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County officials are urging people not to give in to COVID fatigue at this time as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations start to rise again in the capital region.
As the region is in the midst of a full-fledged press to vaccinate the public, officials have warned of relaxing precautions too soon as the area has yet to achieve herd immunity and highly transmissible variants. of the virus continue to be found in New York.
In Warren County, where the number of COVID-19 has been relatively low compared to more populated areas, the percentage of people testing positive for the virus has increased by 31% over the past week, officials said on Wednesday. . Ginelle Jones, county health services director, said indoor gatherings where people gathered for meals were linked to a number of recent cases.
“I am alarmed by the increase in cases that we have seen in people who have not taken precautions,” she said. “People let their guard down too soon.”
Meanwhile, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy warned Wednesday the county was seeing an increase in hospitalizations. The county, like others in the region, had seen a steady decline in hospitalization rates as cases of the virus began to drop from record levels in January.
“Unfortunately, the number of county residents at the hospital is starting to move in the wrong direction,” McCoy said. “In the last six days we’ve gone from the current 21 hospitalizations to 30. With the UK presence very contagious and now Brazilian variants in New York, we have to keep our guards on and make sure we don’t see. this worrying trend continues. “
Until recently, the capital region experienced a one-month plateau in new coronavirus cases. That seems to have changed last week.
A Times Union analysis of data from eight local counties showed that the capital region averaged 216 cases of the virus per day as of Tuesday, up from a recent low of 188 seen on March 15. The average daily share of people testing positive for the virus in the region has remained at 2 percent or just below since mid-February. On Tuesday, this share exceeded 2% for the first time since February 18.
Hospitalizations, which tend to delay infections, have also started to increase. Hospitals in the capital region reported treating 110 coronavirus patients on Tuesday, up from 106 the day before and a recent low of 90 on March 17. It may be too early to report a trend, however. The seven-day moving average of daily hospitalizations in the region continues to hover around 100 as it has over the past two weeks.
Local officials have pleaded with residents of the capital region to get vaccinated if they are eligible, as more contagious variants begin to circulate across the United States, including here in New York City.
“We are seeing a third wave in other countries,” Albany County Health Commissioner Dr Elizabeth Whalen said last week. “The term ‘third wave’ is not something we want to think about, but it is certainly a possibility and as we see these highly transmissible strains emerging and which we are seeing spreading to different parts of the country and to other countries, this is a major concern for us.
As of Wednesday, 32% of residents in the eight-county area had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 16% had been fully vaccinated, according to the state’s Vaccine Tracker.
“Please keep wearing a mask, social distancing, coughing and sneezing into your elbow, and get tested,” McCoy said Wednesday. “We still have to use these practices until we can get more people vaccinated.”
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