ALBANY COUNTY — On Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo released much anticipated guidance for the new metrics that will define micro-cluster zones as part of his winter plan to combat COVID-19.

The data will be calculated using the new metrics over the weekend, he said, and any new zones will be announced on Monday.

“If you are a yellow zone or if you are an orange zone, this is all determined on the facts and what it is saying is, in your community you have a problem,” said Cuomo during a lengthy press conference on Friday. “It’s not somewhere else. It’s your community. It’s your grocery store, it’s your church, it’s your temple, it’s your mosque, it’s your block, and you can make a difference in your community and it means you have to take it seriously.”

The former metrics for red, orange, and yellow zones were based on infection rates. The new metrics focus on hospital capacity:

— A red zone will be implemented in a region where hospital capacity is within 21 days of reaching 90 percent, even after the cancellation of elective procedures and a 50 percent increase in bed capacity in hospitals in the region;

— An orange zone will be declared if an area has a 4-percent positivity rate (seven-day average) over the last 10 days and it is located in a region that has reached 85 percent hospital capacity. Alternatively, a geographic area may also become an orange zone if the state’s health department determines the area or region’s rate of hospital admissions is unacceptably high and a zone designation is appropriate to control the rate of growth; and

— A yellow zone will be designated if an area has a 3-percent positivity rate (seven-day average) over the past 10 days and is in the top 10 percent in the state for hospital admissions per capita over the past week and is experiencing week-over-week growth in daily admissions.

Also on Friday, the state’s health department issued a directive for hospitals to take steps to remain below 85 percent capacity by either adding an additional 25 percent of capacity, eliminating elective surgeries, or by taking a combination of both steps.

Beginning on Monday, indoor dining will be suspended in New York City restaurants, Cuomo said, and the rules for gyms and health-care venues, like hair salons and barber shops, have been changed.

Because state data shows businesses that have been following guidance from the state’s health department have reduced the spread of the virus, gyms and personal-care shops in orange zones may operate, with restrictions, starting on Monday.

Gyms will be allowed to operate at 25-percent capacity. Personal-care businesses can perform services as long as workers are tested weekly for COVID-19 and obtain negative test results before opening.

Cuomo said that New York State, unlike many other states that either entirely open or close activities, is using “a constant calibration.” The goal is to balance economic and social activity with public health, he said, following the data and metrics.

Vaccine

On Thursday, a panel of experts formally recommended that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for people 16 and older.

Cuomo had set up an advisory panel in New York to review the FDA’s process, which he thought would instill confidence in New Yorkers to take the vaccine.

New York’s health commissioner, Howard Zucker, met with the state’s panel on Thursday night, Cuomo said at Friday’s press conference.

“The New York State clinical advisory task force has approved unanimously the FDA decision to go forward with the vaccine, so that’s good news, and we notified the FDA of that,” Cuomo said. “Obviously there was no delay whatsoever in the timing, and New Yorkers will have more confidence.”

The first of New York’s initial 170,000 doses are to go to nursing home residents and staff and to high-risk health-care workers.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said at his press conference on Friday morning that the first injections of the vaccine will be given at Shaker Place, the county’s nursing home, on Dec. 21. To be fully effective, two shots are needed.

A second dose will be given to the first Shaker Place group on Jan. 11 when a second group will be inoculated for the first time, with final shots on Feb. 1.

The vaccinations will be administered by Walgreens.

Newest numbers

Three more Albany County residents have died of COVID-19 and the county, since yesterday, has 177 more confirmed cases of the virus, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy announced on Friday morning. 

Statewide, the positivity rate, based on Thursday’s test results, was 4.98 percent. The Capital Region, of which Albany County is a part, had a rate of 5.45 percent.

Currently, 244 Capital Region residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, which is 0.02 percent of the population and leaves 27 percent of the region’s hospital beds available. Statewide, 0.03 percent of the population is hospitalized with COVID-19 and 22 percent of hospital beds are available.

In the Capital Region, 177 ICU beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients, leaving 45 percent of ICU beds available. Statewide, 35 percent of ICU beds are available.

As of Friday morning, Albany County has had 7,452 confirmed cases of COVID-19, McCoy reported.

Of the 177 new cases, 21 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, 141 did not have a clear source of infection identified at this time, and 15 are health-care workers or residents of congregate settings. 

The five-day average for new daily positives increased to 176.8 from 170. There are now 1,505 active cases in the county, a large jump from 1,400 yesterday.

The number of people under quarantine increased to 2,546 from 2,413. So far, 27,399 people have completed quarantine. Of those, 5,947 had tested positive and recovered. 

There were 10 new hospitalizations overnight, and there are 80 county residents currently hospitalized from the virus — a net decrease of 18. Fifteen patients are under intensive care, up from 14 on Thursday.

All three of the county residents who succumbed to COVID-19 on Thursday — two men and one woman — were in their nineties and had underlying health conditions.

This brings Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll to 175.