ALBANY COUNTY — After five weeks in a row of being labeled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a high community level of COVID-19, Albany County this week was designated as having a medium level — the middle of three levels.

The county had been at a medium level for 13 weeks before being labeled “high.”

The weekly metrics the CDC used to determine the current medium level are: Albany County now has a case rate of about 107 per 100,000 of population and a COVID hospital admission rate of 17.6 per 100,000. Also, the county has 6.8 percent of its staffed hospital beds filled with COVID patients.

Just six counties in the state — Queens, Richmond, Orange, Broome, Tioga, and Hamilton — are designated “high” this week, which means masks should be worn indoors in public there. Most of the counties in the state, like Albany County, are labeled medium while 15 are labeled “low.”

The vast majority of counties in the nation — 79 percent — are labeled “low” while 19 percent, like Albany County, are “medium” and just 2 percent are labeled “high.”

Deaths from drug overdoses surge

This week, the state comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, released a report, “Continuing Crisis: Drug Overdose Deaths in New York,” showing that deaths from drug overdoses surged during the pandemic.

Nearly 5,000 New Yorkers died from 2019 to 2021 in deaths related to opioid use, an increase of 68 percent, the report showed.

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were the major cause of the spike.

Deaths from all drugs in 2021 totaled 5,841 statewide, topping the previous peak of 1,700 fatalities in 2017

In October 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency due to the consequences of the opioid crisis facing the nation, the report notes. That year, more than 70,000 people nationwide and nearly 4,000 New Yorkers lost their lives to a drug overdose.

“Since that time, fueled by the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis has grown substantially worse,” the report says. “In 2021, the number of deaths surged to nearly 107,000 nationally and more than 5,800 in New York.”

The share of drug overdose deaths in New York involving opioids increased to 85 percent in both 2020 and 2021, from 69 percent in 2010, the report says.

Fatalities and death rates grew across all racial and ethnic groups, increasing nearly five-fold for Black New Yorkers, quadrupling for Hispanic or Latino New Yorkers, and tripling for white New Yorkers, the report says.

In 2020, death rates were highest for white New Yorkers at 28.7 per 100,000 people.

In June 2021, when Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy was holding regular press conferences to keep the public informed about COVID-19, he said of the pandemic, “One of the things hit the hardest …. was people with addiction.”

At that point, halfway through 2021, there had been 37 confirmed opioid deaths in Albany County with another 13 suspected cases awaiting toxicology reports, which McCoy termed “alarming.” Fentanyl, he said, was present in 89 percent of the deaths.

He noted that in 2020, with the economic shutdown, Albany County suffered 99 opioid deaths, up from 62 in 2019 and 50 in 2017.

“We’ve gone backwards,” said McCoy, stating “Our opiate task force will be regrouping at the end of the month.”

“This year,” the report says of 2022, “the federal government issued a new comprehensive strategy to address drug overdoses, and New York and other states are receiving new resources from settlements with opioid manufacturers, distributors and others that provide an opportunity to bolster efforts to prevent abuse, support treatment and reduce harm in order to prevent as many drug overdose deaths as possible.”

Ten of fifteen counties have 2020 rates above the statewide average of 25.4 deaths per 100,000 population, the report notes; the 2020 rate is highest in Dutchess County, where drug overdoses exceeded the statewide average by 18 deaths per 100,000 population.

Albany County’s rate is over the statewide average. A graph in the report shows that Albany County had fewer than 10 overdose deaths in 2010, which soared to close to 30 in 2020.

Albany County is listed seventh among New York counties for the number of beds it has, per 100,000 people, for outpatient treatment of opioid-addicted patients.

Albany County has 750 treatment beds which comes to 239 per 100,000 of population. Manhattan has the most: 11,202 beds, which comes to 710 beds per 100,000, followed by the Bronx with 10,015 beds for 703 beds per 100,000 of population.

About half the counties in the state are listed as having zero treatment beds.

“Continuing Crisis” cites two studies, both in Pennsylvania, that found “the need to understand the motivations or drivers of misuse, including social determinants, in designing treatments, prevention efforts and broader public health strategies.” The CDC defines social determinants of health as “conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health and quality-of life-risks and outcomes.

“These conditions,” the report says, “which include economic stability, education, housing, and the physical and social environment, are considered among the most influential factors affecting the health of individuals.”

