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ALBANY – Albany County set a new record for COVID-19-related hospitalizations, with 67 people currently hospitalized with the illness on Sunday.
The 67 Sunday morning was 61 Saturday and 43 reported Friday. Before this weekend, the previous record for hospitalizations in Albany County, set on November 20, was 45.
Albany County Director Daniel P. McCoy on Sunday also reported 90 new COVID-19 positive cases since Saturday, as well as one new death from the disease.
The deceased man was in his 90s and residing in a community; he did not live in the county’s Shaker Place nursing and rehabilitation center, McCoy said. The county did not specify which adult care or nursing facility the person lived in.
On Saturday, McCoy had reported that six people had died overnight from coronavirus. In Albany County, the last time six people died in a single day from COVID-19 was May 4, another figure underlying the significant resurgence here.
There have now been 158 deaths in Albany County since the outbreak began.
Albany County reported 67 new positive cases overnight on Saturday, which rose to 90 on Sunday. Still, the number of new cases in the past two days is down from the start of the week: On Sunday, the five-day average of daily new positives fell from 103.4 to 101.2.
This decrease, however, may be the result of fewer open test sites due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Health officials have worried about the impact vacation trips and large family gatherings will have on the infection rate, which could be reflected in data released next week.
Of the 90 new positive cases reported on Sunday, 18 were in close contact with positive cases, 71 did not have an immediately clear source of infection and one was a health worker or community resident, McCoy said. , again stressing that this latter person is not from Shaker Place, a county-run retirement home.
County Health Commissioner Dr Elizabeth Whalen said on Saturday that “the ability of our hospitals to be able to care for people” was concerning.
“We are seeing surge capacity impacts affecting patient care in other parts of the country,” Whalen said. “We don’t want that to happen here in Albany County.”
According to the most recent data from New York state, on Saturday, the share of people testing positive for the coronavirus in Albany County over an average of seven days, which is the metric used to determine areas of micro- clusters, exceeded 3% for the last seven days.
Micro-cluster areas can be as small as a postal code, census tract, or neighborhood. And to determine what will be referred to as a microcluster, the state may also look at average daily cases, cases per 100,000 residents, and trends in hospital admissions.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo is expected to announce updated state data later Sunday.
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