ALBANY — The county broke the record it set just two days ago with 185 new cases of COVID-19 from Thursday to Friday, bringing the total number of positives to 6,333 since the pandemic took hold in March. The old record of 167 was set on Dec. 2.
Also, a woman in her 70s died overnight bringing the total death toll to 167.
There were 13 new hospitalizations on Friday while seven were discharged for a total of 96 county residents seeking treatment for the virus in a hospital setting. There are 16 in the ICU. The hospitalization rate now stands at 1.51 percent.
“This is now the seventh consecutive day we’ve broke a new record for the number of people in the hospital because of the virus, and we’ve tied our record of 16 people in the ICU, which happened on April 13,” County Executive Dan McCoy said at a press briefing that are now daily. “We’re now averaging 12 new hospitalizations per day this month. As we see the average number of new positive cases tick up, we are likely to see even more hospitalizations that are putting added strain on our healthcare system.”
There are now 992 active cases in the county. Of the 24,955 who completed quarantine, 5,341 of them had tested positive and recovered.
While the numbers are spiking across the country, Dr. Elizabeth Whalen said the impacts of Thanksgiving are not yet seen and could be frightening.
“We are a week and a day out from Thanksgiving and we are seeing cases pick up,” she said. “I don’t think we have seen the full effect of Thanksgiving and it is likely our numbers will continue to go up and they will go up because of the Thanksgiving gatherings and travel. It is not improbable our numbers will be in the 200s.”
