ALBANY COUNTY — “It’s two days after the election and the virus is still here,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy as he opened his press briefing Thursday morning.

For months, he reported people’s skepticism that the coronavirus 2019 was a political ploy.

“Unfortunately, we’re going in the wrong direction,” he said.

The United States yesterday reported over 100,000 new cases of COVID-19, the highest single-day tally of any nation in the world.

McCoy noted that France, Germany, and the United Kingdom were all shutting down again to stem the spread of the virus.

Albany County continues with its autumn surge. McCoy reported 43 new cases overnight with 29 county residents hospitalized with the virus.

“We haven’t had 29 in the hospital since late May,” said McCoy.

He called “unfortunate” the many Halloween parties, with pictures posted on social media, and thanked the local Democrats for not gathering on Election Night.

McCoy commended Jim Malatras, chancellor of the State University of New York system for having students tested for COVID-19 before they leave campuses to go home for Thanksgiving.

Since the sprawling system began tracking COVID-19 cases on its 64 campuses, on Aug. 28, so far 3,525 cases have been estimated by the SUNY COVID-19 Tracker; 206 of those cases have been at the University of Albany.

McCoy stressed, “If you’re positive, you have to quarantine for 14 days.”

He also said that a local restaurant worker who had tested positive was told to work to the end of the shift. “These businesses should know better,” he said.

“It’s time to start doubling down on the preventative measures instead of loosening restrictions,” said Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen.

She noted that schools had been in session for about two months and said that about 15 percent of the county’s COVID-19 cases had come from students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Whalen urged parents to keep their children home when they are sick and to get them tested.

“All tests are not equal,” said Whalen.

If someone with COVID-19 symptoms, like a fever and cough, tests positive with a rapid test, Whalen said that would be reliable.

“We have seen instances where these tests are false negatives,” she said of the rapid tests.

Whalen recommended that people with symptoms, even if they test negative with a rapid test, should get a laboratory test, called a PCR for polymerase chain reaction, as well. This way people with symptoms will be sure they don’t have COVID-19.

“Rapid tests are still very effective for screening,” said Whalen.

Newest numbers

Statewide, New York’s positivity rate, based on test results from Wednesday, was 1.86, Governor Andrew Cuomo reported in a press release on Thursday.

This includes over-tested areas where there are micro-clusters of the disease; the rate in those focus zones was 3.04 percent.

The Capital Region, of which Albany County is a part, had a positivity rate of 1.3 percent. Just two of the state’s 10 regions had rates below the targeted 1 percent: the Mohawk Valley at 0.8 percent and the North Country at 0.6 percent.

The Finger Lakes had the highest rate at 3.7 percent.

As of Thursday morning, Albany County had 3,746 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Of the 43 new cases, 24 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, one reported traveling out of state, nine did not have a clear source of infection identified at this time, and nine are health-care workers or residents of a congregate setting.

Currently, 1,243 county residents are under quarantine, up from 1,237. The five-day average for new daily positives jumped to 29.2 from 26. There are now 205 active cases in the county, up from 186 on Wednesday.

So far, 17,137 people have completed quarantine. Of those, 3,541 had tested positive and recovered. 

Two of the county’s 29 hospitalized patients are in intensive-care units. The county’s hospitalization rate has gone up to 0.77 percent from 0.72 percent.

Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 142.