ALBANY COUNTY — While Albany county Executive Daniel McCoy was pounding his chest on Friday about having the second-lowest COVID-19 percentage of positive tests in the state, on Monday, he was warning of a spike in the Capital Region.

“Unfortunately, we’re seeing a bit of an uptick in the Capital Region,” he said at his morning press briefing. “A report from the governor yesterday found we had the highest percentage of positives in the state, at 2 percent.”

The next highest was New York City, at 1.3 percent. The city had been the epicenter of the disease and is weeks behind the Capital Region in reopening.

Rensselaer County, one of the eight counties in the Capital Region, had 23 cases linked to people traveling back from Georgia, said Mccoy, adding that the travelers had been at a Fourth of July party without social distancing.

On Monday, during a press briefing with Keisha Lance Bottoms, mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York State will deploy testing and contact-tracing teams to Atlanta as the city has spikes in COVID-19 cases. 

“Anything we can do for you, for the city, we stand ready. We remember how good the people across this country were to us,” Cuomo told Bottoms.

“I had no idea that we would have to go it alone in so many ways,” said Bottoms, a Democrat. “I thought that it was more geared toward the lack of leadership we have at the federal level, but it has been equally challenging at the statewide level.” Georgia has a Republican governor, Brian Kemp.

Bottoms went on, “My family is an example of what’s happening across this country. We had an asymptomatic child in our home for eight days before we knew that that child was asymptomatic and by that time, my husband and I had contracted COVID. Unnecessarily I would imagine, because we would have taken precautions to protect ourselves.”

She also said, “We’re headed in the wrong direction. So the city, we’ve recommended we go back to phase one, which is essentially a stay-at-home order. Also, we’ve instituted a mask mandate … Unless we have a coordinated approach across this country, we are going to continue to unnecessarily watch people die.

“And what makes it even more frustrating and even more disappointing, we didn’t have to look to Italy; we could look to New York, and you told us very clearly that, if we didn't do things differently in our cities and states, we will find ourselves in the same situation that New York was facing, and unfortunately you were correct because throughout the South especially we are getting there in rapid order.”

Cuomo responded, “We have a cluster of cases in an upstate county called Rensselaer — people came up from Georgia; they had the virus and they infected New York and then it took off. So, you are on exactly the right track. Anything we can do to help, we’re at a stable period now, we have the virus way down low.”

Enforcement

Also on Monday, Cuomo announced that enforcement teams will be stationed at Port Authority and regional airports, including Albany’s, starting Tuesday to request proof of completion of the traveler form required by the state’s health department.

Travelers coming from states with high rates of coronavirus are required to fill out the form and self-quarantine for 14 days. The form is now available electronically.

Albany County’s airport will have enforcement teams on site daily based on daily arrivals from impacted states.

Travelers who leave the airport without completing the form will be subject to a $2,000 fine and may be brought to a hearing and ordered to complete mandatory quarantine.

Airlines are to help make passengers aware of the new requirement using preflight emails, pre-flight announcements, and in-flight announcements.

On June 24, Cuomo along with the governors of  New Jersey and Connecticut, announced that travelers from eight states would need to self-quarantine; that number grew to 16 and now stands at 19 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

The criteria for required quarantine is based upon a seven day rolling average of positive tests in excess of 10 percent, or number of positive cases exceeding 10 per 100,000 residents.

“New York's success in fighting the COVID-19 virus is under two threats: lack of compliance and the virus coming to New York from other states with increasing infection rates,” Cuomo said in announcing the enforcement teams. “We have already implemented a quarantine order for travelers coming in from states with the highest infection rates, but we are experiencing non-compliance with the order that can lead to outbreaks and threaten the tremendous progress we've already made.”

Additionally, travelers coming to New York from designated states through other means of transport, including trains and cars, must fill out the traveler form online.

Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen said that her health department has seen people come back from one of the listed states, feel fine, and test negative. But then, after having exposed others, they test positive a few days later.

She stressed the importance of following the 14-day quarantine period.

McCoy said that, in Albany County, snowbirds are coming back and not self-quarantining thereby spreading COVID-19 without knowing it.

“A big concern”

McCoy also said that the majority of the 25 cases reported over the weekend — 16 females and nine males — came from congregant settings, including nursing homes; eight cases were connected to three different nursing homes. The county’s nursing home, Shaker Place, was not one of them, McCoy said.

On Friday, it was announced that, after months of no visitors, nursing homes were allowed to resume limited visits starting Monday as long as they had gone 28 days without a new case of the coronavirus disease 2019.

Albany County now has 2,007 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 10 since Sunday, with 413 people under quarantine. The five-day average for new daily positive cases has now ticked up to 10.4, up from 8.8 on Sunday.

There are currently 43 active cases of COVID-19 in Albany County. So far, 6,068 residents have completed quarantine, with 1,964 of them having tested positive and recovered.

Two county residents are hospitalized and the hospitalization rate is now 0.09 percent.

No COVID-19 deaths have been reported since June 24, keeping the death toll for Albany County at 121.

“We’re starting to see a slight uptick in cases, which is a big concern,” said Commissioner Whalen, noting, “It only takes a small number of cases to start … exponential growth of COVID in the county.”

Addressing the public, Whalen said that keeping the number of new cases low is “entirely dependent on your behavior.”

She stressed the importance of remaining vigilant about wearing a mask correctly, not exposing nose or chin; practicing social distancing; and hand hygiene.

Whalen said residents are familiar with these oft-repeated three rules but went on, “We see a gap in what people know and what people do.”

Without an effective vaccine and with 98 percent of residents susceptible to COVID-19, Whalen said, it’s essential to follow protocols so vulnerable people won’t die.

She gave a shout-out to her father, Dr. Michael Whalen, a survivor of Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, who turned 80 on Monday and whom she described as an excellent physician and mentor.

“Think of your family members …,” urged Whalen. “Keep us all safe.”