Albany County COVID-19 deaths rise to 44
ALBANY, N.Y. » Albany County’s death toll attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic now stands at 44, as Albany County Executive Dan McCoy confirmed three additional deaths overnight, during his daily press conference Friday morning.
According to McCoy the deaths include two male residents of Shaker Place Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in their 70s and one woman in her 80s.
“These are difficult times and when you look around and it’s a
new world out there and it’s different than it was 50 days ago, think of other people around you. That’s why Dr. Whalen and I continue to say please social distance, please wear your mask when you’re out in public,” McCoy remarked as the “new normal” enters its third month.
“We can get through this and we’ll get through this because we’re New Yorkers and we get through things, we’re resilient,” McCoy added.
In addition to those three victims, McCoy detailed the latest data of cases in Albany County. As of Friday morning, Albany County has 1,151 confirmed positive cases for COVID-19, 1,004 people in mandatory quarantine, 14 in precautionary quarantine and 578 people have recovered.
The aforementioned Shaker Place has seen 46 residents test positive with two having recovered. Additionally, 25 employees have tested positive with seven recovered.
Plus, there are 33 county residents hospitalized, with eight in the ICU.
New York’s junior U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand joined the press conference via Zoom to talk about attempts to provide funding resources to the state.
Gillibrand discussed funding including $25 million for testing, $75 million for hospitals, and modifying the Paycheck Protection Program. She also detailed some of her priorities for the next federal relief package, including universal sick days and national paid leave.
Gillibrand also looks to create a “Health Force,” described as “an AmeriCorps for healthcare.”
According to Gillibrand, one million workers would be trained over the next two months to carry out additional testing, contact tracing and administering a potential vaccine. Other priorities include direct funding for cities and states, hunger relief, along with voting by mail, curbside voting and early voting to ensure Americans can exercise their right to vote without fear of spreading the coronavirus.
To that end, Albany County Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen commented on the county’s contact tracing efforts thus far.
“We do employ a small army of contact tracers that have been responsible thus far for doing the investigation on every case that has been reported in Albany County,” Whalen said.
“This includes phone follow up, contact tracing, home visits and following along until people are released from isolation or quarantine. It’s been exhaustive work at the health department and we continue to do that,” Whalen continue on what the tracing involves.
Whalen also explained the data behind the recent rise in cases.
“If you follow the trends along you’ll see that this week we had a spike in positive cases in Albany County. Many of these cases are a result of widespread testing that has been implemented when we have cases either in our nursing homes or in our long-term care facilities,” Whalen noted.
“We have been working very close with the New York State Department of Health to ensure that a wide spectrum of workers and residents are tested when we note positive cases,” Whalen remarked on the coordination of resources between the state and county.
“As I’ve talked about in the past this helps us identify those that are working in these facilities that may be infected with COVID-19 but may not be aware of this. So we have seen an expansion in criteria for testing to allow essential workers, particularly workers that work with high needs and high risk populations like those in nursing homes and long-term care facilities that are now being told that they can test some asymptomatic workers,” Whalen commented on the increase in testing.
Whalen also remarked on why it is crucial to hone in on those in close contact with higher risk populations.
“We believe that this is an important strategy. As we have done these widespread tests the test results that we get back we are finding a higher rate than expected of asymptomatic infections in these places,” Whalen said.
“It really hearkens back again to the importance of doing what you can when you’re not at work to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” Whalen added.