ALBANY COUNTY — The county is facing a critical shortage of personal protective equipment, especially where people are being cared for in their own homes, said Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen at Friday’s press briefing.

She went over the precautions that should be used to prevent the spread of the coronavirus — washing hands, covering coughs, disinfecting surfaces, and staying at least six feet away. These measures, she said, are “one-hundred times more important for you if you’re caring for someone vulnerable.”

All four of the people who have died thus far from COVID-19 in Albany County have been over age 60 with underlying health conditions.

“We continue to see cases rise … affecting our particularly vulnerable residents,” said  Whalen on Friday.

She warned that people caring for the elderly and vulnerable could be asymptomatic spreaders, meaning they could have the virus and not knowit.

She noted that, while the New York State Department of Health states that homemade masks are not recommended for health-care workers, the home-sewn masks can still be useful and the county’s health department encourages people to make them and donate them.

Whalen was careful to explain the distinction. 

From a scientific perspective, she said, recommendations have to be evidence-based. Homemade masks have not been tested — either for preventing droplets from spreading from an infected person or to protect the wearer.

“However, we are in unprecedented times,” Whalen said, “which calls upon us to look at this from a practical perspective.”

Whalen says that manufactured surgical masks should be prioritized for health-care workers and also that the supply for health-care workers is adequate at this time.

But, stressing that she was not speaking from a scientific perspective, Whalen said wearing a homemade mask may make a person less likely to touch his or her face.

She encouraged people to sew the masks and said, “We will collect them at the health department and use them for people who need them and have no other alternative.”

Whalen also said, “We’ve found pockets of agencies that don’t have enough of what they need … It’s a very limited set of circumstances,” she said, and the homemade masks would be used only until “we can get people the supplies that they need.”

Whalen said that she feels personally: “We need to offer something … We will take those donations and appreciate them.”