ALBANY COUNTY — Late Friday night, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said, he learned of another 24 COVID-19 deaths of nursing-home residents that had been reported to the state but not the county’s health department.

This followed on the heels of Thursday’s announcement of 11 deaths at Our Lady of Mercy Life Center that also had not been reported to the county.

The county’s death toll for COVID-19 now stands at 111. Of those 111 deaths, 82 — or 74 percent — have been of nursing home residents, McCoy said.

After learning of the 11 deaths, McCoy said, Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen contacted the state’s health department and each nursing home in Albany County to verify. She then learned of the 24 additional deaths from three more private nursing homes, which McCoy listed at Saturday’s press briefing:

— Teresian House had 15 deaths — one man and 14 women between the ages of 75 and 104 — from April 27 to May 15;

— St. Peter’s Nursing and Rehabilitation Center had five deaths — five women between the ages of 91 to 95 — from May 1 to May 23; and

— The Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Guilderland had four deaths — two women and two men between the ages of 59 and 93 — from April 21 to May 26.

“It does not affect us going into Phase 2,” McCoy said, referring to the state-set metrics that are required for the Capital Region to have more businesses open on June 3. This is because the deaths had already been included in the state metrics.

Whalen had said on Thursday of the 11 deaths, “The nursing home reported the deaths as they were mandated to do by the state health department so these were not unreported deaths. They were just not deaths that the county was made aware of. So now we realize there are systems we need to put in place … so that we can rectify those numbers.”

Going forward, McCoy said on Saturday, “The nursing home is supposed to be reaching out to us …. This should never happen again.”

The county’s nursing home, Shaker Place, has had 15 residents die of COVID-19. McCoy said on Saturday that just one Shaker Place resident now has COVID-19 and is set for recovery by Monday. He also said, “We still have three patients in the hospital. Three came back recovered.”

Nursing home residents who have been hospitalized with COVID-19 are now to remain in the hospital until they no longer test positive for the virus. Governor Andrew Cuomo revised that order on May 10 after initially having  COVID-19 patients returned to nursing homes once they were medically stable.

At the same time, Cuomo required twice-weekly testing of nursing-home residents and workers. McCoy said on Saturday that, in the last round of testing for Shaker Place’s 190 workers, seven had tested positive; those seven, he said, had shown no signs or symptoms of the disease.

Safe protest urged

McCoy had opened his briefing by urging citizens taking part in an Albany protest on Saturday afternoon to wear masks and maintain social distance to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

 “It could set us back,” he said.

At the same time, McCoy expressed sympathy for the family of George Floyd, an African American who died after a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee pressed into his neck for more than eight minutes, spurring protests across the country.

“It’s been tough on the nation and, to continue to see this happen time and time again, it’s unspeakable,” said McCoy. “I understand people’s right to protest and I encourage that, to speak up so this stops.”

He concluded, “Be heard but do it in a peaceful safe manner.”

Tallies

As of Saturday morning, Albany County has 1,688 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of two in the last 24 hours. Currently, 682 Albany County residents are under mandatory quarantine and six are under precautionary quarantine.

The five-day average for new daily positives is now down to 10.2.

So far, 4,510 residents have completed quarantine, with 1,340 of them having tested positive and recovered. That brings the county’s recovery rate up to 79.38 percent.

Currently, 27 county residents are hospitalized with three in intensive-care units. The county’s hospitalization rate stands at 1.18 percent.