Deputy Albany sheriff among new positive cases
ALBANY, N.Y. » As of Wednesday morning, there are 41 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Albany County, including a respiratory patient at the Teresian House nursing home and an Albany County deputy sheriff.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, Albany County Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen, and Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple confirmed the new information during a press conference.
In addition to the 41 confirmed cases, there are 126 people in mandatory quarantine and 441 people under voluntary quarantine.
“One of the cases involved a person at the Teresian House, the
first one we had,” McCoy said of the patient now being treated at Albany Medical Center.
“It’s a separate place at the Teresian nursing home, it’s for respiratory care. Everyone’s going to be tested there on that floor and we’re addressing that issue because obviously, that’s the most vulnerable population that we have,” McCoy noted.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to do by locking down the nursing homes and keeping people away. This is the reason we’re telling people not to get out because they are more vulnerable,” McCoy added of their protocols to protect the elderly population.
“We rapidly identified the individuals that are staying there, and I believe there are 15 of them and we worked immediately with the State Health Department to deploy a team to go out today to swab all of the residents that are determined to be contacts and all of the affected staff,” Whalen explained of the steps taken following the positive test at Teresian House.
Additionally, as of print, there was no word if the voting site at Teresian House will be moved before the Democratic Primary is held in New York State on April 28.
Apple commented on the updated status of his deputy sheriff, who is part of the transportation division.
“We had a deputy sheriff test positive for COVID-19. There’s nine other deputy sheriff’s that in a quarantine situation,” Apple said.
“He’s pretty much seven days in at this point. He feels good,” Apple added on the condition of his deputy sheriff.
“We have nine sworn members, one female matron, one correction officer, and three inmates,” Apple added of those additionally being monitored.
Given the two latest cases affecting the elderly and emergency personnel, Whalen reiterated the call to be informed and stay home to save lives.
“I continue to send the message of empowerment to people and not panic. It is very important that you empower yourself with knowledge, look at appropriate sites for information, our website, the New York State Department of Health website and the CDC,” Whalen remarked.
“And continue to follow the behaviors we have enforced since day one, which is wash your hands, stay at home if you are sick. We are now saying that you should stay at home if you don’t have anything else to do.
We know at this point that staying home saves lives. That is a very essential message that we need to get out to the public,” Whalen emphasized.
Whalen also updated where the county is at in terms of tracking the curve and spread of the virus.
“As we continue to track and monitor the spread of COVID-19 in the community, it seems to us that we are starting an uphill curve, that we anticipated that we would have with this disease. It is essential that we continue to do the widespread testing that we are doing to give us an idea of how as a community this is affecting us,” Whalen added.