ALBANY COUNTY — As the vaccination rate climbs — 27 percent of New Yorkers and 34 percent of Albany County residents have gotten at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine — more people are traveling and more venues are opening.

In Albany County’s 54th week of coping with coronavirus, the county’s airport noted on Wednesday that airport enplanements have gone from minus 69 percent last March to plus 240 percent on March 21 this year.

The term “revenge travel” has been coined as people who have been pent up for a year are eager to break free.

March 18 was the county airport’s busiest day in 2021 with 2,441 people passing through the security checkpoint — still less than half of the pre-COVID rate of 5,000 people daily boarding flights.

“We believe our increase in passenger traffic is tied directly to the traveling public’s increased confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and the decrease in reported infections, hospitalizations, and deaths related to the coronavirus,” Philip Calderone, chief executive officer of the Albany County Airport Authority, said in a statement.

Throughout the week, announcements have been made on lifted state restrictions and opening venues. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance for schools from keeping students six feet apart to three feet, although the state has not yet changed its guidance from six.

At the same time, the state is looking ahead to prepare New Yorkers for future public-health crises. Governor Andrew Cuomo, in New York City on Wednesday, announced the launch of a free, online Citizen Public Health Training Course for New Yorkers to learn from public-health experts about preparedness for and prevention of health emergencies.

“We have to learn the lesson post-COVID, and in truth this nation should’ve learned it’s public health lesson way before COVID, because we had warnings after warnings …,” said Cuomo. “We need an emergency management public health capacity that is much more sophisticated and operational than it is today.”

He went over a long list of things New York had “to scramble to do and do on the fly” when faced with the pandemic, ranging from product personal protective equipment to setting up test laboratories.

“You as an individual have to be better prepared ...,” he said. “The best person to protect you is you, an informed you.”

Cornell University has developed the eight-session, 16-hour course curriculum, which people can take at their own pace. If an assessment at the end is passed, certification will be awarded “that says you have been trained as a citizen public health leader,” said Cuomo.

Lorin Warncick from Cornell said the course, using the e-Cornell online learning platform is available in any location.

“The course will be available to any New Yorker. It will allow citizens of our state to learn from Cornell educators and to become public health leaders for their families and communities,” Warnick said. 

“Our goal is to increase the understanding of social and environmental determinants of health, and to improve public health in New York State,” Warnick went on. “With so many informed and motivated citizens, New York will be better prepared to confront challenges that impact health, and these range from equity and sustainability to food and housing insecurity and much more.”

 

Sports opening up

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 also 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.

Albany County’s Times Union Center holds 17,000 people, the county’s executive, Daniel McCoy, said on Friday, and he will be lobbying for greater capacity.

“We need to open up to at least 25 percent ...,” he said. “It’s the only way arena football will be able to open up because they need the capacity to just break even … It puts people back to work,” he said of reopening.

McCoy also noted that, starting Monday, the current limit of 10 for residential gatherings will remain 10 for indoors but will be lifted to 25 people outdoors.

For social gatherings, the current limit of 50 was lifted on Monday to 100 indoors and to 200 people outdoors.

Wedding receptions and catered events can resume, with restrictions, limited to 50-percent capacity and no more than 150 guests.

On Friday, restaurant capacity increased to 75 percent.

 

“Be vaccinated”

Throughout the week, county leaders stressed the need for residents to get vaccinated and also to continue to follow protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19 until herd immunity is reached.

So far, three vaccines have been approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration — first, Pfizer-BioNTech, followed closely by Moderna and then, recently, by Johnson & Johnson.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two doses several weeks apart. Albany County this week received its first allotment of Johnson & Johnson vaccine which requires just one shot.

Among the doses of Johnson & Johnson shared by the county this week, Bethlehem and Guilderland Emergency Medical Services each received 95 doses to administer to homebound residents.

To date, 35,000 people have pre-registered for vaccination on the county’s website at alb.518c19.com; 24,000 of those were Albany County residents, McCoy said on Friday.

Any eligible New Yorker can be vaccinated at the county’s point of dispensing, or POD, typically held at the Times Union Center in Albany.

On March 25, 27, and 29, people with vaccination appointments through the county’s health department will get their shots at the Capital Center because the Times Union Center is being used then for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Ice Hockey Regional competitions.

“We’re knocking that list down so please pre-register because we’re at the point where we’re not going to have anyone left on the list,” said McCoy. Of the percentage to reach herd immunity, he said, “We need to get to 70.”

Public-facing workers in government jobs or those employed at not-for-profit organizations are now eligible for shots along with other essential workers, including teacher and restaurant workers, as well as anyone 60 or older.

Eligibility and access for vaccination continues to expand.

“It couldn’t be soon enough,” said Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen of the expanding eligibility.

“We will be looking forward to meeting the challenge of getting as many residents vaccinated as we can ... ,” she said on Monday. “We also need to do a lot to work with people that are still on the fence with getting vaccinated.”

On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo had announced that, starting Tuesday morning, New Yorkers age 50 and older will be eligible for vaccination. People can make an appointment by calling 1-833-NYS-4VAX.

“We don’t yet have the increase in the allocation so what people are really doing is making an appointment for when the allocation does increase, but we want to get those appointments set up so when the allocation does come we're ready for it,” Cuomo said.

He noted that, despite pop-up vaccination sites in communities of need, numbers are still off in terms of total equity of distribution.

