COVID hospital numbers balloon
The spike comes as the overall number of local cases begins to level off
Hospitalizations in the Capital Region are soaring, reaching December levels this week — even as daily coronavirus case numbers begin to flatten out in most counties.
Since the start of the month, the number of patients hospitalized with COVID -19 in the eight-county region has jumped more than fivefold from 42 to 227 as of Monday, according to the most recent data available from the state Department of Health.
When isolating the number of patients admitted specifically for COVID -19 — in other words, excluding patients who were admitted for another condition but tested positive for the coronavirus — the spike is more pronounced, with the number of daily admissions hitting close to January’s peak, the state’s database shows.
About 60 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients on average are admitted for complications related to the disease, according to state health officials.
Locally, COVID -19 case numbers had either plateaued or dropped in the four largest counties on Monday, but cases are still rising in some rural areas, according to DOH.
Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Warren and Saratoga counties saw daily case counts taper off by Monday. Washington, Greene and Columbia counties saw cases leap over the weekend.
Central New York, where the recent COVID-19 surge began, is also starting to see its daily case numbers dip.
Hospitalizations are what epidemiologists call a “lagging indicator,” meaning the numbers tend to rise and fall several weeks
behind COVID -19 cases numbers.
DOH has not yet provided data for Tuesday, but county figures suggest that hospitalization numbers rose again overnight.
In his biweekly COVID -19 update, Albany County Executive Daniel P. Mccoy reported that there were nine new COVID hospitalizations since Monday and 30 new hospitalizations overall since Friday’s update.
“There are now 52 county residents currently hospitalized with the Coronavirus — a net increase of six over the last four days,” county officials wrote in a news release Tuesday. “Of those hospital patients, there are still two currently in ICUS. Sadly, there is one new COVID death to report since the last update — a man in his 50s.”
The county’s death toll from the virus stands at 556 people.
In a Thursday briefing on Youtube, Albany Medical Center President Dennis P. Mckenna noted that unvaccinated individuals continue to be overrepresented among patients seriously ill with COVID -19.
“About 50 percent of those who came into the hospital were unvaccinated. That’s interesting because when you look at the Capital Region, we are approaching about a million vaccinated,” Mckenna said. “Our unvaccinated population is about 20 percent (of the total population), and yet our unvaccinated population makes up about 50 percent of those in the hospital.”