ALBANY COUNTY — Elizabeth Whalen, the county’s health commissioner, did not mince words at this morning’s press conference: “Your individual decision as a healthy adult could save a life. Please take it that seriously because it’s true,” she said.

County Executive Daniel McCoy announced there are now 15 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease in Albany County, with one of those patients in the hospital. There are 90 mandatory quarantines and 367 precautionary quarantines — a number that has been as high as 500.

“We’re aggressively testing,” said McCoy, complimenting Governor Andrew Cuomo’s initiative in pushing the federal government to allow New York to set up its own testing and to use private labs.

Today, Cuomo along with the governors of two neighboring states — New Jersey’s Phil Murphy and Connecticut’s Ned Lamont — announced that, with the lack of federal direction and nationwide standards, they are taking a regional, tri-state approach to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Effective at 8 p.m. tonight:

— Crowd capacity for social and recreational gatherings is limited to 50 people;

— Restaurants and bars will close for on-premise service and move to take-out and delivery services only; they will be provided a waiver for carry-out alcohol; and

— Movie theaters, gyms, and casinos are closed.

In Albany County, Whalen said, the ages of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 range from 13 to 74. Just two of 15 confirmed cases were travelers — one had been to Italy and the other to Ireland.

“The others are community acquired,” she said. “We still don’t have an exact handle on how many cases we have in the community,” Whalen added.

If people are not adhering to the precautionary quarantine, Whalen said, “We can and will make it mandatory.”

She went on, “It’s essential for parents to realize, if children are identified as a contact, they need to be in their own room with their own bathroom for a period of two weeks.”

Whalen had said earlier that the incubation period for the virus is from two days to two weeks.

Although children may have just mild systems, they can pass the disease to more vulnerable people.

“I cannot underscore enough,” Whalen said, “the importance all of us play in what happens over the next two weeks …

“We are estimated to be nine to 10 days behind Italy. Please look at what’s going on there. What we do right now as a community in terms of limiting social interaction can blunt the curve and help our hospital capacity and our capacity to care for those that are ill.”

In Italy, hospitals and doctors have been overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and doctors have said they have to make choices on who to save.

In a briefing this afternoon, Governor Cuomo said the state will organize the National Guard, building unions, and private developers to identify existing buildings — such as dormitories or former nursing homes — that can be retrofitted to be used as medical facilities in order to add 9,000 additional beds.

The governor also directed nonessential state workers to stay home from work, starting tomorrow, and directed local governments to cut their workforce in half, allowing nonessential employees to work from home. At the same time, the state is waiving all park fees for state, local, and county parks.

Meanwhile, the county’s airport reported today that traffic at the airport has dropped by as much as half and some airlines are considering a reduction in service. Travelers are advised to check the Transportation Security Administration website at http://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus. Airport concessions remain open but the Military Courtesy Room has closed due to restrictions on military travel. 

McCoy: Be prepared

McCoy urged business owners and government leaders to have contingency plans.  “Government has to run, companies have to run … You need a second layer, a third layer, even a fourth layer if you can do it,” he said.

McCoy noted that the deputy county executive, Daniel Lynch, wasn’t with him at today’s press conference as he had been at the last one, on Saturday, since Lynch is now staying separate from McCoy to serve as the “second layer” if need be.

McCoy went over the distinction between voluntary and mandatory quarantine and said that yesterday a woman under quarantine decided to host an open house. She said her husband had cleaned and disinfected the house and she was going to stay outside, McCoy reported.

“We had the sheriff respond to make sure they understood the difference between mandatory and voluntary,” McCoy said.

McCoy said further that, while Albany county residents could still go to malls like Colonie Center and Crossgates, if people didn’t follow the six-foot mandatory distance from one another, “We’ll close down.”

“We want you to go out but keep your six-foot distance,” he said.

Call for help

McCoy reiterated his call for help — the county needs volunteers for staffing phone lines as well as doctors and nurses, he said. He said trained medical volunteers — perhaps nurses at closed schools — were needed as patients under quarantine need to be visited daily.

The phone volunteers, he said, can be trained in 10 or fifteen minus.

He also urged, “Don’t call the department of health because you read something online or heard a rumor.” Instead, he explained that residents with those concerns, or concerns on price-gouging, could call United Way at 2-1-1.

“You can bog them down all you want,” he said.

The county’s department of social services, McCoy said, is still taking new applicants as well as servicing current beneficiaries. But the transactions are no longer in person but rather handled by phone or through a computer.

Updates on county services are available online.

Containing the virus

Whalen explained that the virus is spread through droplets that can be inhaled when someone coughs or sneezes. Or, if someone sneezes into a hand and that hand then touches a surface — a doorknob, a phone, for example — someone else can get infected that way.

Therefore, she urged hand-washing, use of hand-sanitizers, cleaning of surfaces, and keeping social distance.

“Your individual responsibility is to control your own movements, to stay at home, and avoid gatherings,” she said.

Whalen said there are no firm numbers but, from data being gathered in China where the outbreak originated in December, it is thought that every person infected with the coronavirus infects two to three others.

She stressed that that is under normal circumstances. “We can lessen those numbers with social distancing,” Whalen said.

If an Albany County resident has symptoms like a fever, a dry cough, or shortness of breath, he or she is to call a primary-care provider. “Not all primary-care providers have an environment with appropriate infection control,” said Whalen.

So the county’s health department has collaborated with the Albany Medical Center, setting up a screening protocol so that primary-care providers can determine if a patient with symptoms needs to be tested for COVID-19.

A white tent has been set up outside of Albany Medical Center for either walk-through or drive-through testing, Whalen said. Dennis McKenna, Albany Med’s president, told Whalen last night that the hospital is testing 200 people a day, she said.

“We would encourage people not to just drive up,” said Whalen. “We don’t want people not acutely ill to overwhelm the emergency department.”

If patients are suffering from acute systems, they are to call 9-1-1 and alert the dispatcher if they  have been exposed to or think they may have COVID-19.

“We want to make sure we’re protecting our first responders as well,” said Whalen.

She stressed that the health department is not overwhelmed. “We had to look at how we are allocating staff … to make sure the work we do every day gets done.”

Whalen said she welcomes assistance from volunteers who form the Albany County Medical Reserve Corps. Health professionals interested in joining may call the Department of Health’s MRC Coordinator at 518-447-4610 or register online.

McCoy concluded the conference, saying, “At our worst, we’re at our best. We stand together.”