Elizabeth Whalen, Albany County’s health commissioner, said the question her staff hears most often is: What does it mean to be under quarantine?

Quarantine, Whalen explained at a press conference Tuesday, is a legal designation for individuals who have had known contact with someone who has COVID-19.

Albany County currently has 517 people under mandatory quarantine and 234 people under precautionary quarantine. People under both kinds of quarantine follow the same regimen: They stay at home, keep separate from others in their home; and use their own bathroom or, if there is just one bathroom in a shared home, disinfect it after use.

People who are placed under a legal quarantine by the health department have their cases followed by the department, Whalen said.

Albany County now has 210 confirmed cases of COVID-19, up from 199 on Monday. Nineteen patients are hospitalized with the disease and eight adults are in intensive-care units, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said Tuesday. The hospitalization rate for the county now stands at just over 9 percent.

“If we were testing, that number would be in 500,” said McCoy of confirmed cases.

Community testing in Albany County stopped because test kits from the federal government are in short supply. Now only hospital patients and exposed health-care workers are being tested.

Whalen said she believes the disease is widespread in the community. She repeated that the two pillars of controlling infectious diseases are to conduct widespread testing and to practice social distancing.

Without the community testing, Whalen said, “We have to focus on what we have left … stay home.”

If someone in a quarantined household is sick with COVID-19, Whalen advised reaching out to the patient’s doctor and to the county health department. The sick person should stay in a separate room, she said. He should have his temperature monitored, and be given Tylenol and adequate fluids.

Although particular caution should be exercised in households with residents over 60 or with co-existing medical conditions, “No one is immune from potential complications,” said Whalen.

“If someone develops shortness of breath,” said Whalen, that person should be evaluated at a hospital’s emergency department.

Asked about hotspots for COVID-19 within the county, Whalen said that, because of limited testing, “The geographic information we have would not be an accurate representation.”

Whalen stressed again the importance of staying six feet away from others, cleaning surfaces, and washing hands. Hands should be kept away from faces and Whalen suggested people could make and wear their own masks as a tool to make them aware of face-touching. 

McCoy said that 25 National Guard members began today to distribute over 19,000 pounds of food from the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York to quarantined households. “We have your backs,” he said.

He also announced that the county’s health department has identified 8,000 N95 masks. Sixty percent of the masks will go to hospitals and the rest will be “divied up for first responders,” McCoy said.