ALBANY COUNTY — The county has given Guilderland Emergency Medical Services 95 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to homebound residents.

On Monday, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy had said the county was getting 500 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires just one shot, and would be used for homebound residents.

Previously, Albany County had been given Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses, which each require two shots several weeks apart.

The vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson is the most recent to be given emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.

Of the roughly 22,000 people who received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine in trials leading up to its emergency authorization, the number of people who were hospitalized with COVID-19 was zero, the number of people who died from COVID-19 was zero, and the number of people who died from the vaccine was zero.

The trials for Moderna (with roughly 15,000 people) and Pfizer (about 18,600 people) also showed zero in those same three categories. These original trials were conducted, unlike Johnson & Johnson’s,   before some of the recent variants had emerged.

In Guilderland, EMS-trained vaccinators will administer the vaccine at the person’s home, according to Peter Barber, Guilderland’s supervisor.

“If you are, care for, or are aware of a homebound person, please send an email, with contact information, to or call EMS’s vaccine program at 518-579-3737 for more information about eligibility and appointments …,” Barber wrote in an email. “Please note that we expect to exhaust this allotment and will maintain a record of names and contact information for future vaccine allocations.”

Guilderland EMS had prepared ahead to administer COVID-19 vaccine but had not received any doses until March. On March 8, it ran its first pop-up clinic at its station on Centre Drive in partnership with the county sheriff’s office.

The county’s point of dispensing, or POD, at the Times Union Center in Albany administered just shy of 1,200 doses on Wednesday and planned to administer another 900 on Thursday, according to a Thursday morning release from McCoy.

An additional 500 doses were sent to the University at Albany and Russell Sage College for a closed POD to vaccinate essential workers, including newly eligible public-facing staff, McCoy said in the release.

“These efforts are helping drive up the percentage of Albany County residents receiving at least their first dose, now at 29.6 percent, and an incredible 46,500 people having received both shots,” McCoy said in the release. “None of this would be possible without the dedication and selfless work of our County Department of Health, health care workers and volunteers, and they deserve our thanks.”

Statewide, 24 percent of New Yorkers have received at least one shot and 12.4 percent have completed a vaccine series, according to a Thursday release from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Office.

Sports

Beginning March 29, statewide travel for sports and recreational activities will be permitted, Cuomo announced on Thursday.

Currently, travel for sports and recreation is limited to contiguous counties and regions in accordance with New York State Department of Health guidance. 

 Cuomo also announced that New York’s Major League Baseball teams — the New York Mets and New York Yankees — can resume play with spectators in the stadiums, beginning April 1.

Professional sports in large outdoor stadiums that hold 10,000 people or more will be allowed to reopen at 20 percent capacity.

The state’s health department will re-evaluate the testing and vaccination entry requirements in May, and, if the public health situation continues to improve, they may be discontinued in mid-May. Vaccinations will continue to be administered at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field during the baseball season.

At the same time, smaller, regional sports venues that hold 1,500 people indoors or 2,500 people outdoors can also reopen, beginning April 1. Initial capacity will be limited to 10 percent indoors and 20 percent outdoors.

Large outdoor performing arts venues, including stadiums, that hold more than 2,500 people can reopen at 20 percent capacity, beginning April 1. Venue capacity will continue to increase as the public health situation improves with more New Yorkers receiving vaccinations and fewer COVID-19 cases in the community.

In all three cases — for Major League Baseball, stadiums holding 10,000 or more ,and outdoor art venues —  attendees must show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test or completed vaccination series before entry and are subject to strict state guidance on face coverings, social distancing, and health screening.

Cuomo made these announcements, along with reporting on COVID-19 tallies, at an upbeat session with Mets and Yankees leaders and players in a session that did not allow questions from the press as investigations continue into allegations of sexual harassment and Cuomo’s handling of nursing home deaths.

“The Governor’s briefings will be held through Zoom until further notice,” said an email sent to media outlets on Thursday morning. Formerly, reporters could call in with questions.

Withholding records

Bill Hammond, senior fellow at the Empire Center, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit think tank based in Albany, said on Thursday that the Cuomo administration “has for a third time delayed releasing records of its vaccine review panel, this time until mid-April.”

The Empire Center had been stonewalled in getting records on nursing-home deaths and finally was successful only after taking the matter to court.

“The seven-member Clinical Advisory Task Force, appointed by Governor Cuomo last September, has reportedly vouched for the safety of all three vaccines given emergency authorization by the FDA — most recently recommending the Johnson & Johnson version on March 1,” Hammond said in a release.

In press conferences, Cuomo has repeatedly referred to the task force’s endorsement of the vaccines.

“Yet the governor’s office has so far failed to produce any records of the panel’s activities — including the times and places of its meetings, the names of those who attended, the standards of review it applied, the research it considered, minutes of its discussions or tallies of its votes.

“The secrecy surrounding the panel would seem to undermine its stated purpose — which was to reassure New Yorkers who distrusted the FDA’s judgment, especially under President Trump,” Hammond wrote.

Suit seeks vaccine for prisoners

Finally on Thursday, the Legal Aid society filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court against Cuomo and Howard Zucker, the state’s health commissioner, on behalf of three people incarcerated in New York State prisons.

The suit demands that the state grant people in custody the same access to the COVID-19 vaccine that has been afforded others in virtually every other congregate residential setting — settings which by their very nature place individuals at high risk for contracting and transmitting the virus that causes COVID-19, the suit argues. 

“Upon entering a facility, the virus can sweep rapidly and mercilessly through its population,” the suit says.

Such a surge of COVID-19 swept through Albany County’s jail in January. Sheriff Craig Apple, who called it “a month of hell,” said that 189 out of roughly 330 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 and he said that 110 of the staff members at the county jail, which number in the “low 300s,” had tested positive.

As of March 16, 2021, 6,167 New Yorkers in custody of the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision have tested positive for COVID-19 and 34 have died from the virus.

The three petitioners in the lawsuit live at different facilities throughout New York State, the Legal Aid Society said in a release announcing the suit, and experience living conditions common to all congregate residential facilities, including shared and crowded living, bathroom, reactional, and eating spaces — characteristics of these settings that make them particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19, the society says.

“The petitioners also report the inability to practice social distancing and refusal from the correction officers and others to comply with mask wearing and other CDC protocols,” the release said, referencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The inherent qualities of a correctional setting create an urgent need for vaccinations to keep people — those in custody as well as staff and members of the community — safe from infection and its potentially life threatening effects.”

Newest numbers

Albany County has 90 new cases of COVID-19 since Wednesday, bringing the county’s tally to 21,513 confirmed cases, according to McCoy’s Thursday morning release.

Of the new cases, 69 did not have clear sources of infection identified, 19 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, and two were health-care workers or residents of congregate settings.

The five-day average for new daily positives has increased to 57.6 from 48.4. There are now 466 active cases in the county, up from 455 on Wednesday.

The number of Albany County residents under quarantine increased to  . So far, 68,135 residents have completed quarantine. Of those, 21,047 had tested positive and recovered. That is an increase of 78 recoveries since Wednesday.

There was one new hospitalization overnight, and there are now 21 county residents hospitalized from the virus — one fewer than on Wednesday. There are currently five patients in intensive-care units, one more than on Wednesday.

Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 365.

Statewide, as of Wednesday, as a seven-day rolling average, the infection rate was 3.3 percent, according to the state’s tracker.

Albany County, also as of Wednesday, as a seven-day rolling average, had an infection rate of 1.7 percent.