The report concludes, “Despite the declaration of a national public health emergency in 2017 and increased State investments to address the drug overdose crisis, the number of annual deaths caused by legal or illicit drug use has continued to rise …

“State leaders must ensure the most effective use of resources committed to addressing the crisis, including dedicated tax and settlement funding that becomes available, to adeptly respond to evolving trends in misuse and addiction in order to prevent as many drug overdose deaths as possible.”

“The data shows our battle against drug overdose deaths is far from over,” said DiNapoli in a statement, releasing the report. “State leaders must ensure an ongoing commitment of public resources and strategies, including new funding from legal settlements, and innovative, evidence-based solutions for the fight against this deadly epidemic to be effective.”

County COVID

This week, Albany County’s 139th of dealing with the coronavirus, the governor’s office reported six more Albany County residents had succumbed to the virus: Two COVID-related deaths were reported on Nov. 4 and four more on Nov. 8.

However, the county’s dashboard, as of Wednesday morning, Nov. 9, still shows a death toll of 593.

As of Nov. 7, according to Albany County’s COVID dashboard, the seven-day average for hospitalized COVID patients was 36.43, up from 32.71 last week but down from 37.57 two weeks ago and 41.00 three weeks ago but still up from 26.71 four weeks ago, 26.57 five weeks ago, 27.29 six weeks ago, 23.57 seven weeks ago, and a huge increase from eight weeks ago when the county’s seven-day average for hospitalized residents was 15.14.

About 40.5 percent of the Capital Region residents hospitalized with COVID this week were not admitted because of having the virus, according to a chart from the governor’s office.

Although figures on infection rates are no longer reliable since tracing and tracking systems have been disbanded, the state dashboard shows that cases statewide and in Albany County are leveling off after two months of climbing.

Albany County, as a seven-day average, now has 15.2 cases per 100,000 of population, down from 16.3 last week, 17.1 two weeks ago,  21.0 three weeks ago, 21.1 four weeks ago, 19.1 five weeks ago, 19.7 six weeks ago, 17.1 seven weeks ago, 16.3 eight weeks ago, 17.0 nine weeks ago, 17.3 ten weeks ago, 17.9 eleven weeks ago, 19.3 twelve weeks ago, and 21.8 cases per 100,000 thirteen weeks ago.

This compares with 20.9 cases per 100,000 statewide, which is up slightly from 20.1 last week and up from 18.9 two weeks ago, 20.3 three weeks ago, 19.9 cases four weeks ago, but down from 21.4 five weeks ago, 23.4 cases six weeks ago, 22.2 seven weeks ago, but up from 18.6 cases eight weeks ago, while down from 21.1 cases nine weeks ago, 23.0 ten weeks ago, 25.6 eleven weeks ago, and 30.03 per 100,000 of population 12 weeks ago.

The lowest rates are in Central New York at 11.64 cases per 100,000 population. The highest count is now in New York City at 24.89.

The numbers for vaccination in Albany County have hardly budged for several months.

As of Tuesday, 61.6 percent of eligible residents had received booster shots, according to the state’s dashboard, the same as last week and the week before. At the same time, 75.4 percent of county residents had completed a vaccination series, also the same as last week.

This compares with 79.7 percent of New Yorkers statewide completing a vaccination series, up slightly from last week’s 79.6 percent, 79.4 percent two weeks ago, 79.3 three weeks ago, and 79.1 percent four weeks ago.

The shift in the prevalence of Omicron sublineages as continued this week.

The once-dominant BA.5 now makes up about 39 percent of new COVID cases nationwide.

In Region 2 — New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands — the spread of the new sublineals is even more pronounced.

For the week between Oct. 30 and Nov. 5, BA.5 now makes up just roughly 25 percent of the cases while BQ.1 is now dominant at roughly 29 percent.

BQ.1.1 makes up roughly 24 percent, BA.4.6 makes up 8 percent, and BF.7 makes up about 7 percent; the other sublineages each make up 3 percent or less.

The bivalent booster shot was designed to combat BA.4, which is now almost nonexistent, and BA.5 and so may still be effective against its similarly highly contagious descendants.

New Yorkers are being encouraged by the state’s health department to get bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech for anyone age 5 or older and from Moderna for those 6 or older.

To schedule an appointment for a booster, New Yorkers are to contact their local pharmacy, county health department, or healthcare provider; visit vaccines.gov; text their ZIP code to 438829, or call 1-800-232-0233 to find nearby locations.