County’s COVID death toll grows by three

ALBANY COUNTY — Over the weekend, three more Albany County residents died of COVID-19.

On Saturday, the county’s executive, Daniel McCoy, reported on the death of a woman in her seventies; on Sunday, he reported a man in his fifties and a man in his sixties had died.

This brings Albany County’s COVID-19 death toll to 392.

“COVID isn’t done with us yet,” said McCoy in a statement, and we still need to do more to get more people vaccinated, despite having now hit the major milestone of an 80-percent first-dose vaccination rate for our adult population.

“And until then, I continue to strongly urge everyone to wear masks in public places, because we know the Delta variant can still be spread by those who are vaccinated.”

Albany County, New York State, and the entire nation on Monday continue to be labeled as having a high rate of transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This means masks are to be worn in public indoors regardless of vaccination status.

The county’s five-day average of new daily positive cases is now 84.4. Albany County’s most recent seven-day average of percent positive rates is up to 4.9 percent percent and the Capital Region’s rate is now up to 4.6 percent, among the highest in New York.

Statewide, the infection rate is 3.3 percent with New York City the lowest at 3.5 percent.

In a Monday morning press release, McCoy announced 62 new COVID-19 cases.

There are now 472 active cases in the county, up from 469 on Sunday. The number of Albany County residents under mandatory quarantine increased to 772 from 755.

There were three new hospitalizations since Sunday, and 26 county residents remain hospitalized with the virus. There are now eight patients in intensive-care units, up from six on Sunday. 

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