McCoy implores residents to cooperate with COVID-19 contact tracers
ALBANY, N.Y. » Albany County Executive Dan McCoy continued to implore those testing positive for COVID-19 to cooperate with the health department’s contact tracers. McCoy made his plea during his Thursday morning press briefing, as Albany County saw 94 new confirmed positive cases of coronavirus.
“A key component of our COVID-19 response efforts is contact investigating and tracing, but if people don’t cooperate with our contact tracers, we won’t be able to stop the spread of the virus. Over 56% of today’s positive cases didn’t have a clear source of infection, and that is a serious issue,” McCoy remarked.
Encompassed within the new cases are 53 who did not provide a source of transmission, 27who had close contact with positive cases, nine healthcare workers or residents of congregate settings, and five out- of-state travelers.
“I want to remind everyone that the information provided to contact tracers is completely confidential, and would never be used to prosecute someone or used against them in any way. Being truthful and forthcoming means we can identify potential clusters and prevent more people from getting sick or worse,” McCoy explained on the importance of the community’s cooperation.
Along with those new cases, Albany County presently has 776 active cases, 1,941 under quarantine. Plus, there were three new hospitalizations overnight. The total of hospitalized county residents is at 44, with 11 in the ICU and the hospitalization rate is at 0.92%.
Albany County Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen spoke to her department’s preparation for testing and receipt and deployment of a vaccine.
“Our work at the local health department continues to be very busy, primarily with the increase in cases but also with preparation activities around assisting schools for their 20%, should we enter into a micro cluster zone,” Whalen remarked, as Watervliet City Schools saw grades 6-12 go fully remote from Nov. 19 to Nov. 24, after a second member of the Watervliet Jr.- Sr. High School community tested positive for COVID-19.
Whalen also spoke to the importance of instilling and communicating confidence in encouraging people to obtain the vaccination.
“We are also starting to plan for vaccine receipt and deployment,” Whalen said.
“We have said since day one that this would continue until there was a safe, effective and widely available vaccine. But there’s another part to that too. We are going to need to do a lot of work in communication so that we have confidence in a vaccine,” Whalen explained on the need for effective communication in their vaccination efforts.
“I can give you my personal guarantee that I would not recommend a vaccine that I would not take myself,” Whalen added.
While the multiple vaccines will likely be made available to those on the front lines in the coming weeks, Whalen noted it would be more likely the vaccine would be dispersed to the general public in the late spring and early summer.