makes sense from the perspective of how to allocate the limited resources that we have,” Whalen explained on how the distribution of the vaccine will be prioritized.
According to a new tool developed by the New York Times, the Surgo Foundation, and Ariadne Labs,
one can plug in your information and calculate an estimate when you might ultimately receive the vaccine. The tool asks you to plug in your age, county, your profession ( health care worker, essential worker, first responder, teacher or none of the above) and if you have any underlying Covid-related health risks.
Plugging in my personal information, based on my “risk profile,” I’m in line behind 268.7 million people in
the U.S., 16 million who are at higher risk in New York and 260,400 others in Albany County.
To see how it works, you can plug in your i nfo at ht tps:// www. ny t i mes. c om/ i nterac - tive/2020/ 12/03/opinion/ covid-19-vaccine-timeline. htm
Along with the vaccine news, Whalen reiterated the need for people to take every precaution necessary to remain healthy and prevent the spread of the virus.
“It’s essential to continue and embrace if you have not so far taken seriously public health measures to start now,” Whalen said.
“If you are waiting to make plans for Christmas thinking things might get better, I urge you not to do that. It’s not going to get better in any likelihood between now and Christmas. It is likely that we will continue to see cases increase and that this will result in increased hospitalizations and unfortu
nately increased deaths in the county,” Whalen continued on the likelihood that the pandemic will get worse before it gets better.
Whalen explained that by sacrificing now, people can ensure being able to celebrate holidays together for many more years into the future.
“What we’re trying to do
is enable people to be sure that they’re going to be able to do this next year,” Whalen explained.
“Every day we’re losing people and we want to prevent this to the extent possible. We want to keep our numbers in a manageable fashion so there is not [hospital] capacity problems,” Whalen added.