ALBANY COUNTY — Albany County continues to set unwanted COVID-19 records and the Capital Region continues to be the worst region in the state for available intensive-care-unit beds.

“Every health expert is scared as hell for the month of January of what our numbers are going to look like,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy on Tuesday.

He started his press conference by announcing two more deaths of county residents from COVID-19: both were men in their fifties.

“This is the eighth day in a row that I’ve had to announce a new death,” said McCoy. “Over this time period, we’ve lost 16 county residents. We’re also seeing more deaths associated with younger residents.”

On Oct. 28, McCoy noted, 24 percent of the county’s COVID deaths were of residents between the ages of 50 and 74. Now, that age group makes up 30 percent of the deaths.

“We still continue to see that shift,” said McCoy.

So far in December, 50 residents have died of the virus, compared to 16 in November and eight in October. The month of May, in the midst of the initial springtime surge, had the most deaths at 55, followed by April at 49.

Treatment therapies have improved since the spring so that a smaller percentage of hospitalized patients are dying of the disease.

“The month’s not over,” said McCoy, adding, “They say January is going to be worse.”

The county’s COVID-19 death toll now stands at 210.

The disease takes a toll in other ways, too, McCoy said, with “people struggling in this new world.”

“I know another friend that committed suicide yesterday and I have to tell you that it’s alarmig,” he said.

McCoy also announced 240 new COVID-19 cases, based on test results reported on Monday. The vast majority — 208 — could not identify a source of infection.

“These numbers are alarming and they’re going to continue to grow in the next couple weeks,” said McCoy. “We have not felt the full impact of Christmas and we have New Year’s on Friday.”

Albany County’s seven-day average for an infection rate is 8.6 percent, McCoy reported. “Most recently, our single-day rate was 15.5 percent.”

Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Greene counties, among the eight counties in the Capital Region, are really driving up the positivity rate, McCoy said.

He noted that, under the state’s original micro-cluster system, which designated the most severe red zones followed by orange and yellow zones, Albany County would have been named a red zone.

Now, the focus is on hospital capacity, where the Capital Region is also struggling.

For the third day in a row, Albany County set a record for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at 127, up from 116 on Sunday and 118 on Monday.

For 13 days in a row, over 100 county residents have been hospitalized, McCoy said.

The Capital Region currently has 399 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, which is 0.04 percent of the region’s population and leaves 26 percent of the region’s hospital beds available. Only Central New York has a worse rate, at 23 percent. Long Island is tied with the Capital Region at 26 percent.

Statewide, 0.04 percent of New Yorkers are hospitalized with COVID-19 and 31 percent of New York’s hospital beds are available.

The Capital Region has a total of 214 intensive-care-unit beds of which 175 are currently occupied, which leaves 19 percent of the region’s ICU beds available — the worst rate in the state. The next lowest rate is in Long Island, at 24 percent. The best rate is in the North Country, which has 47 percent of its ICU beds available. Statewide, 31 percent of ICU beds are available.

The Capital Region has the third worst infection rate with a seven-day average of 8.60 percent. The worst is in the Mohawk Valley, at 9.11 percent followed by the Finger Lakes at 8.66 percent.

The lowest positivity rate is in the Southern Tier, at 4.12 percent. Statewide, the positivity rate is 6.06 percent.

NYS adopts 10-day quarantine

The state’s health department has updated quarantine guidelines to match those issued earlier by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Monday, Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen explained that patients infected with COVID-19 had always been required to isolate for 10 days.

People who had been exposed to someone with the disease had had to quarantine for 14 days. That period has been shorted to 10 days as long as no symptoms have been reported during the quarantine period.

Those under quarantine must continue monitoring for four more days and, if symptoms develop, they should self-isolate and contact the health department to determine if testing is needed.

Federal benefits to start next week

Also on Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that unemployed New Yorkers will begin receiving extended and expanded federal unemployment benefits next week — the first week these benefits can be paid under federal law.

The federal government has extended unemployment benefits for 11 more weeks through March 14, 2021.

New York is able to provide these benefits immediately, according to a release from the governor’s office, due to proactive work by the state’s Department of Labor to prepare for the federal government finally enacting a bill to extend unemployment programs originally included in the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act that were set to expire at the end of 2020.

The programs extended include:

— Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which provides benefits for those not covered by traditional state unemployment insurance;

— Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which provides additional weeks of benefits after an individual exhausts the 26 weeks of state unemployment insurance; and

— Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, which provides all New Yorkers receiving unemployment benefits an additional $300 weekly payment.

“We have paid out more than $59 billion in benefits to over 3.9 million unemployed New Yorkers during this crisis — nearly 28 typical years’ worth of benefits paid in 10 months — and we will continue to move heaven and earth to serve our neighbors,” said Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon in a statement.

More information on filing unemployment claims is available on the labor department’s website: https://dol.ny.gov/.

Paid sick leave

Last March, Cuomo had signed pandemic-specific paid sick leave to help New Yorkers affected by COVID-19.

On Tuesday, he noted that, starting Jan. 1, New Yorkers can begin to use sick-leave benefits under the state’s new law, which was enacted as part of the 2021 budget.

The law guarantees paid sick leave for workers at medium and large business and paid or unpaid leave for those at small businesses depending on the business’s net income.

Businesses with 100 or more employees must provide seven paid sick days a year while businesses with five to 99 workers must pay for five.

Businesses with fewer than five workers with a net income more than $1 million must also pay for five days while businesses with fewer than five workers with a net income less than $1 million must provide five days of unpaid sick leave.

Consumer alert

The state’s Division of Consumer Protection put out an alert on Tuesday, warning New Yorkers about vaccination scams.

“Scammers are using techniques that typically arise with a major global event such as: falsely claiming to be online sellers of the vaccination; sending fake emails and texts that contain harmful links designed to steal your personal information; and using robocalls to pitch vaccination information,” the division said in a release.

The state’s Vaccinate New York website provides accurate and timely information on the vaccine, safety, distribution priorities, and other details. New Yorkers may also call the COVID-19 Hotline at 1-888-364-3065.