ALBANY — Two female residents of St. Peter’s Nursing and Rehabilitation Center died late last month, bringing the total number of county fatalities to 126.
Both women were in their 80s with underlying health conditions, said County Executive Dan McCoy during a press briefing on Tuesday, Aug. 4. One woman died on July 28 and the other on July 31. The county was just notified of the deaths Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, there were 2,310 positive cases of COVID-19 in the county, an increase of six.
Two of the six are health care workers, one person contracted the virus after travelling out of state, one person came into close contact with an infected person and there is as of yet no clear source of infection for one case.
There are 2,179 people who tested positive and recovered and there are two people in the hospital for a rate of .08 percent.
“We are lucky our hospitalization rate is staying where it is at,” McCoy said.
Dr. Elizabeth Whalen, head of the county Health Department, said since the first case in Albany County was reported on March 12, the virus seemed to peak at the end of April with somewhat of a spike last month.
Twenty-somethings still present a problem, she said. As of Tuesday, that age group had the most positive cases in the county with 481 who tested positive since March 12. They are less likely to have serious ramifications from the virus and are more apt to want to socialize.
“We know that demographic generally are just moving out of the home, they are living in their own environment, it is an important age to network with their peer groups and have large social gatherings,” she said. “This group is notorious for not worrying about their own health.
“It doesn’t mean you are protected from the disease itself and the bigger concern is that you could be spreading it to people who are more vulnerable and who could have more serious outcomes.”
