ALBANY COUNTY — In its 34th week of coping with the pandemic, Albany County lost two more residents to the disease — bringing the death toll to 142 — and also suffered a cluster of COVID-19 cases at its health department.

Four workers tested positive for the disease, it was announced last Thursday afternoon and the health department went on a two-week pause, with workers doing their jobs remotely.

The long-anticipated autumn surge of COVID-19 continued in Albany County with increased hospitalizations and daily announcements of over 10 new cases, with one day, Oct. 30, a high of 53 new cases announced.

In a press conference that day, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said county workers would move to staggered shifts and remote work; services continue but with limited face-to-face contact.

McCoy said he was rocked to his core by the news of four infections among health-department workers, lauding the protocols that the department had set up long before procedures like mask-wearing were mandated.

“People doing the right thing, setting the example, and I’m like, if it could happen there, it could happen anywhere,” said McCoy.

Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen described how the cluster of infections at the health department unfolded. The department was notified last week that a staff member had tested positive, she said.

His contacts at the department were immediately tested. “When we broadened the net a little, we got additional positives,” said Whalen.

That led to the decision to test the rest of the staff on Thursday. All 63 of those tests came back negative, Whalen said.

“I tested negative,” she said. “I have not been identified as a contact. Had either of those things come back positive, I would not be sitting here before you,” she said at Friday morning’s press briefing.

Whalen went on, “We tackled this as we do every other cluster and work to provide case investigation, to get details of the contacts of the cases, and to insure that those that were in contact will remain on quarantine for two weeks to prevent spread to other individuals.”

The department’s work will continue as usual, she said, with employees working remotely, except that clinical services will be suspended for a few weeks.

Whalen stressed that the health-department cluster does not mean “masks don’t work.” 

“There are no guarantees in medicine ...,” said Whalen. “Evidence suggests that mask-wearing protects you.” While wearing a mask, as health-department workers did, doesn’t guarantee someone won’t get COVID-19, it lessens the chance, said Whalen.

Whalen said she read a comment on Facebook, stating, “If Dr. Whalen can’t protect her own staff, how are we supposed to listen to her on how to protect ourselves?”

Whalen called that “a legitimate question” and answered it.

“I cannot protect every single resident in Albany County from getting COVID ...,” she said, asking, “What can you count on from me and from my department? Well, you can count on 27 years as a physician and 17 of those years in public health, training in public health preventive medicine, and board certification in that and internal medicine — and the ability to look critically at the evolving rapid situation and hone out the appropriate recommendations based on evidence.”

She praised her team of “dedicated professionals who have been working seven days a week for the past 233 days to ensure that we continue our mission to protect the health of Albany County residents using evidence-based strategies.”

Whalen noted there are currently “increased rates in the community and increased severity.” She urged residents not to leave their homes for parties or other social gatherings.

Referring to posts on social media, Whalen also said, “We’ve started to see a really disturbing trend in people vilifying individuals who have been diagnosed with COVID and this is not helpful.”

Shaking her head from side to side, Whalen went on, “It is not helpful at all. I had a staff member, who was positive, apologize to me. That should not happen. People get COVID sometimes if they do all the right things and it is not anybody’s place in any circumstance or situation to vilify or call someone out or condemn those individuals that are suffering.”

Whalen added that it is possible to catch the virus from someone who is asymptomatic, meaning the newly infected person wouldn’t be aware of how he or she contracted the disease.

Since COVID-19 is “likely circulating in the community,” Whalen urged residents to download the app from the state’s department of health website, COVID Alert NY, which would allow them to track the source of the infection.
 

Flu tracker launched

Whalen said the county got its first report of a case of flu on Thursday, Oct. 29, which is typical for this time of year. She again urged everyone to get a flu shot so that enough hospital beds will be available in case of a COVID-19 surge.

Governor Andrew Cuomo also urged New Yorkers to get flu shots and said that the New York State Flu Tracker would be launched on Friday. The tracker displays daily and weekly flu data and provides information about local, regional, and statewide flu activity.

“This fall could be a one-two punch for infection as we manage the start of another flu season while working diligently to keep the COVID-19 virus at bay,” Como said in a statement, announcing the tracker.

During the 2019-20 flu season, there were 22,217 flu-associated hospitalizations in the state and 13 pediatric deaths.

Nourish New York gets another $10M

Also on Friday, Cuomo announced an additional $10 million is being dedicated to the Nourish New York program, bringing the total funding for the program to $35 million.

The money will allow New York’s emergency food providers to continue to purchase surplus products from New York farmers and dairy manufacturers and deliver it to families in need through the end of the year.

Nourish New York was first announced in April 2020 in response to the financial hardships New York's dairy farmers were facing with the loss of key markets and the significant, increased demand New York's food banks were seeing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the program started, more than 16 million pounds of dairy, fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and more have been purchased and provided to 823,883 households.

Economic woes

For the third quarter, sales-tax revenue for local governments in New York State has dropped, according to a report this week from the state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli. Sales tax collections from July to September totaled $4.3 billion, or $452 million less than last year — a drop of about 9 percent.

“Unlike in the second quarter, when decreases were widespread, the third quarter was actually relatively positive for most counties outside of New York City – counties in total saw an increase of 2.5 percent in sales tax collections,” the report says.

The Capital Region, which saw an 18.7-percent drop in the second quarter, saw just an 0.4-percent drop in the third quarter, according to the report.

DiNapoli also released a report on unemployment. It says that New York State’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.7 percent in September, marking the first time the rate has been below 10 percent since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2.8-percentage-point improvement in the unemployment rate was the second largest among all states. New Jersey led the nation with a 4.4 percentage point decline.

