ALBANY COUNTY — Three more county residents have died of COVID-19, Albany County Executive Daniel Mccoy announced on Friday morning but the majority of his press conference was upbeat, reporting on the success of vaccinations in the county.

The latest victims of the virus were a man and a woman in their eighties and a man in his nineties. This brings Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll to 351.

McCoy announced that, as of Wednesday, with a vaccine clinic that was rescheduled because doses were delayed with winter weather, Albany County has administered 4,335 first doses and 1,678 second doses of COVID-19 vaccine. This tally includes 400 doses given to the Center for the Disabled.

At its next POD, the county plans to administer 1,000 first doses and 800 second doses, McCoy said.

Currently, the two vaccines given emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration — Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech — each require two doses several weeks apart.

Johnson & Johnson, with a single-shot vaccine — which McCoy said would be a “game-changer” — is undergoing FDA review.

McCoy also reported that over 25,000 people have signed up on the county’s online pre-registration tool for vaccination appointments; 19,000 are Albany County residents; 8,300 live in the city of Albany.

“It overwhelmed us,” said McCoy. “It was a lot more people pre-registering than I imagined … It really shows the need … I’m encouraging New York State to do the same thing.”

The federal and state site at the Washington Avenue Armory is pulling from the list as is the Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center, McCoy said.

On Thursday night, McCoy visited the county’s vaccination clinic at the Times Union Center with Andrew Joyce, who chairs the county legislature.

He described “people thanking us” and “literally almost crying.”

“They want to hug you,” said McCoy of residents getting their shots.

“Mayor Joyce gave her a salute,” said McCoy of Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen who oversees the point of dispensing or POD.

Whalen, in turn, praised the volunteers in the county’s medical reserve corps who are helping at the POD. “We can’t do this alone,” she said.

Joyce distributed certificates, recognizing the corps’ work. At the close of the clinic, Whalen said this resulted in “a giant round of applause.”

Although it’s a seven-day-a-week job for health-department workers, who are still doing case investigations, Whalen said, “We are not tired. We are invigorated because we know we are tasked with moving us forward to gut us to the end of this. It has been a very, very tough year …. for all of us.”

The county’s POD is, by state mandate, allowed to give shots only to 1b essential workers and to people with comorbidities. A list of what those illnesses are along with a list of jobs that are considered essential are posted on the county’s website.

People with comorbidities are to bring with them to the POD a note from their doctor or can provide an attestation, Whalen said.

On Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced, in a release, that eligibility has been expanded to include hotel workers if local governments so choose.

“Hotels in many parts of the state serve as quarantine areas for COVID positive persons to isolate from their families,” said a release from the governor’s office. “In turn, the staff at these facilities are being exposed to COVID regularly.

“Given the overall increase to the state’s supply and the essential health care service that these hotel workers provide, the governor is granting localities the flexibility to add hotel workers to the 1b vaccine prioritization group.”

Cuomo announced Friday that over 4 million shots have been administered to New Yorkers so far. Currently, about 10 million New Yorkers are eligible. In addition to nursing home workers and residents and people listed as essential workers, this includes New Yorkers 65 or older.

New Yorkers 65 and older — unless they have comorbidities and can therefore be vaccinated at the county site — are to get their shots at state-run sites or at pharmacies.

Whalen said she hopes local pharmacies and medical practices that are equipped to store the doses will be receiving them soon.

It’s good to “have people vaccinated where they feel comfortable and safe,” she said.

She noted that Albany County has had three confirmed cases of B.1.1.7, the highly transmissible variant first identified in the United Kingdom. The first two cases were at a congregate youth facility and, she said, follow-up testing there did not find any more cases.

“The concern is this may emerge as a dominant strain going into March,” said Whalen.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks several variants on a webpage, which, as of Friday evening, showed 136 cases of B.1.1.7 in New York State. Nationwide, the CDC reports 2,102 cases of B.1.17 across 45 states.

Florida has the most at 500, followed by Michigan with 336, and California with 204 cases.

On statewide initiatives to open up, McCoy fretted that people may not have understood the opening of nursing homes to visitors is moot if there has been an infected worker or resident within 14 days.

He also hopes the county won’t have to be involved in required testing for weddings. Catered events, starting March 15, can have up to 150 people and all patrons must be tested before the event.

“It would be a logistical nightmare,” said McCoy of the testing.

“It’s likely it will be complaint-based,” said Whalen of county enforcement of the state guidance.

Newest numbers

As of Friday morning, Albany County has had 20,351 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which includes 77 new cases, McCoy said.

Of the new cases, 44 did not have clear sources of infection identified, 26 had close contact with someone infected with the disease, and seven were health-care workers or residents of congregate settings.

The five-day average for new daily positives has increased to 75.8 from 73.8. There are now 601 active cases in the county, up from 582 on Thursday.

The number of Albany County residents under quarantine increased to 1,441 from 1,407. So far, 63,653 residents have completed quarantine. Of those, 19,750 had tested positive and recovered. That is an increase of 57 recoveries since Thursday.

There were three new hospitalizations overnight, and there are now 48 county residents currently hospitalized from the virus — a net decrease of five. There are currently six patients in intensive-care units, down from eight on Thursday.

As of Thursday, Albany County’s infection rate, as a seven-day rolling average, was 1.5 percent, according to the state’s dashboard.

Statewide, the infection rate was 3.22 percent.