ALBANY COUNTY — On Saturday morning, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy announced another resident has died of COVID-19 — a person in their sixties — bringing the county’s death toll from the virus to 416.

He also announced 139 new cases of COVID-19 and said in a statement, “Three days in a row we’ve reported over 100 new positive cases and sadly, another Albany County resident has lost their life to COVID-19. We know the virus is not going away but we need to get people vaccinated and to follow CDC recommendations to stop the spread and protect those who are vulnerable.”

As of Friday, 72.2 percent of all county residents have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, and 66.2 percent have been fully vaccinated.

The state, led by Governor Kathy Hochul, continues to pursue requirements that health-care workers be vaccinated against COVID-19.

In a statement on Friday, Hochul applauded Attorney General Letitia James’s challenge of the lower court’s decision on the religious exemption to the vaccine requirement. “New York will continue to lead the nation in taking bold action on vaccines, which are our best weapon in defeating this virus,” said Hochul.

Both Hochul and James are Democrats. Hochul, after replacing Andrew Cuomo as governor on Aug. 24, has said she will run for election in 2022; James, whose report claimed Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women and helped lead to his resignation, has suggested she may run for governor.

Also on Friday, Rob Ortt, Republican leader of the State Senate, along with members of the Senate Republican Conference, called for action to help alleviate staffing issues at health-care facilities and for home-care patients.

Staffing shortages at facilities have been worsened by the vaccination mandate placed on health-care workers that went into effect on Sept. 27, the conference said in a release, which has led to forced closures and reductions in services and quality of care at already under-staffed facilities.

“Lack of an alternative testing option has created an untenable situation with decreased services, longer wait times, and an overall lower quality of care for New Yorkers,” said Ortt in the release.

The Republicans are proposing bills and action items to provide incentives for health-care workers. These include expanding scholarships for nurses; creating a fund to “improve the healthcare workforce pipeline”; allowing graduates to practice, under supervision, for 180 days until they are able to get licensed; providing loan forgiveness; and calling for interstate professional licensing reciprocity; ensuring nursing homes are not penalized for workforce staffing shortages.

Also: requiring an impact analysis on any new legislation or regulation on health-care facilities; requiring the state’s health department to disclose data on staffing shortages in health-care facilities; expanding the BOCES pilot to allow for earlier entry into a career as a direct service provider; addressing the state’s inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates; and directing salary increases and a statutory cost-of-living adjustment to support the direct-care workforce.

Boosters

The advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration has made two recent recommendations regarding booster shots for COVID-19 vaccination.

The panel recommended a booster shot for the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine for everyone 18 and older two months after the first shot.

This differs from the recommendations for the messenger RNA vaccines — PfizerBioNTech and Moderna — for which boosters are to be given six months after the second shot and only to those 65 and older or who meet certain work and medical requirements.

The FDA panel recommended a half-dose for the Moderna booster as opposed to the full-dose that had been recommended for Pfizer recipients.