ALBANY COUNTY — The death toll from COVID-19 now stands at eight for Albany County. Two more patients died Saturday night — a man in his 70s and a woman in her 60s.

All eight have been over age 60 and each has had underlying health issues, according to Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy who made the announcement at his Sunday morning press briefing.

He also announced there are now 288 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Albany County with 384 people under mandatory quarantine and 72 people under precautionary quarantine.

Thirty-eight COVID-19 patients are hospitalized with 13 of them in intensive-care units. The hospitalization rate for the county stands at just over 13 percent of those who have tested positive for the disease.

McCoy said the outbreak in the county, now in its fourth week, is not expected to peak for another 18 days, naming April 23 as a potential apex for the outbreaks. “It’s going to get worse … We’re going to get to the top and then we’ll go down,” he said.

McCoy said he’d received queries after his statement at Saturday’s briefing that COVID-19 hospital patients are dying without their families at their bedside. “Hospitals are shut down,” he said, explaining that, even for surgeries or childbirth, family members are not allowed.

Referring to doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff, McCoy said, “They have people around that are compassionate and loving but not their family.”

Addressing kids in the county whom he still sees gathering, McCoy said, “I’m totally amazed at the lack of understanding of the situation you are in … They think it’s this big joke. It’s not. I hope to God I don’t have to come in here tomorrow” and announce more deaths, he said.

The community testing that begins Monday, at the University at Albany uptown campus, will “be more” than the testing that was closed down two weeks ago, McCoy said, estimating that the number of confirmed cases next week for the county will “be in the range of 900.”

Staff from Albany Medical Center and St. Peter’s Health Partners will perform the tests at a mobile drive-through test site at the Colonial Quad parking lot of the UAlbany main campus at 1400 Washington Ave.

The site opens on Monday, April 6, at 10 a.m. and will be open every day of the week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. No walk-ins are allowed and all patients must be in a vehicle with an appointment made ahead by calling 888-364-3065. Those who have the highest risk of contracting COVID-19 will be prioritized.

Also on Sunday morning, Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed 8,327 additional cases of novel coronavirus statewide, bringing New York’s total to 122,031. Most of those cases are downstate with more than half — 67,551 — in New York City.

At the same time, the governor said in his daily press briefing, that the federal government is deploying about 1,000 people — including doctors, nurses, respiratory technicians, and therapists — to New York State to help the state’s overwhelmed hospital systems. The first 325 will be deployed to the New York City hospital system on Sunday.

At the county level, the health department continues to map and track people exposed to coronavirus disease 2019.

Since the cashier at at Popeye’s at 900 Central Ave. in Albany tested positive for COVID-19, the county is asking anyone who was at the restaurant on Monday, March 23, from 4 to10 p.m. or Wednesday, March 25, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. to call the county’s health department right away at 518-447-4580. Popeye’s customers are also asked to stay home under precautionary quarantine until April 6 for those exposed on March 23 or April 8 for those exposed on March 25.