County’s COVID-19 death toll climbs to 30

ALBANY COUNTY — Another Albany County resident died of COVID-19 Wednesday night, bringing the county’s death toll from the disease to 30.

The patient was a woman in her nineties. Like most of the others who have died from coronavirus disease 2019 in Albany County, she had underlying health conditions.

“We still love these people,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy, responding to those whom he said had minimized deaths of the elderly. “It’s someone’s mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, friend. It’s a sad situation.”

The county now has 739 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 772 residents under mandatory quarantine and 54 under precautionary quarantine.

Altogether, 1,825 people have completed quarantine with 401 who tested positive having recovered.

“We continue to see our numbers plateau,” said Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen, with 20 to 30 cases per day, at Thursday’s county press briefing.

Albany County’s hospitalization rate has been “very low,” she said. Thirty-one county residents are now hospitalized with the disease, with seven of them in intensive-care units. The hospitalization rate for the county now stands at 4.19 percent of those who have tested positive for the disease.

Whalen advised residents on the importance of continuing to manage their underlying health issues.

With the initial community diagnostic testing, 7 to 7.5 percent of county residents who were tested had positive results, said Whalen.

Now, that percentage is at 9.8 percent, Whalen said, adding that roughly 1 in 10 residents who have been tested in Albany County for COVID-19 have tested positive.

In addition to the drive-through facility the state is running at the uptown University at Albany campus, the county, working with the Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center, has set up four walk-up testing sites in high-risk neighborhoods. So far, about 300 people have been tested in the walk-up sites, McCoy said.

Additionally, the federal health department, working with Rite Aid and the county has set up a drive-through site in Colonie.

McCoy said on Thursday that he is helping neighboring counties that are also wanting to set up mobile testing.

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