ALBANY COUNTY — On Friday morning, as Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy announced three more deaths from COVID-19, he noted it was the 50th day since the county’s first case.

A woman in her eighties died yesterday as did a man in his seventies who had been a resident of the county’s nursing home.

“These are difficult times,” said McCoy. The county’s death doll stands at 44.

Another 31 people tested positive since Thursday, bringing the county’s number of confirmed cases to 1,151.

At Shaker Place, the county’s nursing home, 46 residents have tested positive and two have recovered so far. Twenty-five Shaker Place workers have tested positive and seven of them have recovered and returned to work. Four Shaker Place residents have died of the disease.

As of Friday morning, 1,004 county residents were under mandatory quarantine and 14 were under precautionary quarantine. Altogether 2,348 county residents have completed quarantine and 578 of those with confirmed cases have recovered.

Thirty-three county residents are hospitalized with the disease with eight of them in intensive-care units.

McCoy said that some people have had multiple tests. “Leave what tests that are out there to the people who need it,” he said. “Until we can get more testing kits, we have to test people with signs and symptoms.”

“Testing is key,” said the county’s health commissioner, Elizabeth Whalen.

She spoke of the “exhaustive work” her department has been doing over the last 50 days, tracing the contacts of each county resident with a confirmed case of COVID-19.

“We know we are still at the beginning,” Whalen said.

The recent spike in positive cases, she said, is the result of widespread testing in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The department is now testing some asymptomatic workers in hopes of identifying employees that may be infected but unaware.

The test results, she said, have come back at a higher rate than expected. Whalen once again urged people who share households with essential workers to follow protocols like good hand hygiene and maintaining social distance.

“These agencies are doing their best,” said Whalen, concluding that, with additional staff guidance, she hoped “these tragic deaths become a thing of the past.”