County leaders emphasize togetherness in COVID battle
County leaders joined together to display a united front in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy, Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin and Schenectady County Manager Rory Fluman held a joint press brief Saturday morning and discussed their ongoing efforts of working together.
“I’ve said this from the beginning, I’ve had a good relationship with Steve and Rory and we’re in this together,” McCoy remarked on the partnership between counties.
“What happens here in Albany County, happens in Schenectady and Rensselaer and throughout the whole Capital District. So again, leaning on one another and trying to get through this and figure out which way we can work in a partnership with all of us to move forward is the way it gets done,” McCoy noted of the counties helping each other with sharing PPE and different equipment.
McLaughlin cited a recent overlapping case where all three counties coordinated their contact tracing efforts in unison.
“It’s important as we all know it’s the Capital Region and this is a case where it’s definitely a region impact,” McLaughlin said.
“We had a case the other day it affected all three of us and it probably took us two or three days by the time we figured that out after talking to the person, because the person was working in Schenectady, lived in Rensselaer County but some of the folks that were also in contact with that person were Albany. So that’s all three counties out of one case,” McLaughlin explained on the coordination.
“There’s a lot of back and forth across the river, somebody could pick it up here in Albany County, bring it across to Rensselaer County or just the opposite, they could pick it up in Rensselaer County or come to work here in Albany County or Schenectady County, there’s a lot of interplay as you all know between these counties,” McLaughlin added on the degree that the counties are interconnected.
The three leaders also stressed the need to bear down and keep the area hospitals from being overrun until vaccines are readily available to the general public.
According to McLaughlin, as of the last count on Friday, 17 Rensselaer County residents are hospitalized. McCoy confirmed Albany County has a hospi
talization rate of 1.30%, 89 total residents hospitalized with 16 new hospitalizations overnight and 14 patients in ICU.
“Do your best to keep the social distancing. Keep the mask wearing when you’re out in public and you can’t maintain that social distance, that’s a good thing and it’s important to do. Cut back on those social gatherings,” McLaughlin said on preventative measures, as Rensselaer has 447 active cases and 1,140 residents quarantined.
“Help is on the way, I think that’s maybe the biggest message we can send today. Help is on the way but it’s a massive undertaking when they roll out the vaccine to the different phases of who’s going to get it and when and how that’s going to take place. That’s a big logistical undertaking, so it’s going to take a little while even after you hear vaccines are rolling out in December,” McLaughlin continued on the vaccine distribution process.
“Hanging in and working together will serve everyone in the region well,” McLaughlin added.
Fluman, whose county at last check has 120 new cases, and 384 active cases echoed those sentiments as well.
“Early on out of the Governor’s [Andrew Cuomo] office it was all about test, trace and isolate. Those are still core primary functions that we all are doing on this table,” Fluman said.
“If we can make it to those points and we can run our vaccines programs, hopefully this summer, this fall, we can be out of this,” Fluman explained.
“I think it’s important that we’re here in unity, counties in the Capital Region to spread this message, to spread this word, we’re working hard, we want to beat this, we can beat this, and we’re going to beat it together,” Fluman added on the message of unity and togetherness in the Capital District.
Additionally, on cases, McCoy confirmed Albany County has 177 new positive cases. Encompassed within those new cases are 141 people who either refused to or could not provide a clear source of infection, 19 with close contact to other positive cases, 14 healthcare workers or residents of congregate settings and three people who confirmed traveling out of state.