ALBANY COUNTY — The Capital Region has yet to meet two of the seven metrics set out by Governor Andrew Cuomo for reopening when the “pause,” meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus, is lifted on May 15.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said at his Tuesday morning briefing, “Our report is pretty much done; we’re just waiting for sign-off from other counties.” In addition to Albany County, the Capital Region includes Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, and Washington counties.

Three of the 10 regions in the state have already met the metrics to begin reopening on May 15.

McCoy said the hospitals in Albany County that draw from outside the region — he named Albany Medical Center and St. Peter’s — have patients that shouldn’t count against the region when figuring the metrics.

“On the earlier metric, we met that requirement,” said McCoy of the hospitalization rate. “Under the new metric, we did not.”

He also said that the region has a large number of nursing homes, which he called “ground zero” for COVID-19. “The death rate is kind of hard,” he said.

He went on, “We’re dealing with it the best we can so we’ve asked for guidance for that not to contribute to our number, which we have not gotten back.”

In the phased reopening, manufacturing and construction are to be first. McCoy said his region is looking for clarification on reopening barber shops, beauty salons, gyms, and places of worship, which he said haven’t been addressed by the state.

“I know some people are defying it and opening up so we need to address that … We need more information from the state.”

McCoy said the county is looking at staggering shifts so employees, once they return to work, can spread out and, for the same reason, is also looking at setting up working spaces in the hockey facility and the Times Union Center.

Albany County’s health commissioner, Elizabeth Whalen, called the recent county testing results “encouraging” stating that the numbers are “on a downward trend.”

Although the results are too premature — just three days’ worth — from the expanded testing for asymptomatic workers at the state’s drive-through facility at the University at Albany’s uptown campus, which amounted to 50 to 100 more per day, there has been no increase in positive results.

The average remains about 19.6 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 each day.

Altogether, the county, as of Tuesday, has 1,375 confirmed cases, with 913 residents in mandatory quarantine and 17 in precautionary quarantine.

So far, 3,380 Albany County residents have completed quarantine and 837 residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered.

Priority 1 Urgent Care in Guilderland started doing antibody testing on Tuesday, McCoy announced, in addition to the diagnostic testing it already had been doing.

Both McCoy and Whalen talked about difficulties in carrying out the new directive from Cuomo to have all nursing-home residents and staff tested twice weekly for COVID-19. McCoy said the county had been looking for guidance from the state for the last three weeks.

“I don’t know how you do that,” said McCoy of the requirement to test twice weekly. He said lab results may not even be back from one test by the time the next test is administered. He also said the testing is uncomfortable.

“Nobody likes getting swabbed down that far down their nostrils,” he said.

“We want to comply,” said McCoy but implored of the state, “DOH, please give us guidance on how this is going to be done.”

Whalen said, “In terms of the nursing homes, we are working closely with the state’s Department of Health and our nursing homes to ensure that we can move forward with the point prevalence initiative.”

Point prevalence surveys are structured to collect uniform data from multiple sites over a specific period of time.

“Our nursing homes have all been very cooperatie on this; many of them have done this testing very recently,” said Whalen. “So right now we’re working with them to fill in the gaps. We’ve received extra test kits from the state’s department of health.”

The twice-weekly testing, Whalen said, “is a layer above what’s being done.” Currently, workers entering a nursing home — no visitors are allowed — are screened by having their temperatures taken and are given personal protective equipment.

Whalen said the point prevalence initiative is “good from an infection-control perspective” since, she said, there have been incidences of people without symptoms unwittingly spreading the disease. People with COVID-19 have been kept under quarantine “until such time as they don’t present a danger to the resident they work with.”

However, Whalen also said that  there are practical concerns that need to be dealt with, such as having the resources — including staffing and labs — to carry the point prevalence survey.