ALBANY COUNTY — On Tuesday morning, Governor Andrew Cuomo rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange to commence the reopening of the trading floor for the first time since March 23.

Cuomo’s emphasis at his press briefing later in the day was on jumpstarting the state’s economy.

“We want the economy to come roaring back,” he said. He also commended the stock market for reopening “smarter than before — fewer people, wearing masks, new precautions.”

Cuomo announced that the Mid-Hudson Valley Region was reopening and that Long Island is on track to also start the first of four phases on Wednesday. Of the state’s 10 regions, that leaves just New York City, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, still on pause.

Cuomo also said he’d meet with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss infrastructure projects and that the state will fast-track construction of the new LaGuardia Airport and of the Empire Station at Penn while rail ridership and air traffic are down.

To further jumpstart the economy, the state, he said, will work to increase low cost renewable power downstate and production upstate with building of new cross-state transmission cables, expedite a power cable from Canada to New York City, and increase renewable energy resources.

At the same time, Cuomo said, statewide numbers show hospitalizations and intubations are down and the number of new COVID-19 cases is “down to the lowest level since this ever started, just about 200. Amen. Number of lives lost, 73. That's the lowest level that we have seen since this started.”

Similarly, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said at his Tuesday morning press briefing, “We haven’t had someone pass away since Thursday, which is really good news.” The county’s death toll from COVID-19 remains at 76.

Albany County has had 1,639 confirmed cases with 862 county residents under mandatory quarantine and five under precautionary quarantine.

So far, 4,378 residents have completed quarantine, with 1,200 of them having tested positive and recovered. That brings the county’s recovery rate up to 73.2 percent.

McCoy said that, during his daily 2 p.m. phone calls with others in the “control room,” that “the biggest conversation piece” has to do with hospitalization rates and available hospital beds, both needed to continue to meet the seven state-set required metrics.

“One of the alarming things,” said McCoy, “is we’re up to 33 in the hospitals; we jumped five.” Three county residents are in intensive-care units.

The hospitalization rate for Albany County stands at 2.01 percent, up from 1.7 percent yesterday.

McCoy said he’s heard people saying they’re “done with this and moving on.” The county executive responded emphatically, “But it’s not done with us.”

He urged county residents to get tested for COVID-19 because, if all goes well with the Capital Region’s metrics, Phase 2 businesses — more than half of the jobs in Albany County — are slated to reopen.

The average for the last five days of testing has been 12.2 cases per day.

So far, 1,377 county residents have used the walk-up testing sites in at-risk neighborhoods, McCoy said. “I wish that number was higher,” he said. “We need to get people to sign up.”

Both McCoy and Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said the past weekend was “quiet.”

“Very few complaints,” said Apple, speaking of violations of coronavirus protocols. The sheriff’s office has yet to fine any violators but, rather, has issued cease-and-desist warnings.

“It was a busy weekend crime-wise unfortunately. We did have to fire up our portable morgue for one day,” Apple said, noting that this was because of cooling problems at a local morgue, not because of a spike in COVID-19 deaths.

“Right now, heroin deaths in the Capital Region by far outpace COVID deaths,” Apple said. “That’s something we have to focus on,” he said as alcoholics and addicts can’t get to their meetings and “are regressing.”

“We’ve had a big spike and we’ve had some bad heroin and some bad cocaine come through the area,” said Apple.

While he said he believes education on the importance of social distancing and wearing masks has been working, Apple said, “I worry a lot about our mental health. I worry about those who are addicted getting help. I think that’s going to be our next battle.”

Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen urged county residents who have friends or family members who are addicted to get training, now provided by the county through videoconferencing rather than in person, on administering naloxone to prevent death in case of an overdose.

Whalen also said the public’s following of protocols has been successful in flattening the curve. She urged residents to continue with handwashing, social distancing, and wearing masks in public.

“We don’t know whether the decline in cases is related to a possible seasonal effect of COVID-19,” said Whalen. “We don’t know if we’ll be facing another surge in the fall, which is a concern of many at the national and international level.”

She urged residents to stay informed to protect themselves and their families.