32nd Albany County resident dies; Phase 1 of reopening to include construction and manufacturing

ALBANY — The 32nd county resident died from Saturday to Sunday, a woman in her 60s with underlying health issues.

Of the 32 Albany County residents who have died, all but one was over the age of 60 and all but one had multiple underlying health issues.

Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlined a phased approach to reopening with the first industries being construction and manufacturing. He did say, though, the shutdown order will remain in effect until at least May 15.

The number of confirmed cases in Albany County grew by 51 to 915 from Saturday to Sunday, said County Executive Dan McCoy during his daily briefing. There are 803 under mandatory quarantine, up 57, and 32 under precautionary quarantine, down from 54.

The number of confirmed cases will continue to increase as more tests are being conducted. There are three stationary sites in Albany County and three mobile operations. See below for a list of the sites in Albany County.

As of Sunday, there are 37 people hospitalized for a rate of about 4 percent of those infected with seven people in the ICU.

As of Sunday, 2,027 have completed quarantine and 478 have recovered from the virus.

At Shaker Place, the county’s nursing home, there are 43 residents who have tested positive with 19 employees. One employee has recovered and went back to work.

Meanwhile, Mark Quandt, the executive director of the Regional Food Bank in Latham, said his distribution has increased by 50 percent since the outbreak of the pandemic.

“The last thing I ever want to say no to anyone who says we don’t have any food for our community,” he said.

On Sunday, Cuomo outlined Phase I of a possible reopening scenario which includes industries like construction and manufacturing. Phase II will include businesses that, during the normal course of business, do not present a risk or spreading the infection.

Retail, restaurants and hospitality industries, like hotels, are more problematic, he said.

There will be a two week lag between Phase I and Phase II but did not give a date on when Phase I would begin outside of saying nothing will reopen prior to May 15.

Once things do start opening, the impact of those select areas of society will be monitored and compared to the overall infection rate and hospital rate. He could not give a concrete date on when things would start to open.

“Nobody has a date,” Cuomo said. “If you listen to Dr. Fauci he says there could be a second wave and it could come back in the fall. But everything we did is working. There is no doubt we have come through the worst and if we continue the worse will be behind us.”

The federal government issued guidelines regarding reopening that includes having a decline in cases for two weeks but it does take into consideration the number of tests conducted.

In New York state, hospitalizations is down, the three-day average of hospitalization is down and the number of people on a ventilator is down. There were 367 fatalities, which is down considerably from a high of nearly 800 earlier this month.

TEST SITES

All test sites in Albany County are limited to testing people who are showing symptoms of COVID-19 — fever, cough or shortness of breath.

There is the state-run test site at UAlbany. To get a required PIN call 888-364-3065.

To sign up for a test at the Rite Aid at the intersection of Route 155 and Central Avenue visit riteaid.com

To get a test at Whitney Young in Albany or one of the three mobile sites call 518-456-4771.

The schedule of mobile sites for this week are:

Monday, April 27