Cohoes sees first positive COVID-19 case
ALBANY, N.Y. » The count of people testing positive for COVID-19 in Albany County jumped to 142, including a first case out of the Spindle City.
That was the number confirmed by Albany County Executive Dan McCoy and Albany County Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen, Wednesday morning.
Yet, that smaller increase comes as the amount of tests administered is dwindling. Thus making it much more tenuous for health officials to track and monitor the spread of the virus.
“We literally went from 136 yesterday to 142, so we went up six. Would it be more than that if we were testing? Probably,” McCoy noted regarding the slowdowns in cases after Albany Medical Center shut down its test tent on Tuesday.
“But we have to look at the statistics of the people that got tested that were negative versus the people that were positive. Albany County has 557 people under mandatory quarantine and 10 have been hospitalized, putting our hospitalization rate just a little over seven percent, which is really good and two people in the ICU,” McCoy explained.
Cohoes Mayor Bill Keeler said the Albany County Department of Health confirmed the first positive case in the city.
“This initial confirmed case of COVID-19 in Cohoes may feel unsettling, but it is not surprising. There are cases of the coronavirus across the country, across the state, and now confirmed in our community. Regrettably, it will not be the last. Our thoughts and
prayers for a speedy recovery are with the individual and that person’s family,” Keeler said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“Our focus has and must continue to be to reduce community spread. I urge each and every Cohoes resident to listen to the experts and do their part to ‘flatten the curve,” Keeler added. “That means staying at home unless it is absolutely necessary to go out. It means washing your hands, coughing into your elbow, not touching your face, and social distancing by staying six feet away from each other.
“There is no roadmap for this, but we are a strong, close-knit community that cares for and supports each other. Together we will get through this.”
McCoy added approximately 400 Farnsworth Middle School students in Guilderland are slated to come off the precautionary quarantine list on Thursday.
“Tomorrow the Farnsworth Middle School students come off, so that number’s going to drop off tomorrow and none of them tested positive, which is great,” McCoy said.
Yet, Whalen cautioned to parents that the students should continue practicing their behavior of social distancing and following CDC guidelines.
Whalen also voiced her concern about the testing limitations moving forward.
“The numbers when we were doing the widespread testing gave us and indication of what was going on in the community. Now we’re seeing that that’s changing as the limitation of testing means we’re only detecting a fraction of cases,” Whalen said.
“We know that 80 percent of people that contract COVID-19 will have a mild to moderate illness, a flulike illness and then there’s a percentage of people that are pretty much asymptomatic. So we are not capturing the numbers of actual people affected by this at this stage. That is another very important point to hammer home because again it brings us back to the important point of staying home,” Whalen reiterated on the importance of staying home.
To that end, Whalen noted those asymptomatic can still carry and spread the virus.
“If you’re one of the few people that has an asymptomatic case, it may go well for you but if you infect someone else it may not go as well for them,” she said.
Whalen cited examples of Italy and what is already starting to happen in New York City, as reasons for why people need to stay home to relieve the stress on the medical system.
“I have been in contact with the hospitals and at this point, the hospitals have good capacity. They have availability of beds. They have availability of ventilators. But this is today,” Whalen noted.
“Last week I encouraged everyone to look at what was happening in Italy, to see where we might find ourselves in a week’s time. This week I think we’re starting to see this evolve more and more just down the road from us in New York City,” Whalen continued.
“We know that downstate that they are starting to see struggles with capacity in hospitals and ventilators and others. This is why it makes it an even more immediate need for us to enact the measures that we have been advocating for the past couple of weeks and I will again continue to assert their importance,” Whalen added on what could be an ensuing tidal wave if we don’t do our part in following the guidelines outlined by health officials.
For those stressed and feeling cooped up, McCoy offered the county mental health hotline, 518-2696634. The hotline is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
McCoy also noted WMHT is providing in-home learning online for students in grades four through 12. Plus, the county is producing short videos, including arts and crafts, reading and mental health.
“Go out and take a walk, get fresh air, take your pets for a walk, take your kids for a walk. I’m not saying just sit in your house but please, the more that we social distance ourselves, the more that we isolate ourselves over these next couple of weeks, we’re going to slow this down,” McCoy added.