ALBANY COUNTY — For the first time since June 23, Albany County had no new cases of COVID-19 to report on Tuesday.

“We are moving in the right direction,” said County Executive Daniel McCoy at his Tuesday morning press briefing. “Things are starting to open up. I know it’s been like that slow drip of the drain.”

He went on, “There’s a reason why … We got such a high infection rate and the hospitalization rate went through the roof and unfortunately we lost 131 people here in Albany County.”

So far, the county has opened four gyms, McCoy said, following state guidelines. The governor announced gyms, once they pass county inspections, could start reopening on Monday.

McCoy urged gym owners to go to the county’s website to fill out a request for an inspection.

 “There’s a lot more than I thought,” said McCoy of gyms in Albany County.

Inspecting gyms is a new duty for the county’s health department, said Elizabeth Whalen,who heads the department. Members of her department’s environmental-health division are working with staff from other county departments to do the inspections, she said.

They are making sure the gyms are following state guidelines on social distancing, seeing that clients are at one-third capacity, assuring that equipment is disinfected between uses, and seeing that the air-filtration systems are compliant.

The filtration systems pose “the biggest challenge,” Whalen said.

If concerns are raised, after the inspections, about compliance at gyms, Whalen said, “We’ll reach back out and see how problems can be rectified.”

“It’s been a busy week,” Whalen said, noting she had Zoom meetings both with school nurses and with school superintendents.

Schools, she said, are “not a zero-risk environment” and students and staff must follow protocols for social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand-washing.

“We are looking at a big change in the next couple of weeks,” said Whalen, noting that not only are public schools reopening but students are returning to local colleges and universities.

Also, Whalen said, “We’re coming into flu season. I would like to urge everyone to get a flu shot as soon as possible.”

McCoy went over Governor Andrew Cuomo’s directives on high school sports. Tennis, soccer, field hockey, cross-country running, and swimming can start on Sept. 21. 

Athletes in close-contact sports like football, ice hockey, wrestling, and rugby will be allowed to practice but not play games.

No traveling to games will be allowed outside of a school’s region until Oct. 19.

Because of the economic fallout from the coronavirus shutdown, resulting in a loss of sales-tax among otherrevenues, Albany County has offered $15,000 to workers who qualify to resign.

“We’re well over 60 people today,” McCoy said of the number of county employees who plan to resign.

He also said, “The list is getting bigger than we anticipated. The last thing I want to do is lay anyone off … We’re in a lot of trouble.”

Newest numbers

Albany County still has had 2,458 cases of COVID-19 with no new cases since yesterday. The number of county residents under quarantine has dropped to 523 from 528

The five-day average for new daily positives has decreased to 3.2 from 4.4 on Monday. There are now 22 active cases, down from 25 a day ago.

So far, 9,187 Albany County residents have completed quarantine. Of those who completed quarantine, 2,436 of them had tested positive and recovered, an increase of three.

The number of county residents hospitalized with COVID-19 increased from seven to eight, with one in an intensive-care unit. The hospitalization rate went from 0.28 percent to 0.32 percent.