McCoy: Homebound will be vaccinated

ALBANY COUNTY — The county’s executive, Daniel McCoy, announced on Sunday that the sheriff’s office will be receiving COVID-19 vaccine doses from the state to inoculate residents who are homebound.

The sheriff’s office has a department for emergency medical services.

McCoy’s Sunday release did not detail how homebound residents were to sign up for the shots. The county has set up a pre-registration tool on its website for future vaccine distribution.

McCoy also announced the COVID-related death of another county resident — a woman in her sixties — bringing the county’s COVID-19 death toll to 352.

After its steep post-holiday decline in infections, Albany County continues to see a slight uptick with 81 new cases announced on Sunday morning.

This brings the total of confirmed cases in Albany County to 20,510.

Of the 81 new cases, 53 did not have clear sources of infection identified, 24 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, and four were health-care workers or residents of congregate settings. 

The five-day average for new daily positives has increased to 86 from 78.4. There are now 631 active cases in the county, up from 608 on Saturday.

The number of Albany County residents under quarantine increased to 1,498 from 1,438. So far, 64,075 residents have completed quarantine. Of those, 19,879 had tested positive and recovered. That is an increase of 56 recoveries since Saturday.

There were two new hospitalizations overnight, and there are now 39 county residents hospitalized from the virus. There are currently three patients in intensive-care units, down from five yesterday.

The Capital Region, of which Albany County is a part, currently has 125 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, which is 0.01 percent of the region’s population and leaves 34 percent of its hospital beds available.

Statewide, 0.03 percent of New Yorkers are hospitalized, leaving 35 percent of the state’s hospital beds available, according to a Sunday release from the governor’s office.

Currently, 190 of the Capital Region’s 236 ICU beds are filled, leaving 20 percent available.

Statewide, 28 percent of ICU beds are available.

As of Saturday, the Capital Region’s infection rate, as a seven-day average, was 1.97 percent. Statewide, the infection rate is 3.14 percent, the lowest seven-day average since Nov. 25, according to the governor’s release.

As of Saturday, Albany County, as a seven-day rolling average, had an infection rate of 1.9 percent, according to the state’s dashboard.

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