However, the report goes on to show that what drove down the unemployment rate in New York State is the shrinking labor force.

“Unfortunately,” Dinapoli writes, “a deeper dive into the Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveals troubling context: New York State’s workforce declined by nearly 363,000 last month, a 2.3 percentage point drop from August (based on preliminary figures), while the number of individuals officially considered unemployed declined by 302,000.

“In short, the unemployment rate went down in large part because of the decline in New Yorkers counted as working or seeking employment. Such a decrease in the size of the workforce may indicate that individuals have ceased searching for a job actively.”

DiNapoli also reported on a positive effect of the pandemic: increased participation in school budget votes and elections with mail-in rather than in-person voting.

“Historically,” the report says, “participation in school district budget votes has been relatively low and declined steadily since the implementation of the property tax cap, which became effective starting in the 2012-13 school year.”

However, with the executive order for mail-in ballots, voter participation for school district budgets statewide more than tripled to 1.6 million votes. The budget outcomes were similar to 2019 when only 1.6 percent of the budgets failed to pass on the first vote, the report says.

“Using the absentee ballot process put into place this year, voters participated in greater numbers to approve the vast majority of school district budgets,” DiNapoli said in a statement, releasing the report. “We need to embrace smart actions like this to help New Yorkers engage on issues critical in their communities.”

Open enrollment for health care coverage

On Nov. 1, NY State of Health, the state’s official health plan marketplace, launched open enrollment for 2021.

Open enrollment will continue through Jan. 31, 2021. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 public-health emergency, consumers already enrolled in Medicaid, Child Health Plus, or the Essential Plan will have their coverage continued automatically and do not need to renew at this time.

Howard Zucker, the state’s health commissioner, said that, during the pandemic, enrollment levels increased to over 5.5 million New Yorkers. 

As part of its 2020 budget, the state codified consumer protections from the Affordable Care Act into state law, including the ban on pre-existing condition exclusions, the prohibition on annual and lifetime dollar limits, the guarantee of quality essential health benefits, and the ability to keep children on their parents' plans through age 26. 

 NY State of Health expects to renew Qualified Health Plan coverage for nearly 200,000 households and enroll new consumers into coverage during the open enrollment period.

Consumers may plan ahead for open enrollment, a release noted, by browsing through their health plan options. Free enrollment assistance can be found in local communities across the state. Consumers may also use the NYS Provider & Health Plan Look-Up Tool to research provider networks and health plans. With this tool, consumers shopping for health insurance can search for their preferred health care providers, including doctors and hospitals, all in one place, to see which health plans have those providers in their network.

$328M for HEAP

On Monday, Cuomo announced that applications for the Home Energy Assistance Program, known as HEAP, opened.

More than 1.6 million New York homeowners and renters received heating aid in 2019-20. In the Capital Region, there were 65,879 recipients, according to a release from the governor’s office.

More than $328 million in home heating aid is now available for low- and middle-income New Yorkers.

Eligible homeowners and renters may receive assistance of up to $741 from HEAP, overseen by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, depending on income, household size, and how they heat their home. A family of four may have a maximum gross monthly income of $5,019 or an annual gross income of $60,226 and still qualify for benefits.

Applications for assistance are accepted at local departments of social services in person or by telephone, with funding provided on a first-come, first-served basis. In Albany County, applicants should call the Department of Social Services at 162 Washington Ave., at 518-447-7323. Albany County residents may also apply online for regular heating assistance benefits.  

Earlier this year, Cuomo signed legislation extending a moratorium that prevents utility companies from disconnecting utilities to residential households that are struggling with their bills due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Utility companies must instead offer tax deferred payment agreements on any past-due balance.

New Yorkers who receive HEAP assistance this season and continue to fall behind on their utility bills or are running short on heating fuel may also qualify for a one-time emergency HEAP benefit. Applications for emergency benefits will be accepted starting on Monday, Jan. 4.

Newest numbers

Statewide on Wednesday, based on Tuesday’s test results, New York’s positivity rate was 1.59 percent; that includes the micro-cluster areas, which had a positive testing rate of 2.69.

The Capital Region, of which Albany Cunty is a part, had a rate of 1.2 percent. Only one of the state’s 10 regions had a rate below the targeted 1 percent: The Mohawk Valley was at 0.6 percent.

As of Wednesday morning, Albany County has 3,705 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 31 new cases overnight, according to a release from McCoy’s office.

Of the new cases, 17 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, one reported traveling out of state, 12 did not have a clear source of identified infection at this time, and one is a health-care worker or resident of a congregate setting.

Currently, 1,237 county residents are under quarantine, down from 1,363. The five-day average for new daily positives decreased to 26 from 30.4. There are now 186 active cases in the county, up from 175 on Tuesday.

So far, 16,952 people have completed quarantine. Of those, 3,519 had tested positive and recovered.

Twenty-seven county residents are now hospitalized, up from 25 on Tuesday; two patients are in intensive-care units, down from three on Tuesday. The county’s hospitalization rate has gone up to 0.72 percent from 0.68 percent.

“We’ve seen our hospitalizations fluctuate over the last week, but today we’re back at our peak of 27 residents currently in the hospital, something we hadn’t seen since May before October 30,”  said McCoy in a statement as he released Wednesday’s tallies. “We’re also bracing for any potential spikes we may see from Halloween weekend in the coming days.”

On Saturday, McCoy had announced the two recent deaths of COVID-19 patients: a man in his sixties and a man in his eighties, bringing the county’s death toll from the disease to 142.