ALBANY COUNTY — The death toll for COVID-19 in Albany County now stands at 66; for the first time, a young county resident has died of the disease — a man in his twenties.

Three other deaths were announced by Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy on Thursday morning: two men and a woman, all in their seventies.

Two of those elderly patients had been residents of Shaker Place, the county’s nursing home.

Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen commented there was “some bad news today in terms of mortalities.”

She went on, “We unfortunately continue to see a trend of our elderly and debilitated and now we see a death in a younger age group as well … This has been seen across the country and again reinforces the unfortunate message that no one is completely protected by virtue of their age.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Thursday that a fifth region, out of 10, in New York State has met the seven metrics to begin the first phase of reopening. Central New York joins the North Country, the Southern Tier, the Finger Lakes, and the Mohawk Valley.

“Everybody wants to reopen. We have to get back to work. People need a paycheck. The state needs an economy …,” Cuomo said at his press briefing Thursday at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. “The question is how you reopen and, from the national experts, global experts, make sure you don’t reopen too soon. What they mean to be saying by too soon is you have to reopen intelligently and you have to reopen in a calibrated way … Follow the data, follow the science, follow the facts, follow the metrics.”

The Capital Region, of which Albany County is a part, is still two metrics short, on death and hospitalization rates.

Albany County now has 1,398 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19, an increase of 12 over the last 24 hours. The five-day average of daily new positive cases has dropped to 12.4.

There are 889 county residents under mandatory quarantine and 19 under precautionary quarantine. To date, 3,551 county residents have completed quarantine, with 896 of them having tested positive and recovered.

Thirty county residents are hospitalized, with four in intensive-care units. The hospitalization rate for Albany County stands at 2.14 percent. 

The governor’s office also posted a more detailed list of what specifically can open in each of the four phases once a region meets the seven metrics. Those regions can begin to open Phase 1 businesses when the “pause” ends on Friday.

McCoy went over some of the businesses that will be allowed to open in each phase. The first phase includes construction and manufacturing, but also retail and wholesale as well as agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting.

Retail, for example, will be limited to curbside pick-up or drop-off and include florists, jewelry, luggage, and shoe stores. Wholesale trade includes clothing, furniture, and household appliances. Agriculture includes greenhouses, nurseries, and crop production.