Albany County suffers 134th COVID-19 death

ALBANY COUNTY — Twenty-eight new cases of COVID-19 were reported Saturday morning by the Albany County Executive’s Office along with the county’s 134th death from the virus.

The victim was a man in his seventies with underlying health conditions.

Twenty-three of the 28 new cases are connected to the University at Albany. However, the Albany County Department of Health noted in a release from the county executive’s office that these are not 23 more than the 40 reported by the university on Friday. This reflects the numbers now actually registering in the official CommCare system.

Among the new positives reported Saturday, 24 had close contact with people infected with the disease, two have traveled, and two did not have a clear source of infection determined at this time.

As of Saturday morning, Albany County has a total of 2,655 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 with 415 residents under quarantine, up from 393 on Friday.

The five-day average for new daily positives has jumped to 16.4 from 11.6. There are now 89 active cases in the county.

So far, 10,410 county residents have completed quarantine. Of those who completed quarantine, 2,566 of them had tested positive and recovered.

Eleven Albany County residents are hospitalized with the disease and the county’s hospitalization rate is 0.41 percent.

Also on Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a new record-high number of test results — 102,925 — were reported to New York State on Friday.

Friday’s infection rate of 0.82 percent marked the 36th straight day that it has been below 1 percent. No deaths were reported in New York City yesterday.

The governor, like the county executive, continues to push the importance of residents — with symptoms or without — getting tested.

“Testing is a cornerstone of our efforts to keep New Yorkers safe from COVID-19. The more testing you do, the more accurate a picture of the virus’s spread you have,” Cuomo said in a press release Saturday, announcing the latest results.

Of the 102,925 test results reported to New York State yesterday, 849, or 0.82 percent, were positive. 

In the Capital Region, of which Albany County is a part, 1.0 percent were positive. The higest percentage of positives was in Western New York at 1.5 percent followed by Long Island at 1.4 percent.

As usual, the North Country had the lowest rate of the state’s 10 regions at 0.1 percent.

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