“The Black community still lags in terms of percentage of vaccination, the Hispanic community still lags. The white community is somewhat over-represented. The Asian community is about equal or over represented,” he said.

Cuomo launched a “Roll Up Your Sleeve” campaign on Monday to encourage houses of worship of all faiths to sign up as vaccination sites. Medical providers are being asked to partner with the churches, temples, and mosques for a program to start in April.

The governor made the announcement at Grace Baptist Church in Westchester County, noting that  AstraZeneca is going to the Food and Drug Administration for approval, which, if granted, will make a fourth vaccine available in the United States.

“We will have enough vaccine to vaccinate people,” said Cuomo, speaking at Grace Baptist. “We have to make sure we have the capacity and the willingness to take the vaccine …. We’re deploying a foundation of our society, which is our faith-based community. We have religious leaders here from all across the spectrum. We have rabbis who are with us today, we have imams who are with us today, we have priests who are with us today, we have pastors who are with us today.

“Remember, taking the vaccine is not just for you. You take a vaccine to save the lives of others,” said Reverend Dr. Franklyn Richardson, pastor of Grace Baptist Church. “You take the vaccine to save our grandmothers, and our grandfathers, and our children. You take a vaccine to make our city safe, our nation, and our state safe.” 

On Sunday, Cuomo had said that pharmacies across the state can now vaccinate New Yorkers with comorbidities. Previously, pharmacies had been limited to vaccinated teachers and people aged 60 and older.

Now any New Yorker age 16 or older with a listed comorbidities — ranging from obesity and pregnancy to pulmonary and heart disease — can get vaccinated at a pharmacy.

McCoy, at his Monday morning press briefing, had advocated for making residents 50 and older eligible for vaccination.

Whereas vaccination appointments used to be made weeks ahead, McCoy noted that two large-scale clinics in the county currently have spots available: the site at the Washington Avenue Armory run jointly by the state and federal governments, and the site at the uptown University at Albany campus run by the state.

White House officials, McCoy reported, have said that, by the end of March or beginning of April “we’d get more vaccine in …. It will continue to open up and get out to more people.”

Whalen said vaccination shouldn’t be eschewed because numbers of infections are going down. “We’re seeing in other countries a third wave,” she said. Whalen also noted that highly communicable strains are emerging and spreading.

She urged continued mitigation strategies: mask up, keep distant, avoid large gatherings, and wash hands.

Finally, Whalen said, “Be vaccinated.”

CDC: 3 feet is safe at school

On Friday, the CDC changed its guidance for safety at school from keeping six feet distant to three feet distant. The state’s health department has not yet adopted the new guidance.

The CDC guidance says that, regardless of community infection rate, elementary students may be seated three feet apart. However, in places with high infection rates, secondary students may sit three feet apart only if they can be isolated in cohorts; otherwise, they must be six feet apart.

“At this point, we are awaiting review and further guidance from the New York State Department of Health ...,” said Whalen on Friday. “We are all committed to doing what we can to get kids back into a school environment.”

McCoy said he believed all the schools in the county except the Albany City Schools already allowed for in-person learning.

The World Health Organization had set the distance at one meter, which is 3.3 feet.

Since the start of the pandemic, science has evolved on the subject, initially believing the virus was spread by droplets, which were unlikely to travel beyond six feet, but now believing COVID-19 is largely spread through little, light aerosols, which can spread longer distances.

Also, schools with young children have proven largely to be places where the infection rate is lower than the surrounding community. Children can become infected and transmit the disease but this happens less frequently than transmission to adults, scientists have found.

Schools in Britain, for example, with few restrictions, have had low rates of infection.

In January, the Guilderland schools did surveillance testing of 945 people, including students, faculty, and staff at all seven buildings. Just four of those results were positive. 

“I think it’s very encouraging, out of close to 1,000 tests, we had just four positives,” Superintendent Marie Wiles told The Enterprise at the time. “It’s a strong indication school is a safe place to be.”

So far this school year, as of Wednesday night, Guilderland, with about 4,800 students, has had 204 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 113 at the high school, which includes district-wide workers like bus drivers as well; 32 at Farnsworth Middle School; 18 at Westmere Elementary; 14 at Pine Bush Elementary; 10 each at Lynnwood and Altamont elementary schools; and 7 at Guilderland Elementary School.

Voorheesville, with about 1,200 students, has had 59 confirmed cases with 33 at the high school, 16 at the elementary school, and 10 at the middle school.

Berne-Knox-Westerlo, with about 780 students, has had 26 confirmed cases with 10 at the elementary school and 16 at the secondary school.

All three local school districts followed the original CDC guidance on mask-wearing and six-foot distancing.

 

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

As of Wednesday morning, Albany County has had 21,845 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 60 new cases since Tuesday, according to a release from McCoy.

Of the new cases,  37 did not have clear sources of infection identified, 19 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, three were health-care workers or residents of congregate settings, and one reported traveling out of state.

The five-day average for new daily positives has decreased to 58.6 from 59.6. There are now 488 active cases in the county, down from 495 on Tuesday.

The number of Albany County residents under quarantine increased to 1,230 from 1,201. So far, 69,527 residents have completed quarantine. Of those, 21,366 had tested positive and recovered. That is an increase of 65 recoveries since Tuesday.

There were six new hospitalizations overnight, and there are now 30 county residents hospitalized from the virus — a net increase of two. There are now three patients in intensive-care units, down from four yesterday.

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

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

For Albany County, the infection rate, also as of Tuesday, as a seven-day rolling average, was 2.0 percent.