NEW MILESTONES
Hospitalizations and ICU patients hit record-highs in Albany County
Albany County reported new single- day, record-high hospitalizations and ICU patients on Friday. Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy confirmed the troubling numbers during his morning press briefing.
According to the county executive, there were 14 new hospitalizations reported overnight, and there are 104 county residents currently hospitalized from the virus, a net increase of four. Plus, presently there are 21 patients in the ICU, up from 18 Thursday.
“We’ve reached two new and sad milestones today: A record number of people in the hospital at 104, and a record number of them in intensive care at 21. Our hospitalizations have now been increasing for a full week. We’re now seeing some of the worst impacts of Thanksgiving and other gatherings, and we’re likely to see an even more alarming surge after the holidays next week,” McCoy remarked on the alarming hospitalization spikes.
“I know it’s not always easy to avoid seeing family around the holiday season, but if we don’t make sacrifices, even more people will get infected, more people will be hospitalized and more people will die. Please do the right thing,” McCoy repeated on the need for people to avoid
"I know it’s not always easy to avoid seeing family around the holiday season, but if we don’t make sacrifices, even more people will get infected, more people will be hospitalized and more people will die. Please do the right thing." — Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy
large indoor gatherings without masks and social distancing.
Presently, the county has 1,637 active cases and 3,237 people under mandatory quarantine. McCoy also confirmed 220 new positive cases, as the fiveday average for new daily positives increased to 195.8 from 186.4.
Encompassed within the new cases were 176 without a clear source of infection, 22 who had close contact with positive cases and 22 who are healthcare workers or residents of congregate settings.
Joining the county executive for his briefing was CentralMed Urgent and Primary Care CEO and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Nosa Aigbe Lebarty. Dr. Lebarty was on- hand to discuss the accuracy of rapid tests and the safety of the Pfizer vaccine being distributed.
“Accuracy of tests, it has different connotations and different meanings to each test,” Lebarty remarked on the different tests.
“I think right now the “gold standard” is the PCR, which is OK because that sort of identifies the genetic materials and a lot of the time PCR is pretty much the “gold standard” for most infectious diseases in terms of testing,” Lebarty noted on the accuracy of the PCR test.
“The rapid tests we do in our urgent care center tends to mirror almost 100% with the PCR, that’s what we’ve found. We’ve done thousands of rapid tests,” Lebarty added on what he’s seen from test results.
Lebarty also noted that he intends to take the vaccine when it is made available to CentralMed Urgent Care reassured the public about its safety.
“First of all this is not a live virus so you’re going to get the virus, the virus is not going to be injected at all. This is genetic material of the virus,” Lebarty said regarding the vaccine components.
“The goal of the vaccine is to actually elicit a response the body’s response to that protein,” Lebarty explained on how the vaccine works in eliminating the spike proteins from the coronavirus.
“The antibodies will attack the protein and the genetic material sends them out and the antibody stays there ready for [if] another virus [tries to] come in,” Lebarty added on how the vaccine responds to the virus and helps prevent future infection.