Capital Region tests below 3 percent positive with 60 more cases in Albany County

Tuesday, November 17, 2020 - 22:07

— From the Albany County COVID-19 Dashboard

COVID-19 cases spiked on Saturday. Since then, daily counts have been in the sixties.

ALBANY COUNTY — As the state continues its strategy of tamping down micro-clusters of COVID-19, Albany County, while experiencing a surge, has remained under the threshold that would bring new restrictions.

On Tuesday, the positive testing rate in all of the micro-cluster zones, based on Monday’s results, was 4.89 percent. The positivity rate statewide, including those zones, was 3.18 percent.

The Capital Region, of which Albany County is a part, had a rate of 2.8 percent.

The lowest rate in all of the state’s 10 regions was the Southern Tier at 0.7 percent. The highest rate was 6.5 percent in Western New York.

“Our micro-cluster strategy and testing capacity will help us through this new season, but ensuring we don’t go back to where we were in the spring is going to depend on our behavior,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo in a statement, releasing the new numbers. “We all have a part to play — wear a mask, stay socially distant, avoid gatherings large and small, and wash your hands religiously. Our actions today determine our rate of positive cases tomorrow; it’s that simple.”

As of Tuesday morning, Albany County has 4,584 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to a release from the office of Albany County Executive Daniel Mccoy. This includes  60 new cases since Monday.

Of the new cases, 13 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, five reported traveling out of state, 37 did not have a clear source of infection identified at this time, and five are health-care workers or residents of congregate settings.

Separately, one of the new cases is associated with the University at Albany.

Currently, 1,825 Albany County residents are under quarantine, down from 1,839. The five-day average for new daily positives decreased to 82 from 85.4. There are now 661 active cases in the county, up from 615 on Monday.

So far, 19,371 county residents have completed quarantine. Of those, 3,923 had tested positive and recovered.

Four county residents were hospitalized with COVID-19 overnight. Ten of the 40 hospitalized residents are in intensive-care units. The county’s hospitalization rate has gone up slightly to 0.87 percent from 0.81 percent.

Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 147.

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