ALBANY — The county’s seven-day positivity rate was 3 percent of higher for the fourth consecutive day. If it continues at that rate for another six, portions of the county run the risk of a yellow zone designation by the state.
If it continues, the state Department of Health could designate portions of the county — by zip code, municipality or neighborhood — as a yellow zone, which would bring more restrictions and testing requirements.
“It has to do with the state,” said County Executive Dan McCoy, “it has nothing to do with us.”
According to the Albany County COVID dashboard, the 12203 zip code has the most positive cases, a swath of the county that runs roughly from Albany Medical Center in the City of Albany west on Western Avenue to Route 155 in Guilderland. Of the 918 active cases in the county, 738 live in that zip code, according to the dashboard.
Meanwhile, two more county residents died from Tuesday to Wednesday — a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s — bringing county’s death toll to 150 since the pandemic took hold in March. It is not clear if the two most recent fatalities had underlying health issues.
From Tuesday to Wednesday, there was an increase of 109 positive cases bringing the total number of cases to 5,279. Of the 21,570 people who completed quarantine, 4,361 tested positive and recovered. There were 2,452 people under mandatory quarantine.
As of Wednesday, there were 41 Albany County residents hospitalized with 10 in the ICU. The hospitalization rate is .77 percent.
Since Nov. 1, there have been 1,749 new positive cases in Albany County, about one-third of the total 5,279.
According to the state’s microcluster strategy of containing the virus, any area that sees a seven-day positivity rate of 3 percent or higher for 10 consecutive days enters a yellow zone. If it goes above 4 percent for 10 days brings an orange zone designation and above 5 percent means the area is a red zone.
