ALBANY — There are 424 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county, up 27 from Friday, with 498 under mandatory quarantine and 66 under precautionary quarantine. There are 36 residents in the hospital with 14 adults in the ICU.
On Friday, there were 520 under mandatory quarantine and 75 under precautionary quarantine, said County Executive Dan McCoy during his daily briefing Saturday. There were 38 residents hospitalized, a rate of 8.5 percent.
A dozen Albany County residents have died but none from Friday to Saturday. All had multiple underlying health issues and all but one were older than 60.
Statewide, from Friday to Saturday, 783 more people died, most in the hard hit areas of downstate, bringing the total to 8,627. But, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo during his daily briefing, the rate of hospitalizations continues to drop, the number of ICU patients continue to decrease and the number of intubations continues to decrease, all indicating a flattening of the curve.
It is the fifth day in a row where death topped 700 but the majority of those who are dying have likely been sick for weeks and were admitted to the hospital when the state was projecting the need for 53,000 beds. The number of the the 18,654 hospitalized on Saturday falls well short of that number as the curve continues to flatten.
In the Capital District, the number of positive cases has gone up largely because testing has increased. On Monday, community testing began again in earnest at UAlbany and there are plans to test up to 1,000 per day.
Community testing had stopped at Capital District hospitals and the limited number of test kits were reserved for those with symptoms bad enough to require hospitalization, health care professionals and first responders. As of Saturday, there have been nearly 5,000 Albany County residents tested.
Also, during the daily briefing in Albany, Imam Djafer of Al-Hidaya Center and Imam Yaki of the Islamic Center of the Capital District donated $20,000, that was raised by area mosques including Islamic Center of the Capital District, Al-Hidaya Center, Masjid As-Salam and Masjid Al-Arqam, to the United Way for Covid-19 relief.
“This donation will no doubt save lives and I am grateful for this gift from the Islamic Community as it embodies the spirit upon which United Way was founded,” said Peter Gannon, president and CEO of the United Way Greater Capital Region. “Anyone who is inspired by this act can continue to help by texting COVID19 to 41444.”
