ALBANY COUNTY — As hospitalization and infection rates from COVID-19 continue to decline, Albany County has lost another resident to the virus.

A man in his seventies died on Wednesday, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy reported in his Thursday morning press release. This brings the COVID-19 death toll for the county to 348.

Also on Thursday, the health and personnel committees of the Albany County Legislature approved a resolution that would provide up to four hours of paid time off so county workers can get COVID-19 vaccinations.

The resolution, which is retroactive, is expected to be voted on by the legislature on March 8.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Thursday that more than 2.5 million, or 12.8 percent, of New Yorkers have received a first dose of vaccine while more than 7 percent have been fully vaccinated.

Cuomo also announced a new identity verification tool, ID.me, to fight unemployment benefit fraud and help New Yorkers with legitimate claims verify their identities and receive benefits faster.

The state’s Department of Labor has identified over 500,000 fraudulent claims and stopped over $6.4 billion in payments to criminals since the start of the pandemic. At the same time, the department has distributed over $70 billion in legitimate unemployment benefits to 4.2 million New Yorkers since March 2020, according to a release from the governor’s office.

The labor department has also launched a new web page to provide New Yorkers with a step-by-step guide for protecting their identity from cyber criminals. 

Nursing home goal

Also on Thursday, a national goal was announced of getting 75 percent of the country’s approximately 1.5 million nursing home staff vaccinated by June 30, 2021.

The announcement was made by the American Health Care Association, representing more than 14,000 nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the country, and LeadingAge, the association of more than 5,000 mission-driven aging services providers including nursing homes, stating they were working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The federal government made vaccinating nursing home workers and residents a priority. In New York State, Cuomo has said all residents and workers at nursing homes have been offered vaccines.

Recent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data shows cases and deaths in nursing homes are declining rapidly.

“We found that COVID-19 cases decreased at a faster rate among both residents and staff associated with nursing homes that had completed their first clinic, compared to those nursing homes that had not yet administered the vaccine,” said a preliminary analysis by the Center for Health Policy Evaluation in Long-Term Care.

On Dec. 21, when vaccines were first offered at Shaker Place, Albany County’s nursing home, of the roughly 172 residents, 150 agreed to take the shots, McCoy reported at the time.

The other 22 either didn’t want the shots or needed a health-care proxy to sign off for them, and some of those people making the decisions for the residents had not yet been reached, McCoy said.

Of Shaker Place’s roughly 200 workers, only 100 agreed to be vaccinated, McCoy said.

“We have to educate our own workers …,” he said. “We have to get everyone to understand that this is the way we’re going to get out of it.”

LeadingAge, in partnership with the Black Coalition Against COVID, is sponsoring a national town hall Thursday, March 4, to address concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine among all levels of staff working in aging services communities.

Biden’s pitch

Finally, on Thursday, President Joe Biden addressed, remotely, the National Governors Association, which Cuomo chairs.

Biden stressed his theme of uniting Americans and urged support of the American Rescue Plan.

“When people in this country need help, they’re not Democrats or Republicans, they’re all Americans and people who need to work, they’re the people getting sick from COVID and people facing eviction, people going hungry, people struggling with the opioid crisis,” said Biden.

He focused on the challenges of the pandemic and the economy, saying that “the ability to deal with one will determine our ability to address the other.”

Biden mentioned the “grim milestone” of over 500,000 American deaths from the disease — more than American deaths in both world wars and the Vietnam war together — and said Americans “have to act to end the politics of misinformation that have divided families, communities and the country.”

He went on, “This cost too many lives already. We have to fight this together.”

Biden noted that the Defense Production Act was used to speed the manufacture of vaccines and that 50 million shots have been completed in 37 days so that nearly 60 percent of Americans over age 75 have received at least one shot as have close to half of people 65 and older. People over 65 account for 80 percent of COVID-19 deaths, he said.

Biden also said that many Americans “are hurting through no fault of their own.”

“Lines miles long in your states. People who never, ever, ever, ever thought they’d ever have to worry about going hungry, waiting for someone to put a box of groceries in their trunk,” Biden said to the governors.

He also said that many women face “the devastating choice between a paycheck and care and education of their child,” which has driven women’s participation in the workforce to its lowest level in over three decades.

Biden said of the American Rescue Plan, “Instead of chasing COVID-19, it allows us to get ahead of it with more testing, supplies, vaccinations. It gets our kids back to school safely.”

He also cited a Moody’s analysis that the plan would help the economy create 7 million more jobs this year and another 18 million jobs over the next four years with the Build Back Better Recovery Plan.

“The vast majority of the American people from both parties support it,” Biden concluded of his plan.

Last week, Siena College released a poll showing New Yorkers overwhelmingly support Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan and all of its major components. Three-quarters of New Yorkers — including 91 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of independents, and 45 percent of Republicans — support the relief plan although they “may or may not agree with all of the components.”

“Interestingly,” said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg, “while Republicans are break-even on the overall package, they support — and in several cases, strongly support — each of the six components of the plan. At least 82 percent of Democrats and at least 62 percent of independents support each of those components.”

Newest numbers

As of Thursday morning, Albany County has had 20,275 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 116 new cases, according to McCoy’s release.

Of the new cases, 75 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, 33 did not have clear sources of infection identified, and four are health-care workers or residents of congregate settings.

The five-day average for new daily positives has increased to 73.8 from 65.2. There are now 582 active cases in the county, up from 551 on Wednesday.

The number of Albany County residents under quarantine remained the same at 1,407. So far, 63,380 residents have completed quarantine. Of those, 19,693 had tested positive and recovered. That is an increase of 81 recoveries since yesterday.

There were seven new hospitalizations overnight, and there are now 53 county residents currently hospitalized from the virus – a net decrease of three. There are currently eight patients in intensive-care units, unchanged from Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, as a seven-day rolling average, Albany county’s infection rate was 1.8 percent, according to the state’s dashboard.