Schenectady County Prepares For COVID “ Yellow Zone ” Designation

Categories: News, Schenectady County

SCHENECTADY – With an increasing workload, County Director Rory Fluman has said Schenectady County is preparing to enter the first level of state-imposed restrictions designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“We could be for the designation of the yellow zone at the beginning of December,” Fluman said on Tuesday.

An area is designated as a yellow area if the seven-day moving average of the positivity rate is greater than 2.5% for 10 consecutive days.

The county’s seven-day average was 2.7% on Tuesday, according to the state’s COVID Dashboard.

Fifty-three county residents tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday, down slightly from 63 the day before.

Right now, the county performs between 80 and 90 tests a day and tested 150 last Thursday at the SUNY Schenectady site – 50% more than average, officials said.

Acting Director of Public Health Keith Brown, who appeared with Fluman at the county’s first press briefing since August, said the county would change its testing strategy in December and switch to a rapid testing model officials county officials find it more efficient to identify and respond. to community spread which can result in clusters.

Community tests will be reduced from twice a week to once.

“We don’t expect the total number of tests to decrease significantly, but it will allow us to do it in a more targeted way,” Brown said. “It’s about the allocation of resources and also what makes the most clinical and epidemiological sense.”

Brown urged residents of the county to cooperate with the contact tracing process.

“People should feel comfortable being honest,” he said. “We want people to be open with us”

The yellow zone status would not close businesses, but limit indoor dining to a maximum of four people per table and gatherings to 25.

The workshop house capacity limit would remain unchanged at 50 percent.

The yellow zone rules do not require schools to be closed, but require them to take more tests.

Under the designation, schools must test 20 percent of students and staff within two weeks of designation. If the positive rate is below the seven-day average, further testing is not necessary. Otherwise, the district should continue to test 20 percent of the population every two weeks.

“We believe that based on data, schools can and should stay open,” said Brown.

The county recently banned visitors from the county-run Glendale Home after a visiting dentist who tested positive came into contact with eight residents. No resident of the house tested positive on Tuesday.

These eight residents will be tested three times, he said.

Albany County reported 101 new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the seven-day moving average to more than 3% for the third day in a row starting Sunday, measures that also bring the county closer to the 10-day deadline for the yellow zone status.

Only 22 of them could be traced to a source, county executive Dan McCoy said on Tuesday.

“I ask everyone to stay alert and do whatever you can to keep the spread of the virus from getting out of hand,” McCoy said. “This is the only way we can prevent businesses from closing again and schools from reverting to distance learning.”

Saratoga County reported 37 new positive cases on Tuesday, bringing the seven-day moving average to 2.2%.

As New Yorkers prepare for Thanksgiving, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also continued on Tuesday to reiterate that the onset of the holiday season is likely to result in a steady rise in infections, hospitalizations and deaths if current trends continue.

The state could see positive tests rise to 12.46% in the coming weeks if residents are not careful with their holiday gatherings, he said.

This is based on experts predicting an infection rate 20% higher than the current rate of increase during the holiday season.

Hospitalizations could exceed 6,000.

“It’s a pure function of what people do,” Cuomo said.

Forty-seven people died from COVID in the state on Monday, the highest number since mid-June.

Cuomo pleaded with New Yorkers to limit their gatherings and said he had cut back on his own Thanksgiving plans, disappointing his 89-year-old mother and making one of his daughters cry.

“It’s not a normal holiday season,” Cuomo said. “This Thanksgiving is deeper and more special than most Thanksgivings.”

Cuomo and Brown both said it was too late to receive an accurate test before Thanksgiving due to the virus’s two-week incubation period, meaning people may initially test negative due to low levels. viruses not detected.

Cuomo, who briefly donned a “Don’t be a turkey” face mask during his two media briefings on Tuesday, said New Yorkers should observe the holidays by remembering frontline workers who lost their lives during the pandemic.

“New York has set the standard for the nation in how people react,” Cuomo said.