ALBANY COUNTY — On Monday, Governor Cuomo added to the list of workers who will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Labor Day or else be tested weekly.

Workers at the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City and at the Port Authority in New York and New Jersey join New York State workers, which Cuomo announced last week, in the requirement.

Nine new vaccination sites will open, including one at the Empire State Plaza’s concourse in Albany.

Cuomo had also announced on July 28 that patient-facing employees in state-run hospitals are required to be vaccinated by Labor Day.

Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Monday that 70 percent of adults in the United States had received at least one dose of vaccine — just about a month after the Fourth of July goal set by President Joe Biden. 

Not quite half of the total United States population (49.7 percent) is fully vaccinated. At the same time, after lagging rates of vaccination, 100,000 shots were given nationwide on Friday as hospital and death rates climb in areas with low vaccination rates.

The Capital Region continues to have the highest infection rate of any of the state’s 10 regions, at 3.57 percent as of Sunday, as a seven-day average. The lowest rate is in the North Country at 1.98 percent. Statewide, the infection rate is 2.53 percent.

In Albany County, 22 new COVID-19 cases were reported Monday morning, in a release from County Executive Daniel McCoy who also reported 144 active cases in the county and that five residents remain hospitalized with the virus.

As of Sunday, 66.7 percent of Albany County’s 301,117 residents had received at least one dose of vaccine as had 77.5 percent of residents 18 and older.

The county will be holding a vaccination clinic at the Altamont Fair, from noon to 7:30 p.m., Aug. 17 to 22, and another clinic at the Medusa Fest on Route 351 in Rensselaerville on Aug. 28 from 1 to 4 p.m.

Up to local governments

At an event in New York City on Monday, Cuomo stressed how quickly the Delta variant of the virus spreads. He said hospitalizations in New York State had doubled over the past month and the number of new cases had increased four-fold.

He also stressed the effectiveness of vaccination.

“If you are vaccinated, you’re less likely to catch it. And you’re very unlikely to be hospitalized,” said Cuomo. “When you look at the infection rate among those who are fully vaccinated: four out of 100,000. Unvaccinated: 17 over 100,000. Fourfold increase. Hospitalization if you’re vaccinated: 0.19 per 100,000. Unvaccinated: 1.25 per 100,000.”

He also noted, “Vaccinated people can spread the Delta variant. This is the fact that caused the CDC to change their position quickly.”

Last week, the CDC changed its guidance to say that even vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in public if they live in an area of “high” or “substantial” transmission.

On Sunday, Albany County crossed the threshold — of 50 to 999 infections per 100,000 population — into being labeled “substantial.”

On Monday, that classification held as the seven-day average for Albany County was 54.34 new cases per 100,000 residents, according to the CDC.

With the first wave of the pandemic, in March of 2020, Cuomo used a state of emergency to issue executive orders. Currently, with no state of emergency declared, he said,  “Local governments are now trying to figure out how to deal with the local guidance.”

Cuomo on Monday urged private businesses and school districts to require vaccination.

“Private businesses, I am asking them and suggesting to them: Go to vaccine only. Go to vaccine-only admission,” he said.

He also said, “I believe school districts should say today: Teachers, vaccine, or test, if you are in a CDC high risk area, the red or the yellow zones.”

Later on Monday, New York State United Teachers, a union with 600,000 members, put out a statement, saying, “We would support local efforts to encourage more vaccinations, such as through programs that require that those who are not vaccinated get tested on a regular basis. But it’s critical that districts come up with plans to make testing available on-site and at no cost. What we have not supported is a vaccine mandate.”

Cuomo also urged required vaccination for “all health-care workers in all private hospitals who are front-line workers.”

He also said, “If you want to teach my kids, I think you should be vaccinated. If you want to take care of my mother in a nursing home, I think you should be vaccinated.”

Cuomo concluded, “Right now this is all up to local governments. If they don’t act, then we'll be where we were last year where it becomes a statewide emergency and the state is going to have to act.”